A few days ago we transplanted some collard someone gave us on row 3.
Today we planted dry beans on row 4. We had to pull out a bunch of chard that was going to seed to make room for the beans, but we have plenty of young chard plants all over the place. We also transplanted a sungold tomato plant on row 3.
We’re still trying to keep on top of pulling out grass. It’s pernicious.
Today we transplanted four jalapeño pepper plants on row 6, two Juliet tomato plants on row 6, a clump of three lemon cucumber plants on row 3, and six delicata squash plants on row 1 (that’s a lot of squash if they all thrive). The flower seeds on row 1 haven’t germinated. I wonder if it’s because the top of the soil has been dry. Down under the mulch, the soil is still rather wet (not yet crumbly).
We have chard sprouting all over the place, with both chard and kale going to seed right now. We have way less orach this year (due to the cardboard and wood chips), but more than enough for us to eat.
The grass is really aggressive in the southeast and southwest corners, but I’m doing my best to attack it every couple weeks.
We’ve been laying down cardboard and wood chips throughout the winter. We have just one row left to do. Hope it helps with weed control—especially grass!
Today, we planted potatoes and peas in row 3.
On Saturday, we tore out the dead nectarine tree and replaced it with a sour cherry tree (Morello).
We tried our best to rip out the hops roots from the garden and moved them to the northwest side of the pasture. We put some raspberry roots in their place in the garden.
Heather got some large cardboard for weed control and we covered a row with it. We’ll try to get a bunch more.
I weeded the volunteer kale patch, and it really needed it. It also needed to be thinned, so we ended up with about a meal’s worth of baby kale from the effort.
I did a weeding blitz in the garden a few weeks ago and tackled it again today. We have some stubborn grassy spots that I’m not happy about.
Heather planted peas in row 1 and potatoes in row 2.
We have a pretty good supply of chard and a little bit of kale. And thousands of little orach plants all over the place.
Yesterday Isaac and I spent a couple hours weeding the garden and digging a trench around it to prevent grass from creeping in. I know weeding isn’t a one-and-done thing, but for now the garden looks very tidy.
Most of the weeds were grasses, yarrow, plantain, clover, and volunteers from last year’s garden. We have used free arborist wood chips for the past couple years to reduce weeds–and it works! As long as we keep the woods chips on the surface, they don’t affect the nitrogen level in the soil.
We’re also experimenting this year with amending our soil with home grown rabbit manure. It isn’t a strong fertilizer, but it’s also safe to use without “aging” or composting.
In years past I (Heather) haven’t contributed much to maintaining the garden. But, as I’ve said before, the food shortages and disrupted supply chain of 2020 and 2021 have motivated me to be a more active participant in my literal survival. We’re slowly replacing things we used to buy at the store with home grown items.
Also, everything about growing your own food is good. It’s seasonal, organic, ultra-local, fresh, produced with natural fertilizers, and it just feels nice to watch something grow that started as a little seed.
Update: Apparently the dirt I dug from the trench landed on Josh’s freshly planted row of corn.
