A Discouraging Discovery....

After spending several days and hundreds of dollars to fence one of our pastures, we returned the next morning to find someone had come through during the night and cut the new fence into 5' pieces! The section that hadn't been attached yet to the T-posts had been rolled up and taken. Several neighbors heard a suspicious vehicle at about 11:30 that night, but none of them looked out to see what was going on. The crime was very malicious and felt personal. We will be re-fencing this pasture with high tensile, 6' woven deer wire.....let them try to cut their way through that!

These Babies Are Just Bursting With Life!

Squash and pumpkins are amazing to watch. The seedlings literally burst from the soil, sometimes throwing it onto the table. If you look closely, you can see tiny, white roots poking out of the soil. We put the seeds in peat pots that we can plant directly in the garden when they're ready since their roots really hate to be disturbed. As we plant each seedling into the garden soil, we'll plant a few seeds just down the row from each little plant. As the first plants mature and their production slows down, the seeds will have sprouted and grown and they'll be ready to replace their older siblings.

Seedlings On The Move!

At last, the weather has warmed and settled enough that we can move the tender annuals out to the greenhouse. The sunporch has been filled to capacity in recent weeks with lots of trays of little plants. Since we don't heat our greenhouse, we've had to wait until the night temperatures were warm enough for them. It's just a short ride in the harvest wagon....protected from the wind....to their new digs in the greenhouse.

We're setting up large tables in the greenhouse to hold all the new trays of tender seedlings. They'll spend a little time here until they're finally ready to be planted out in the growing field.

As soon as each table is set up and covered with plastic to protect it from watering, it's filled with trays of happy, little plants!

Spring Has Arrived!

This bush bursts into bloom early every spring. Don't know what it is....I'm sure with a little research we could figure that out, but it really doesn't matter! We just enjoy its pretty little flowers and the warmer weather that always comes with them.....and the noisy, fat robins, too! It's tucked in next to our old wood pile and we're careful not to injure it when wood is being split and stacked. It's been here longer than we have and will probably be here long after we're gone for the next family to enjoy.

Spring Bed Preparation

Last year's planting beds were composted and tilled last fall. Now it's time to clean out the weeds that have sprouted over the last few weeks and reform the sides of the beds so we can get the early spring seeds planted. This has to be done by hand. We use a hoe to remove some of the weeds, but there's nothing better than our fingers to get every last weed removed from the paths and beds.

With a little effort, the beds are completely weed free, the sides formed, the tops of the beds leveled and prepared for planting. If we get a handle on the weeds early in the spring it means there will be much less weeding throughout the growing season. Doesn't it look great?