Whitsend Market Garden

Update March 7 2016:

Hello Everyone:

Quick update so that no-one thinks I have abandoned the site.

Lot's of office work at this time, as i hope through my annual organic certification hoops.  The trickiest bit of paperwork is in the details regarding the celtuce crop; there is no available organic seed for this crop so additional paper work required, detailing my search. 

The next milestone in the 2016 season was reached this past week.

The nursery is switched on and heating up and the soil is hydrating.  

The fan and heater have been serviced and cleaned out, and the temperature is moderating.  In other words, spring is a day or two away.  

You'd never know it.  Five hours of shoveling to clear as much snow as possible from the sides of the barn, which sits at a slightly lower grade than the gravel pad outside.  With a plus five temperature (and rain) on the way this week-end, I was under a bit of pressure.

  
Good way to keep up the anaerobic conditioning during these months.

A bit difficult to judge scale in these pictures, so consider 50 cm over 612 square feet.

That's a lot of water.

In previous years, there was no need to shovel as much, but the shed has changed this somewhat.

Dick offered to loan the snow blower for the afternoon, but it is a considerable distance to the barn from his garage, and the route in there is completely snowed in.  Even the tractor would not make it.


So it appears I'll be purchasing a bit of horsepower next fall.  Hopefully it won't snow as much between now and then.

Next post, I'll  describe sowing the onions...