I am going to be so sore tomorrow - farming is tough! Mike rented a tractor for the weekend so that we could place and fill the beds for the garden, and smooth out the lawn (and so that we could spend a weekend with a tractor). I am so glad that we had the tractor, even though I remain unconvinced that we actually need to buy one.
Mike was up at 6 this morning to start raking with the tractor. I had every intention of getting up with him, but somehow I didn't end up getting out of bed until 8, so I missed quite a bit of tractoring. Once I finally made it outside, we staked out the perimeter of the garden, and carried over the first two beds. Last weekend, it seemed that driving the stakes in the beds into the ground was going to be easy. Unfortunately, that was not true. We used a combination of sledgehammer and tractor to get the corners in, and quickly abandoned any ideas we had about keeping the beds straight, level, or consistently driven into the ground. Luckily, I'm a flexible farmer.
If you're looking at the pictures thinking, hey, that splitting maul technique looks awfully dangerous, well, it looks way more dangerous in person! The end facing Mike's face is an axe. I much preferred the tractor method. Also, the splitting maul ended up damaging quite a few of the beds. We had to use a combination of both methods, since for some beds the tractor couldn't get to all of the corners, and the splitting maul was better at finishing off the corners. One of our neighbors offered us his 15 pound sledgehammer to use instead of the splitting maul, but we sheepishly had to decline, since we're not really strong enough to wield such a hefty tool. Runners....
Once each bed was pounded in, we had to fill it with dirt, using the topsoil that was taken off last week. Then we topped off each bed with a generous 2 inch layer of compost. We're hoping that the compost layer will prevent the weeds from the topsoil coming through. As I was shoveling the topsoil around the beds, I noticed just how much sod was in there. Optimistically, I'm trying to look at it as a great addition of organic matter to the beds, that will be stopped from breaking through by the compost. Realistically, though, I think my full time job this summer will be weeding. Anyone want to come over and weed in July? It will be super fun, I promise.
As part of his master plan to convince me that we need our own tractor, Mike let me take over for a few turns of filling the beds. It was a lot of fun, but I'm still not sure that we need one of our own. I have no plans to lay out beds every weekend, after all.
We have twenty beds in total, so placing, securing, and filling each one took a long time. We realized halfway through that we absolutely had to finish today, because we'll be way too sore tomorrow to finish. Mike has also informed that I'd better really, really like gardening.
We ran out of compost after 14 beds, but we have a delivery of manure coming tomorrow, so we'll either use that to top of the last six beds, or we'll go over to Skillin's and load up the truck with compost. I think we can all guess which open is going to win out....I'd also like to save the manure for my squash (have I not mentioned that the winter squash is going on the other side of the house, and I still have to prep those beds?).
Because we were using the tractor to secure and fill the beds, we ended up packing down our beautifully rototilled soil, so we had to go over each part again with our small rototiller before laying down new beds. We still have about 4-5 inches of good soil under the beds, so I wanted to make sure that my plants can use that room to build strong roots. Mike did most of the rototilling, which he said was only slightly less difficult than driving the stakes in with the splitting maul. I'm taking him out to dinner tonight.
So now my beds are all in place, full of dirt, and ready for veggies! I think tomorrow I'll transplant the rhubarb that my mom brought over last weekend, to get started. Then next weekend, I'll plant my cool weather crops. There are a few plant sales next Saturday, so I'm going to try to find some seedlings of plants that I didn't have space to start, like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, fennel, and anything else that calls to me.
The fruit trees all also seem to be doing very well. All but one of the pear trees is either flowering, or is just about to (one pear tree is a little behind, but it has leaves and looks healthy). Below is the more advanced pear tree - the flowers are really lovely.
I also talked to Taperman today to get a chick update - they are growing up quickly! He's put in their pine shavings and given them an elevated water dish. He reports that they are all now happily hopping on and off of their roost, and he's had to put chicken wire across the top of their brooder because they're already starting to fly. He still hasn't found his camera, though, so we're all without chick pics for now.
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