I suppose it’s not a farm in the true sense of the word; it has no horses or cows, pigs or goats and no tractor. It does have 12 chickens, half an acre in vegetables, two greenhouses, numerous fruit trees, a rototiller and Arnold. When you have a man like Arnold, who knows how to build with stone, create a greenhouse out of salvaged windows and make his own wine from crab apples, that’s all you need.
When Donna and Arnold Kilsby moved to their property at the end of Ellison Road, they thought they knew a thing or two about gardening. Their previous home on Beach Crescent had produced beans so tall they required a step ladder to harvest and both had grown up with gardens.
Gardening in their new home proved to be a humbling experience. The land needed to be cleared of trees and the soil built up with any compost they could find – manure, spoiled hay or even sawdust. Today Donna is able to live off smoothies made with her frozen raspberries and strawberries all year. When their girls lived in Wells, they swear they supplied half the town with veggies all summer and even when I visited in early February their freezer, root cellar and cold room still held plenty of home grown food.
They start their 12 flats of seeds in the two story sun room Arnold built across the side of the house or in the greenhouse built of recycled windows. Because they are frugal, they wait until early April to begin so the longer days provide adequate heat and light. No artificial light or heat required.
Arnold rototills once in the spring, then lays out wide rows. They plant fairly common vegetables, nothing exotic and few heritage seeds, mostly purchased at Willis Harper or Canadian Tire. They often buy them on sale in the fall and broadcast seeds like carrots to compensate for a possible lower germination rate due to the age of the seeds.
They have a water problem so must rely mostly on the June rains and some manual watering early in the year. That enables the roots to become well established and then, with plenty of mulch, the garden can survive most summers. They fertilize with manure tea fermented in a barrel, what their daughters called “chicken poop soup”.
Arnold uses his “walk behind cultivator” about two hours a week to keep the area weed-free. He rototills around the garden edge to prevent the grass from encroaching. Donna does much of the hand weeding, as she finds it therapeutic.
Arnold loves to walk into his garden in the summer and ask himself, “What’s for lunch?” and in fact all fruits, vegetables and herbs would be their own.
Harvest is a hectic time but soon the root cellar, cold room and 25 cubic foot freezer are full. Wine will be made out of any excess fruit and the friend’s pigs will get the culls.
The term ‘root cellar’ conjures up images of dark tunnels with low ceilings and dirt walls. Arnold’s ‘root cellar’ is a thing of beauty. It has 16-inch walls made of stones collected on their vacations and hunting trips. The wooden door frame is intricately hand carved and the intriguing metal lock was brought back from India by one of their daughters.
The farm that Arnold built is unique, beautiful, functional and productive. If you join us on our garden tours to be held in June and July you can see for yourself.
– submitted by Colleen Gatenby
