Over the years, we have added a few more flower bulbs to provide early food sources for our bees and the other pollinators. Although their blooms are short-lived, the crocus' provided a vibrant splash of purple under the trees along the driveway.
The shelves under the lights are already full of seeding trays such as these squashes, and recently promoted trays of lettuce, kale and pac choi.
And more seedings are on the way to ensure a steady supply of short season crops such as these through the early season.
The worst of the cool nights appear to be behind us, so this bottleneck should ease soon.
I can always throw an extra tarp over the shelter if we get another coolish night, and at least for the tie being, bring the toms and peps in for the nights.
The green onions have been in the ground for over a week.
They'll look spindly for a while yet.
The green onions are planted in clumps of ten sprouts, the bulb onions in clumps of four. As such, the bulb onions tend to look more spindly and thin. They take a while to get going.
I was quite pleased with last year's trial of the Gladstone White onions, so there will be about twice as many as last year. My favorite, Rosa di Milano, performed well in the nursery and will be the main onions we produce this year.
Milano's are my favorite onion due to their versatility in the kitchen and the exceptionally long storage life.
As part of our long term growth plan, another field at the east end of the farm is in development. Last autumn, a local farmer plowed about a 5th of an acre, and then returned this spring to disc and cultivate the new growing area.
Discing chops up what turf remains buried from the plowing; and the cultivating loosens up the soil and drags the grass rhizomes up to the surface. The grass can regenerate from these rhizomes, so the next step is to rake them off the surface. Raking also helps level the ground, making work more efficient when the field is ready for crop production.
Raking - all one 5th of an acre. Not too heavy to take off the top soil, but firmly enough to roll up the rhizomes and clods that are full of grass that survived the plowing and winter cold.
This activity has to happen soon after the tractor work is done, while the soil surface is relatively dry. The goal is to have the field prepared before the last of the spring rains, so that the cover crop can be watered enough to germinate. As it turned out, the tractor work was finished on Saturday the 9th; the field was 80 per cent raked by Tuesday late afternoon. Anticipating rain overnight and into the next day, I started sowing about 6 PM. I finished at ten, then went to the house to water and shut down the nursery for the night.
Catching the rain, as I call it. I actually prefer to do the seeding during the evening, particularly if I am sowing oats. Oat seeds don't always get completely into the soil, so they are visible to birds. With a marsh full of black birds less than 2 miles away, I take a few extra precautions to keep them at the other side of the farm. I spread some birdseed peanuts around the bird feeders, and then trail them off to the wildflower meadow which is at the opposite end of the farm from the new fields. Avian messages spread quickly, and it was not long before the black birds, crows and jays were were making a racket.
As with the cover crops I put on the beds when their produce is finished, I choose plants that will provide different functions: Oats to provide bulk to build up the soil, peas to provide a little bulk and fix nitrogen, tillage radish to break up hard pan, and buckwheat.
Buckwheat is an amazing crop. It is very good at concentrating phosphorus, and it's thick, rapid growth provides good ground cover. Not only that, it releases allelopathic chemicals that prevent many weeds and grasses from germinating, and even suppresses grass rhizomes from generating new leaves. I'm not sure why plants such as radish, oats and pea are unaffected by the buckwheat, but they seem to thrive. Buckwheat is often described as a nurse crop in such situations.
I use these cover crops on the beds after a vegetable crop is harvested for the season. This helps suppress weed growth and feed the soil. I left them to frost kill in the autumn and leave the soil covered for the winter to protect it from erosion.
Typically, the beds that get this treatment are the easiest to work in the spring, with the added organic matter of leaves and roots loosening up the soil and into a remarkably good tilth. Three weeks after this has been worked into the soil, it is ready for seeding.
While I am up this way, I might as well check out the hay field. It's picking up where it left off last year, with a good base of orchard grass but not much else except for some undesirables such as goldenrod persisting in a few corners.
I augmented the orchard grass with some extra seeding this spring, and included some perennial rye, tillage radish for improving soil structure and red clover to fix nitrogen.
I anticipate having a harvest of straw next year to use as mulch around the vegetables.
