As the weather begins to cooperate more and more, we are beginning to feel the soreness in our core muscles that comes from the hard work that is spring on the farm. We completed last weekends hoop house adventure by finishing the planting and installation of the second one. We filled it with three varieties of garbanzo beans, and giant Salanova lettuce heads that should be farm bag pleasers. We also seeded Summer Crisp lettuce, kale and spinach to the cold frame by the house. The garlic has just poked its green shoots above the straw and seems to be coming up abundantly.
We also laid down some landscape fabric over a grassy strip adjacent to the berry beds where our newly grafted baby apple trees will go in about a month or so. We segmented out about 40 feet and plan to espalier them in that row. I can not wait to see how many of them we can get to take!
We are really beginning to feel the absence of the other house in that we are more freely and actively dreaming of what we can do here now. We have plotted out all of the areas that need clearing and begun to make a plan for getting it all done. A couple of years ago we pulled out a number of large overbearing green hedges from the South and East sides of the house. Last summer we barked it all in and planted the area with hostas. Yesterday, with the help of a big chain and the tractor, we pulled out all of the leggy hedges that were encroaching on the North side of the house. Now all of our irises and hostas on that side will have a space to shine without being choked out.
We also managed to retrofit the chicken tractor in preparation for a small flock of meat chickens and ducks that will free range the summer away.
I love spring farm weekends because we relish in being outside and are kept company by the abundance of birds and sounds of people out and about. While it is still bare, buds just verging on greenness, we have the opportunity to visualize what will come next. To top it off, we have a mass of energy bottled up from an exceptionally cold winter indoors to make those visions come to fruition.
A perfect example of how each child approaches a sunny 54 degree day differently! How was your weekend?
A weekend full of home improvement for us, but so much needed. Quite a relief to get it done. Nice to hear you are working on plants and gardening. That is next on our list.
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