April = Insanity

Chang would like to know what I've been doing that's kept me from posting about this past weekend at the farm!

The truth is, I'm running a little behind this week - things are getting truly hectic at the farm, and there's been some craziness at my apartment as well (but at least the leaky c. 1920s windows have been replaced, and my new sofa has been safely delivered!) - but suffice it to say that everything is growing as fast as possible in the greenhouse and the garden. The unseasonably warm temperatures from last week gave way to beautiful, cool spring days after a bout of thunderstorms that swept some of the heavy pollen away - in short, it was perfect for garden work.

Two of the four tables in the greenhouse are full now - this one is burgeoning with the tomatoes, Catalogno parsley, and a flat of basil.

This second table has my dill (putting out some true leaves!), more tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and cucumbers. The Big Italy parsley moved out of the greenhouse on Saturday and to the risers on the garden-facing side of the barn.

We have four sets of risers (two are at the other end of the barn in addition to the two pictured here) and they came in handy two years ago. We were unable to use them last year because of some overflow issues with the barn gutters, but we had them fixed last summer and so now we're ready to go. The overhang of the gutters keeps the plants on the risers from receiving direct rainfall, which is a good thing when the plants are still young and delicate. Of course, that means the plants need to be watered, same as in the greenhouse, but the additional space is worth it. I'm planning on building some of these risers on the deck at my apartment because they're so convenient (and pretty cheap). We keep straw under the farm risers to suppress weeds, but on my deck I could grow mint, cilantro, or other plants that like some cool shade and plenty of moisture underneath the riser levels and maximize my space further.

In the space between the sets of risers, there's a spigot and some monster comfrey plants. They absolutely LOVE the moisture in that area and have gone from dormancy to 2.5 feet tall in maybe three weeks. I recently read a tip (in an issue of The Herb Companion, I believe) that said wrapping a wilted comfrey leaf around the roots of a tomato plant before you transplant it in the garden speeds growth by trapping warmth around the roots and acting as a fertilizer. We have so many comfrey leaves right now that I think I'll give it a try this year!

Here's the garlic, still going strong. (You can see the setup of the risers and comfrey against the barn in the background - this was taken in the morning when that east-facing wall was in full sun, but by afternoon the barn shelters the risers from the worst of the it.) We've definitely learned some lessons from the garlic planting this year; the biggest one is: do everything possible to plant all the garlic at the same time (or close to it). Our planting was severely staggered this year because we were all working off-farm jobs and there was just too much garlic to plant in one weekend. But for this coming fall, I'm already planning to take a few days off of work to get it all in at once. I'm also entertaining the notion of having a "garlic planting party" - something like a barn raising, where friends and family can come to help with the planting and get a nice home-cooked meal or two and a sense of accomplishment in return. (Or maybe even the chance at some free garlic next summer in exchange for the work?)

For now, I'll leave you with a photo of one of our bantam roosters. The hens we got as chicks in the fall have finally started laying, and although we don't currently have enough to sell, we have been mulling over the idea of returning to some level of egg production like we had in the early years on the farm. But that's for next year at the very earliest - this year it's all about the garlic, transplants, and lamb!