Planting a community garden

Today was my second work day at our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, where I have a working share (four hours of work per week in exchange for a single share of vegetables).

The job at hand was planting flower seedlings in the beds that will become the cutting garden for our CSA, and in which I will work to help keep the weeds at bay throughout the growing season.

There were about a dozen people (and one farm dog) there to help with the process of popping seedlings out of trays, dropping them a foot a part and tucking them into the freshly-tilled soil.

Rae, the assistant farm manager laid the seedlings out at the top of each row before we got there. She also ran a seeder up and down the beds to create nice tracks in the soil for us to plant in.

It was a lot of fun to work with so many people, most of whom I had never met but happily chatted with as we planted.

Things got a little dicey when thunderstorms and driving rain barrelled through an hour into our planting.

I was not at all dressed for rain (nor was anyone else) and I expected us to all retreat into the barn or at least huddle under one of the tents set up for the Farmer's Market that happens every Saturday morning.

But everyone kept working. And I certainly didn't want to be the only wimp who left, so I kept working too.

It was cold and wet but actually still really fun. We started working faster. My digging partner decided to forgo his spade and dig with his hands and even in the driving rain we found a nice rhythm -- he would pull back the soil, I would drop the plant, and he would pat the soil down around the plant.

Everyone was so enthusiastic and happy to work. When we finished one row, we just made our way (carefully...in the tractor tire tracks -- not the planting rows, as we all had to be reminded a few times!) back to the top of the field and started another row.

Some people preferred planting. Others preferred dropping. Others liked to alternate so as not to stress one body part too much.

Occasionally we got a little over-zealous and simultaneously planted more rows than we had plants to fill.

Rae rolled with these little snafus very smoothly. Sometimes she asked us to pull the plants out and move them but mostly she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh well. It's the cutting garden. It's fine."

In the end, after about two and half hours of planting, and several downpours, the gardens were full!

I'm so excited that I got to be part of the beginning of these gardens, which I know from past years will be absolutely splendid in the coming weeks!

CSA Cutting Garden: May 31

Planting the garden...

Spring greens

I spoke to my aunt in Vermont earlier in the week. She and my uncle, Lily's Godparents, are raising "meat birds" again this year. Two years ago when they did it the first time they specifically chose chickens that are not bred for meat because they had read that conventional meat birds (aka broilers) are not good foragers and have all kinds of diseases and health problems bred into them.

The experiment, though very tasty, proved not to be cost-effective as it took more than double the amount of time for them to grow to slaughter weight. So this year they have 60 baby broilers that they will soon put out on pasture, supplemented with organic grain, for eight weeks.

While we were talking she mentioned that her chicks, which are about a month younger than our's, have been devouring dandelion greens and worms that she brings out to them in the evening. She joked that it has become their nightly entertainment - much more entertaining than tv!

Hearing that got me thinking abour our chicks who are living in our barn eating mashed "grower" pellets made of soy and corn and I decided that I want to begin offering them greens, insects and worms and I also want to get our chicks outside into the sunlight where they can scratch for food they are biologically programed to eat as soon as possible.
 
For the last couple of days, Lily and I have enjoyed bring fresh salads (grass and weeds picked in the yard) to the chicks each evening and we are thrilled to observe that they too love their fresh greens!

The worm part of the feeding plan is going to be a little bit tricky as my daughter has recently devolped an affinity for worms and has been adding any that she finds to a container of soil on the back deck, which she created for her "pet worm", Squirmy.

Bloom where you are planted!

I spent the morning, which started early with a chicken hand-off (yay!), dividing and moving perennials in the front yard.

I didn't wake with the intention of doing so, but while out handing off the trouble-maker chickens, I spotted a plastic grocery bag containing Bearded Iris rhizomes that I intended to plant last fall but never did.

Despite being left out in the snow and freezing temperatures all winter, I saw a beautiful Iris flower bud about to open.

Remembering the beautiful Irises that I had just admired the previous day at my daughter's nursery school, I set to work to find a great spot to display these beauties, which needed only a little propping to straighten the stalk.

As I planted them I spotted another place that was calling for the tall, beautiful light purple flowers near the front door. So I decided to go out to my (long-neglected) mailbox garden and dig up some more.

While there I dug some Siberian Irises (small dark purple flowers), daylilies, creeping thyme, and lavender and found places along the stone path leading up to the house to show them off and give visitors some points of interest along the path!

Next I decided to relocate two small azaleas that have not been thriving where they are planted. Inspired by a recent visit to a beautiful azalea garden (photo left) -- a private garden that is made open to the public every spring -- I grouped the two azaleas on the edge of the woods in front of our house. At some point I will add a sitting bench tucked into them.

It was SO fun to work out there this morning, swiftly molding and shaping a new feel to the entrance to our house - and all using already existing plants!

Later this afternoon I got out into the garden for a half an hour to do some weeding. Quinn, and eventually Lily, joined me and had a blast creating and playing in a giant mud puddle. (Didn't have the camera with me and by the time John came out to see what we were up to, two mud covered kids were on their way in for a bath!)

The making of a meadow

A few nights ago I was out working in the garden -- my favorite retreat at the end of the day -- when I noticed that the grass is (already) getting very over-grown.

I started feeling annoyed and discouraged, but fortunately remembered fairly quickly how useless those feelings are and started searching for some better-feeling thoughts.

As I pondered ways to make peace with the time and energy-consuming task of mowing the lawn, I started thinking about my desire to create a flower garden that will attract butterflies and bees, which also feels like a time-consuming task.

And then, just like magic, as I looked up towards the barn I saw a beautiful meadow of wildflowers with a wide path through the center connecting the barn and the garden.

In the meadow is a mix of weeds, grasses, wildflowers, sunflowers -- all of which are enjoyed and appreciated by many varieties of butterflies, birds and bees!

I mentioned it to John and he thought it sounded like a great idea (read: less grass for him to mow) and so I set to work.

Lily has been joining me out in the yard in the evening while John puts Quinn to bed. While I weed and water and plan, she picks buttercups and dandelions and visits with her chicks, collects eggs from the nesting boxes and waits eagerly for the bats to descend from the barn rafters.

"Is it time yet, Mama?...When are they coming, Mama?...I think I hear them, Mama!"

It's actually still a little cold for the bats, but in a few weeks, there should be plenty swooping through the air, gobbling up bugs, to entertain her (and me)!

Last night the two of us spent some time digging up beautiful flowers (a.k.a. weeds) out of the path and moving them into the meadow. We also planted several packets of sunflower seeds and scattered several packages of "wildflower mix".

It's SO fun to share my vision of the farm with Lily because she is so receptive to all that I can imagine and is happy to join in with her own ideas, like a pumpkin patch and pear trees.

Very fun indeed.

In other news, I posted an ad on Craig's List this afternoon to re-home two of our Araucana hens. I'm tired of chasing these two escape-artists out of the garden and watching them tear up our sorry attempts at a lawn. Within a couple of hours, I had several offers to take them.

John is out catching them now and tomorrow they can move to their new home where they can happily free-range with a bunch of other hens and duck -- and I can plant flowers and vegetables without worrying about them being scratched up!

Piglets!

When we arrived at Barbara's farm today for our first official visit with our lamb, Heather, we spotted something new - piglets! Four of them!

They were as curious about us as we were about them and we had a nice time visiting with them while we waited for Barbara.

Barbara's husband, Gary, stopped over to visit with us and was (thankfully) happy to answer our many questions about them.

Here's what we learned...

~ They got the piglets two days ago and will have them until the Fall. And then they will have pig roasts.

~ Pigs are FANTASTIC at rototilling gardens and clearing land. They "root" around for, you guessed it, roots, and chop up everything else in their way to get to them.

~ Gary said if you have an old tree stump, partially pulled out, you can throw some grain under the stump and the pigs will clear out all of the roots for you.

~ Barbara said she will turn the pigs out in her flower garden (but not her vegetable garden because the fresh manure is too strong for the vegetables) this week instead of using a rototiller to turn the beds.

~ After that they will move the pigs around the yard in a portable pen.

~ In the fall, they will turn them out in the vegetable garden so they can till and fertilize the garden for the coming year.

Fascinating though I'm still not fully comfortable interacting with animals that I know are destined to become food.

I was a vegetarian for 17 plus years, until I became pregnant with our second baby, while still nursing our first, and my body called (loudly and clearly) for meat. I found a local farmer who sells grass-fed beef and stocked up our freezer.

That was two years ago and I am still thoroughly enjoying cooking and eating meat.

But I remain uncomfortable about the whole process by which a pig, or a cow, or a chicken become my dinner.

I'm happy to know another compassionate, animal-loving farmer who is raising meat animals. I look forward to getting to know more about the process, and hopefully getting more comfortable with it so we can incorporate small meat animals at Nadalada Farm in the near future.

Sprouts!

There are sprouts in the garden! From seeds that I planted!

I am SO excited - and a little surprised.

I planted them with the intention of them sprouting but I only half-believed it would happen. I have planted many seeds in the last several years that have not sprouted. Or they sprouted and the squirrels gobbled them up. Or they sprouted and I was too busy to notice.

But this year there are sprouts. And the squirrels are busy up by the house eating the peanuts Quinn and I have been leaving out for them. And I am VERY much noticing. (Actually this year I am very much noticing everything that is sprouting and growing - even random trees and plants that I used to label "weeds" or "scrub brush" are catching my attention.)

In the garden right now we have strawberry patch bursting with big beautiful flowering plants (something I have been dreaming about for the last 10 years), potatoes that are starting to sprout roots, sunflower sprouts, green onions, garlic (that John planted a couple of years ago), morning glory sprouts and pea sprouts.

We also have poison ivy, which I am, unfortunately, allergic to. And it is very close to the bean-pole hideout that I'm making for the kids so it really needs to go. I tried pouring vinegar on it tonight, which I've read is a good, non-toxic way to kill an unwanted plant.

When I poured the vinegar on the unwanted poison ivy, I saw how quickly it trailed through the dirt towards the very much wanted sunflower and pea sprouts. As I diverted the stream of plant-burning vinegar, I thought about a bumper sticker I've seen in the past that says, "We All Live Downstream."

Meanwhile Lily came out to help me (and collect worms - her new passion). I showed her how to weed, which is kind of funny because tomorrow I am starting my work-share job at our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm and I am nervous because I don't really know how to tend a garden.

When I went last week to meet my fellow cutting-garden-tenders, who have been doing the job for a couple of years now, I felt way over my head. I hadn't even seen some of the tools they were using and had never used a garden hoe.

I'm excited to start my work-share job tomorrow. I know I am going to learn so much that is going to help us as Nadalada Farm grows!