More planting...

Monday, Tuesday and today, Rita and the kiddos came out to help with more planting. On Monday, Bret, Cortnie and Garrett volunteered to come over in the mid afternoon to work up the gardens. Bret began tilling the front garden. We are planning that for perennials only, including rhubarb, asparagus, raspberries, strawberries and some day...blueberries. We might also get some old timey favorites in there like gooseberries, elderberries and some grapes. Cortnie and Garrett and I worked on cleaning up the garden waste from last season. I don't know if we were wise in not tilling up the land last fall like everyone else, but Nature doesn't do that in her gardens. So why should we? Some day, I'd like to figure out a no-till option for annual gardens, but I don't see how that's possible right now. Some day.

We picked up all the dried leaves and stalks and burnt them in the middle of the garden. The ash will help build the soil for raspberries. Andy took over rototilling the entire front garden and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

We also began laying down straw in the walkways in the back garden. We'd like to have them covered before the next big rain in two days, to minimize the washing away of soil. Cortnie and I also hacked away at some extra early thistles.

To date, everything we planted except carrots and beets have emerged. Actually, I think some beets are up as well. Carrots always take awhile.

On Tuesday, the whole family came out to help. The younger kids helped clean up the back garden by picking up all the dried stalks and putting them into two big piles. Bret worked on rototilling a large chunch of garden to work it up for future plantings. Cortnie watered our seedlings and the rest helped Rita plant more peas, spinach, beets, carrots and lettuces. We're going to have lettuces up to our eyeballs! Luckliy we'll have the on-farm store outlet and perhaps a farmer's market.

Today, just a few kids came with Rita to help finish planting the third and fourth rows with the same early weather crops. We look forward to a bit of a planting break and rains coming. It's been unusually dry this spring and with our heavy clay soils, we've been taking advantage to get as much in the ground as possible before we get doused.