This has been quite the week, and I'm happy to have made it through in one piece (although I do have some interesting tan lines).
A week ago, we were just starting to dry out from a week of wet weather. The creek was very high and parts of my pasture were underwater. The forecast called for a big change-- 10 days or more of dry weather--and I knew it was time to kick it into high gear. I hadn't planted anything other than barley (and garlic last winter), and I wanted to get as much of the food plots planted during the dry period. We're finally at or very near to our last frost date, so I can get away with planting everything out, and with all the warm weather we've had, the soil temperature is actually a respectable 60 degrees and climbing. Unfortunately, the garden was looking pretty overgrown. Although I'd tilled up the sod last fall and planted cover crops, the roots of the perennial grasses we're still alive enough to send up lots of new shoots. Basically, the sod had reformed, and given that it was already early may, the grass was getting high.
Next came hours and hours of slow tilling with my antique Craigslist rototiller. Lots of seemingly important pieces of the machine fell off over the course of the week, but I managed to keep it running (even if I had to wear the starter rope as a belt). After 30 hours or so of tilling, I'd managed to get a partially decent tilth worked up (more like lots of big clods), and proceeded to move into planting phase. Each planting block is 6 feet 10 inches wide and about 100 feet long. I laid out the edges of the block with two tape measrues, and then ran the tiller again over the block before planting to try to get as much of a fine tilth as I could manage. I used an Earthway seeder to actually do the dirty work of planting. In this fashion, I planted potatoes, beets, carrots, kale, brussel sprouts, onions, dry beans, and finally squash and pumpkins (after realizing I had made a math error in my excel spreadsheet, I was relieved to learn I only needed to plant 2 blocks of squash instead of 9, and 1 block of pumpkins instead of 5). I used Agribon floating row covers to cover the plants in hopes of staving off insect and bird attack. I ran out of the material on a few of the blocks, so it will be a natural experiment to see how it works. Oh, and I planted some experimental seeds which I'll be adding to your baskets if they produce...
Halfway through the planting, I got a call at 5:30 a.m. from the post office that the turkey poults had arrived. I rushed over, found all 80 to be in good health, and rushed back to install them in the brooder. I've been a bit of a nervous wreck worrying about the poults--partly because I've lost three so far (I did an autopsy on the last to die, but didn't' find anything unusual). It's been a challenge to constantly check on them and try to keep up the planting effort. The hardiness of the poults should increase with age, so I'm doing my best to make sure they're as comfortable as possible right now.
At 6:20 this evening, I put the last experimental seed in the ground. The planting is finished! Now I just need rain...but not too much...oh, and weeding...glorious weeding...farming is hard--but worth it.
A week ago, we were just starting to dry out from a week of wet weather. The creek was very high and parts of my pasture were underwater. The forecast called for a big change-- 10 days or more of dry weather--and I knew it was time to kick it into high gear. I hadn't planted anything other than barley (and garlic last winter), and I wanted to get as much of the food plots planted during the dry period. We're finally at or very near to our last frost date, so I can get away with planting everything out, and with all the warm weather we've had, the soil temperature is actually a respectable 60 degrees and climbing. Unfortunately, the garden was looking pretty overgrown. Although I'd tilled up the sod last fall and planted cover crops, the roots of the perennial grasses we're still alive enough to send up lots of new shoots. Basically, the sod had reformed, and given that it was already early may, the grass was getting high.
Next came hours and hours of slow tilling with my antique Craigslist rototiller. Lots of seemingly important pieces of the machine fell off over the course of the week, but I managed to keep it running (even if I had to wear the starter rope as a belt). After 30 hours or so of tilling, I'd managed to get a partially decent tilth worked up (more like lots of big clods), and proceeded to move into planting phase. Each planting block is 6 feet 10 inches wide and about 100 feet long. I laid out the edges of the block with two tape measrues, and then ran the tiller again over the block before planting to try to get as much of a fine tilth as I could manage. I used an Earthway seeder to actually do the dirty work of planting. In this fashion, I planted potatoes, beets, carrots, kale, brussel sprouts, onions, dry beans, and finally squash and pumpkins (after realizing I had made a math error in my excel spreadsheet, I was relieved to learn I only needed to plant 2 blocks of squash instead of 9, and 1 block of pumpkins instead of 5). I used Agribon floating row covers to cover the plants in hopes of staving off insect and bird attack. I ran out of the material on a few of the blocks, so it will be a natural experiment to see how it works. Oh, and I planted some experimental seeds which I'll be adding to your baskets if they produce...
Halfway through the planting, I got a call at 5:30 a.m. from the post office that the turkey poults had arrived. I rushed over, found all 80 to be in good health, and rushed back to install them in the brooder. I've been a bit of a nervous wreck worrying about the poults--partly because I've lost three so far (I did an autopsy on the last to die, but didn't' find anything unusual). It's been a challenge to constantly check on them and try to keep up the planting effort. The hardiness of the poults should increase with age, so I'm doing my best to make sure they're as comfortable as possible right now.
At 6:20 this evening, I put the last experimental seed in the ground. The planting is finished! Now I just need rain...but not too much...oh, and weeding...glorious weeding...farming is hard--but worth it.
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