May showers

May 8, 2016 Weekly Updates

There hasn’t been much opportunity for gardening this past week. By Mike’s calculation, we hadn’t seen sun from one Saturday to the next. Instead, it’s been a steady succession of rain, clouds, and more rain. After weeks of weather that had been mostly warmer and dryer than average, this real spring weather came as a bit of a shock to the system. But at least it saved me from time spent watering all the seeds planted last week! And, with the rain’s help, we have the first germination in the garden, with both the spring mix and arugula shooting their cotyledons (or first leaves) above the ground. In the midst of...

It’s go time!

May 3, 2016 Weekly Updates

The deer fence is finally up, our biggest project and necessity before the garden can really get going. It turned out to be both easier and more complicated than I expected. Because our garden is built on a moderate incline, we had to bunch the fencing at some of the posts to prevent the change in elevation from causing unwanted slackness. However, the whole process was faster than anticipated, with the entire fence up and ready to go in about two-and-a-half hours. And we were immediately reminded of what all the work was for as several deer watched us finishing up at dusk. Worrying that the deer would run right through the fencing in the dark, we...

Hardening off seedlings

April 27, 2016 Garden techniques, Tips & Tools

“Hardening off” is an important part of the process of getting your home-grown seedlings prepared for life outdoors. Seedlings grown in a greenhouse, under lights (as mine are), or even on a sunny window sill need time to adjust to the new conditions they will experience outside. These little plants have never been exposed to wind, have always had exactly as much water as they want, and have been protected from direct, unfiltered sunlight. In order to help them begin to adjust to their new environment, it is important to start putting seedlings outside a week before you plan on planting them in the ground. Put them out for just a few hours...

The giant killing machine

April 23, 2016 Weekly Updates

What does your family like to do for fun? In our time off, we like to dig giant trenches throughout our front yard! I’m pretty sure our neighbors think we’re crazy. A little over a year ago, we bought this house with a beautifully seeded lawn sloping down to the front door. And now we’re systematically tearing it apart, first breaking the sod up by hand and then with a tiller and now digging trenches as deep as we can get. Well, it’s all in the name of rodent control, more specifically groundhogs. I’ve worked on farms with groundhog pressure in the past and, as you well know if you’ve experienced the...

Tilling, Tilled

April 17, 2016 Weekly Updates

The garden is tilled up at last and, as soon as we get the fencing in, we’ll be ready to go! We had originally planned to till last weekend, but with the surprising April snow we received, the ground was just too wet. When tilling with machinery or even by hand, it’s important not to work on wet soil, as, among other issues, the compaction already caused by feet and tires is exacerbated and turning wet soil can cause large clods to form, making a less hospitable soil environment for microbes and plants. Today, the soil moisture was perfect and, in little more than an hour, our 900 square-foot plot was turned from grassy...

Two Feet in the Dirt

urban farm

Hardening off seedlings