That title is garden math. Well we had a small snow fall and freeze last night. Everything we have in the garden is hardy to this, but we were expecting the continuation of a warming spring. Good thing we aren’t weatherologists. I was just out in the garden a little while ago and saw lettuce and radishes beginning to surface. Ah, fresh greens and the spice of the radish. This one’s for Drew. Grow that Basil buddy.

“…Round and round, the cut of the plow in the furrowed field, seasons round, the bushels of corn and the barley meal, broken ground, open and beckoning to the spring, black dirt live again! The plowman is broad as the back of the land he is sowing, As he dances the circular track of the plow ever knowing that the work of his day measures more than the planting and growing… let it grow, let it grow, greatly yield.” - Eric Clapton

Listen to Let it Grow - Winterland Arena 02/24/74 II

It’s the second week in April now and we have just began to amend and layout the garden. This year we began with a little help from a friend, and gained about 120sq-ft for the squash and cukes that took over a quarter of the garden last year. We had planned to go about 5 times that, but haven’t taken the plunge, and instead have fenced in the berries in a little section outside of the main gardening area for the time being. I want to go huge, wife wants to think about it. Is that how it is?

Here is a panorama of our current layout with 2 outbuildings in the background. No I don’t have identical twins as wives. That is my 1 wife in both pictures, she’s just quicker than our cat Turbo (no really, his name is Tomas, but he’s really fast! Really!).

We know that there will be more freezes to come, but we think that getting the hardier root crops and leafy greens in the ground now will be a good choice. When the last freeze happens and summer really hits, then we’ll know for sure. The day after we seeded the beds, we got about 1/8″ of snow/frozen sleet. The area to the right that is not tilled is the area that we are going to put in the vine crops such as squash and cucumbers, oh, and some gourds to make shakers out of for those who love shaking.

Our friend Tyler was telling us about “no till” planting, so we are going to try that and see if the weeds stay down better than in the tilled area. I bet they will, but it’s hard to plant lettuce unless it’s tilled. Any suggestions? Anyhow, we are going to dig small holes and fork around the holes a bit before we put the vine starts in. In the middle of the screen you can see a large fence. That is where the peas will climb. The old fence posts are cemented into the ground fairly deep, so we left them for this season.

Next garden update, I’ll show what our garden looked like last year on paper, then how we rotated the crops this year to help the soil stay well balanced nutrient wise. We also attended a talk on the benefits of mycorrhizae in the soil. Man, that stuffs incredible. We have added some Dr. Earth Fertilizer to the area, Organic of course, to add more mycorrhizae to our well drained decomposed granite (DG) that we keep amending. In a few years, the garden will have beautiful, dark soil.

I just wanted to share a really cool website and podcast with everyone. The Beyond Organic radio show is about addressing issues of organic food and farming, social and environmental sustainability. The show offers insight on genetic engineering (GMO), health, fair trade, gardening, and the like. They have many important guests that share valuable thoughts and solutions to our environmental issues.

You can subscribe to the Beyond Organic podcast here, or visit the Beyond Organic website.