A Cool Spring

Work has continued preparing the gardens for planting.  I was out planting today in a light rain.  Beets, radish, romaine lettuce and beans got in the ground.  The sandflies drove me inside though.  A deer crossed the path in front of me as I was on my way to gather some fiddleheads.  The deliciousness of the ostrich fern fiddleheads have given me all of the motivation I need to create a perennial fiddlehead bed.  The asparagus bed that was established earlier in May, is doing great and the tallest flower head is about 2 feet.  After establishing the new fern bed, there will be two new amazing spring harvests, and best of all they are perennial!

The onions are doing well and the corn has recovered from some cold nights where it was necessary to cover it with a tarp.  The potatoes are coming along nicely as well and the peas are starting to leaf out a little.  The leek bed is looking good after a bit of a slowdown do to the cool weather.

A new keyhole bed garden has been planted with carrot, turnip and parsnip seed along with three different varieties of cabbage transplants.  The cabbage were grown from seed in our greenhouse.  They appear to be stabilizing after a bit of a shock when some really windy weather greeted their new lives in the open.

Several plant starts have been made in the greenhouse including thyme, oregano, basil, summer savory, dill, leek, cilantro and sage for the herbs. Experiments in grains has begun with amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa.  Also planted are comfrey, alfalfa and stinging nettle to be used as fertility builders in the garden and to be fed to the future chickens.  Several wildflowers we have planted that are friendly to the hummingbirds and the butterflies and of course the bees are coming up now.

It is amazing to watch all of the different plants emerge in the site of the future food forest.  There will certainly never be a need to plant any groundcovers! There are a wide variety of trees, shrubs and all sorts of herbaceous greenery. The little wild black cherry grove is also looking very healthy after a thinning out of the two oldest and largest trees, which were dying.  The bees are loving the giant lilac bush in the center of the backyard beside the kitchen garden.

As the season has been very busy, I have not posted any more specific how-to articles as of yet.  Rest assured they are coming soon.  Let us see how the system evolves.