Food first
The family garden is primarily for the Bartlett family. It is where we grow food for the table, test timing, learn heat tolerance, and keep notes on what actually works here.
Food For The Family
The family garden feeds the house before it feeds a business plan.
The Shaggy Ink Farms family garden is for household food, local growing notes, and honest documentation of what works and fails in Anderson, California.
Shaggy Ink Farms
Garden work under Northern California oaks
The garden pages keep the 2027 season build honest: planning, testing, preparing, and learning before claiming a finished farm system.
Current Status
Useful, honest, and still taking shape.
These notes are here to show what is being built and what is still being learned. They are not product pages.
Not the market garden
This is separate from any future market garden. It helps document failures, successes, planting windows, water needs, and practical lessons for the Learn & Plan side of the site.
Grow It Yourself
Related Learn Guides
These links keep the Garden pages focused on what Shaggy Ink Farms is building while sending how-to guidance to the Learn section.
Growing Guide
Family Garden Planner Guide
How to turn family meals, garden space, water, and planting windows into a practical food-garden plan.
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Growing Guide
Crop Rotation Guide
Why rotating plant families between beds reduces disease, manages pests, and improves soil fertility over time. Practical rotation plans for small gardens.
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Growing Guide
Preserving Your Garden Harvest
A practical guide to freezing, drying, storing, fermenting, and safely canning garden produce without guessing on food safety.
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Growing Guide
Seed Starting Chart
A printable seed starting chart with start dates, germination temperatures, days to transplant, and transplant dates for 30+ crops in Zones 7–10.
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Growing Guide
Companion Planting Guide
Which plants help each other grow — and which ones should never share a bed. Practical companion planting for food gardens, with Northern California timing notes.
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Growing Guide
Warm Season Cover Crops Guide
Cover crops that grow in summer heat — cowpeas, sorghum-sudangrass, sunn hemp, and buckwheat. How to use them to build soil while beds rest.
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Growing Guide
Cool Season Cover Crops Guide
Cover crops for fall and winter — crimson clover, cereal rye, bell beans, and Austrian winter peas. Timing and termination for California growing conditions.
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Field Notes
Related Journal Entries
Dated notes from the farm that connect this Garden page to the real build as it happens.
Plan Your Version
Related Planning Tools
Garden Paths
More garden work
Garden
What We're Growing
A plain overview of the garden, fruit, flower, orchard, herb, and soil-building work taking shape at Shaggy Ink Farms for the 2027 season.
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Garden
Strawberries
Strawberry field preparation at Shaggy Ink Farms, including irrigation planning, soil preparation, and the honest goal of working toward the 2027 season.
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Garden
Cut Flowers
The cut flower project at Shaggy Ink Farms is focused on sunflowers, trial varieties, pollinator value, local production lessons, and building honestly toward 2027 sales.
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Planning a garden at home? The Garden Planner and local growing guides are the practical tools side of this work.