This is a piece of ground you’d usually step around and not give a second thought to…unless you wanted to grow things in it right away! A good part of the field is dried out enough to work, but there are low spots where the ground is still saturated with water, all dense, squishy mud and all-day puddles. The weeds don’t mind, this is home! Thistle pops up. Clumps of grass aren’t a problem, when you don’t let them take hold. Unless there’s a lot of rain, a few more days and it’ll be good…
Fieldwork
Critical garden gear!
As important as any tool around here, the battery for the electric fence is absolutely critical: for several years now, it’s powered the first and last line of defense against…deer! As of last season, and the addition of a low-strung line only a few inches above the ground, it also gives a little jolt to the groundhogs that suddenly appeared in force. Without the e-fence, the market garden would eventually be munched into oblivion. Along with keeping the battery charged and checking that the fence line hasn’t gone down or gotten overrun by weeds, there’s also looking daily for animal tracks and signs of snacking. Doing the inspection rounds first thing every day is mix of low-level stress, anticipation of the worst, and general excitement, until it checks out as all-clear. Which, thankfully, is almost all of the time!
Hauling water
The seedling room is in a fully modern building with all the modern conveniences like electricity, heating, ample insulation and screened windows well-positioned for a bug-free cross-breeze and lots of natural light. The only thing missing is a handy supply of running water. Drilling for a new well located nearby ended in failure after a couple days of exploration produced only an expensive dry hole. So, until the gutter-fed rain barrels are turned over in warmer weather—overnight freezing of collected rainwater could crack them—I bring over water for the seedlings in 18 liter jugs filled from another well in a building not too far away. Simple systems and the rituals of spring!
First look of the year!
Today’s view of the field, my first since last fall! I’m about a mile (1.6 km) down the road, and I do sometimes pop by in the off-season. Usually, though, it’s out of sight, not out of mind for the whole winter. I’m still getting used to how much tinier the garden has been since I left the farmers’ market and the pandemic had its way. In any case, it’s looking fine. Most of it was cleared last fall. The straw-mulched garlic on the left seems cool, nothing poking up yet, I suppose not too early is good. And it’s really not wet, not the former usual dense, clinging, suck-you-down mud of the after winter melt-off (I’ve pulled my foot out of rubber boots trying to step forward in that stuff). Unless there’s a mini monsoon season coming up, I’ll be able to get out there pretty early, to set up the anti-deer-and-groundhog electric fence and prep beds. There’s still a broken rototiller to deal with on the tiny tractor, so that could slow things down. As always, we shall see!
Pellets of goodness
One person’s low-interest bin of unidentified golden-brownish stuff, is another’s stash of pelletized alfalfa goodness. This is plain old alfalfa, the plant in the pasture that cows especially love, dried and compressed into pellets. No additives, nothing but dry plant pills. They’re a great fertilizer in the veg patch. One season, I counted on mostly pelletized alfalfa, instead of the usual cow manure, as the main plant food and it worked out fine. It’s also quite inexpensive, compact, easy to store and spread. Nowadays, I use it to top up beds over the season, after the main composted manure spreading. At one point, I had all the numbers – how many pounds/kilos per bed, cost per acre – and nutritional details, in front of mind. Now, using it as a top-up, all that has receded and I eyeball it. Just scatter.
March field peek
An early spring look at the field, as the snow recedes and the soil takes over. This is the exact moment when the new season begins for me. Seedlings are already growing indoors, planting plans put to paper, things are underway. Still, it only all makes sense out here, with the musty wet smell of decayed vegetation, my boots sinking into the sticky clay mud, wondering when it will dry out enough to work. I see the single strand of electric fence, all that stands between garden and pillaging deer, stayed up! (You can see part of it strung between the gate posts.) Some winters it falls and critters chew through it in a spot or two. Not having to fix it means one less thing to do!
Summer ends!
For the last day of summer, a rainbow! The field is looking a bit bedraggled, with some things naturally dying out, some touched by near-freezing overnights, with tender crops row-covered against the possibility of a hard frost. Besides the rainbow, it’s not the postcard look of mid-summer, but what matters most, everything is still producing well!