We have been diving head first into the spring season these last couple weeks! We’re on a roll and there’s no stopping now until November. From here on, everything will pick up it’s pace. The summer businesses will open and the carnival of out of state vehicles and motorcycles will be soaring past the farm.
The most recent daily tasks have been bed preparation. Nothing could be better for a gardener than a smooth level aerated surface to sow seeds into. We start by broad-forking the beds, then we add organic compost and composted chicken manure, next we mix our amendments in with our three-tooth cultivator and lastly we rake it until it’s completely smooth. We have been using row cover to create a warmer, moister climate on the beds we have seeded. We’ve also found out that chipmunks really like pea seeds, so we are using row cover to protect our seeded beds as well.
Last fall’s cover crop has been really stubborn and hard to get rid of, so we tilled it again the other day, then put a large black poly tarp on the beds to try and sun starve the crop so the roots will die back. Other than that one downfall, we’ve noticed a huge difference in the soil color and it’s richness compared to the other beds that didn’t get a cover crop on them.
The garlic has been growing incredibly fast and our next project is to get more baleage on the garlic to suppress the weeds that are ready to overtake the space. We can’t wait to get the rest of our other crops out in the ground within the coming weeks!
