The garden is moving along! The huge expansion has been a difficult transition, time wise. Which is to be expected when you are growing on 5x more space than in years past. I am desperately trying to get the beds in the new garden prepped, but it’s extremely time consuming. We had to till the beds because the soil was so incredibly compact. With tilling we have to clear out the weeds and mix in some compost and some of the good garden soil that we purchased. I hope that the measures that we are taking to improve the soil will keep us from having to till again. The soil is in a lot better shape than I was expecting it to be though! In that area it was just red clay, so I have been dumping manure and soiled straw on top of the soil for almost a year now and it has really seemed to help.
We have already planted some of our cooler weather crops. So far we have planted potatoes, peas, radishes, turnips, carrots, lettuce and beets. This is my first time planting potatoes. I find them very intimidating, but we have great people guiding us. I am extremely excited to see how they turn out. Considering the amount of potatoes we go through each year being able to successfully grow them would be a wonderful thing!
About a month ago I started a bunch of seeds in our friend Toni’s (of Bella Grove Farm) greenhouse. It turned into HUNDREDS of cabbage, tomato, pepper, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, greens, and herb plants. I also planted a few varieties of flowers. I’ve been slowly filtering them home and some will be transplanted into the actual garden within the next week. In the meantime I have been searching for ideas of new ways to cook and preserve all of the veggies that we are planting this year… because I plan to have an abundance, not just enough to get by!
I am so excited to see the garden come together.
