Progress?

Yesterday was such a great day to be a farmer! The weather, which has been phenomenal since November, was even more perfect then normal. The sun would come out and warm everything up, then it would sprinkle just a little, then get sunny enough again to create rainbows here and there. The cool air was good for diggin' and haulin' and muckin' and milkin', and all the other doin' type activities involved in farmin'.

We did some plannin' for the garden yesterday, as well, and actually made some progress. I took down the fences around the existing gardens in the morning, so we can extend them using the tractor and plow. Sure beats digging them by hand, even though it compacts the earth. If we stir in enough compost, then mulch as well, it should be alright by the time we get the seedlings into the ground.

Marcia wants to use her garden plans from last year, but also to completely redesign the gardens in the French Intensive style, i.e. with raised beds. I fail to see how she'll be able to simultaneously keep things as they are and change them entirely, but the contradictions don't seem to slow her down a bit. After we discussed what had been where last year- in order to avoid digging up dahlias or planting brassicas over brassica graveyards- we figured out a few initial steps to get the beds ready. First, transplant the eight or nine giant two foot by two foot root balls of comfrey from the smaller herb garden area out to the pasture, where they may grow rampant to satisfy goat munchies. Second, move all the herbs and flowers that survived to the herb and ornamentals garden. (I just named it that to make myself feel better. I kind of steamrolled Marcia into agreeing that flowers that require as much space as peonies, dahlias, and other shrubby type flowers should not be taking up the bulk of the veggie garden, despite their insectary properties.) Third, get rid of all the dead stuff that is sitting in the garden making it look all neglected and bedraggled. Fourth, plow out the new areas and mulch the entire bed. John will have to do the plowing- I am not nearly comfortable enough with the tractor to drive it near important stuff, like the house. Then... well... umm... The truth is, after soil preparation, I have no idea what to do. Plant seeds? Indoors or out? Which ones first? Is it too early for the dark greens, or too late for garlic? When is the last frost, and how do I know when the garden temperature is above 40 degrees?

I'm afraid my knowledge of gardens is sketchy at best, and purely theoretical. The only veggie I have ever grown outside was cabbage, and actually Nils took care of them. I just watched with surprise and they began to look like cabbage! Then there were the potted veggies I tried- lettuce and cherry tomatoes- that Nikki resuscitated. I killed the herbs I planted, ignored the overcrowded onions, couldn't even find the beets. Not a great track record. And farm gardening is not even a method I've read much about, because I don't like row planting. I am more excited about having a intensive back yard food forest someday. If I ever have a yard...

However, in this more traditional garden, I might begin to understand how to tell a weed from a veggie, how often to water, why carrots love tomatoes, and how to mulch without suffocating seedlings. If I am ambitious and get all my reading done, I may also learn how to build hoop houses, how to trellis climbing beans and zucchini plants, and how to save seeds for many of the plants.

Gardening here will be typical of all projects on the farm, I think. It will be slow to get started, and there will be no clear cut plan communicated to the troops until something else has been decided on. Progress will happen in starts and stops, and everyone will find it more frustrating than it should be, and no one will ever know what the next step is 'til they invent it or figure it out through trial and error. Despite that, it will be pretty fun to see it go from an ugly plot of dirt and sticks to a (semi)productive, happy little farm garden!