Brassica-rific & Fence-tastic

March 21, 2010

Happy Spring Equinox! Well, it's here. We've hit the mark where the days finally begin getting longer than the nights. All of a sudden, things are growing again, and fast. It's been a long winter, weather-wise, so I actually feel like it's time for Spring now. Bring it on.

Farm news:
Last weekend, March 13, we had a workday on the farm from noon-4pm. We transplanted cabbages, broccoli, and two kinds of kale! Brassica-rific. Nice to have all the extra hands to get the work done. I think we put in over 400 plants, and that's work that would have taken Patrick and I several days to do on our own. Serious thanks to the folks who came out and helped. The morning was beautiful, the afternoon, a bit stormy. By the time we were working on the kale, we could see a huge dark cloud on the horizon. The onset of rain sped us up a bit; the hail was just ridiculous. And to top it off, after we got soaked and rushed to finish up and pack our gear away, the cloud moved off on it's merry way and the sun came out again. Ah well. So it goes. We finished up the day with cups of hot tea and slices of homemade carrot-nut bread (thanks to the Joy of Cooking). Yum! I call it success.

In the past week, we've managed to finally finish our fencing projects. Since we planted all those new plants in the lower garden, it was high time to tighten up our fence to keep the deer out. We had 3 walls to build, and had finished most of 2 of them by Friday before the workday, so on Monday, we went back to work and got the last wall and the gates done. Installed a double-sided gate this time, which I'm excited about, so we'll have more options of getting the tractor in to that garden with ease and mobility.

We also re-set a wall in the big garden that had sagged since we installed it last year. We had tried to run it through the trees to save on buying fence posts--those 10-foot T-posts cost about $10/each--but that meant no top wire to hold things up. So this year we bit the bullet and bought more posts and installed a top wire. We also extended the gates more, again for ease of getting in and out with things powered by motor and mostly by diesel. And we patrolled the line to patch up holes were our 4-legged foes had found their way in. Those deer. There's smart, they're agile, and I've learned not to underestimate their wiley ways. They're a challenge for sure.

In the realm of plants, the workday was our first transplanting of home-grown seedlings. Our little babies, going out to field. Now, we've also transplanted chard. The greenhouse is full of lettuces for transplanting this week, as well as lots of baby summer squash, cukes, and tiny tomatoes. We direct-seeded some cilantro, arugula, and radishes, and the beets and dill and carrots that we seeded before have germinated. Garlic and onions are bursting forth with new tall green growth. Things are really beginning to rock.

Seed, plant, weed.