As the garden goes in, our wheelbarrow is ever occupied moving blocks, wood, bags of moisture retaining soil for the deep vegetable beds, and dump-truck-dropped soil for in ground applications.
And I love it!
This ground work is like putting up the walls and roof on a house. There is still a long way to go before this becomes a thriving garden, but the obvious evidence of edible landscaping progress brings the dream and design into focus.
Sowing the first seeds (come and cut lettuce, peas, fava beans, chard, arugula, parsley, onion starts) and some perennial edibles (asparagus and rhubarb) activates anticipation and excitement for the future.
Checking the beds daily, tracking the days for sow to sprout (7 for come and cut lettuce, 9 for mini Chinese cabbage, 10 for arugula, 12 for spinach, 15 for fava beans, 16 for chard…) enhances anticipation of the harvest to come.
Of course, it’s harrowing planting this early. With 50 degree temperature swings and ear splitting wind gusts — the risk that seedlings will succumb to seasonal stress is high. Yet, some plants are so resilient simple seasonal care strategies can see them through.
Remay row covers are no match for 40 mile wind gusts and sub-freezing temperatures. But as the underlying mix of goat litter (manure, urine, and wood shavings) piled beneath 8 inches of soil in the raised beds begins to compost, it generates lots of heat. Tender plant roots reach deeper down, warming themselves by that internal fire on cold nights.
This goat litter under garden soil trick served me well at lower elevations in protected planting areas. But we haven’t had a decade to establish wind breaks here. So as seedlings emerge, I also cover them with plastic salad boxes repurposed as cloches on our coldest days and nights.
That remay row cover does retain some compost heat hovering above the beds. However, it’s real purpose is catten cover. (Cattens = kittens close to being cats).
The garden is surrounded by 4 foot tall electric poultry netting that mostly keeps cattens out… except when I have to take the fence down to move in materials.
The second these life of luxury lounge cattens sense my garden is unprotected — Cleo, Dorian, Angus, and Marmot collectively prowl the perimeter with a single-minded target of testing the moisture retention and percolation rates of my planting medium.
While there are certain soil life benefits to deposits of urea — the root disturbance, risk for bad bacteria, and overall ick factor — make catten protection a must right now.
In the days since I started writing this, with new plants arriving weekly and me spending all my free time in the garden, things are shaping up quickly. The already planted list has grown to include blackberries, blueberries, grapes, figs, patio peaches, French tarragon, hyssop, winter savory, lavender, rosemary, lovage, along with ornamental evergreens, peonies, heather, and other early flowering plants.
As more things make it into the ground, some of the standout elements in the landscape now will have more context and company.
In the meantime, our new favorite hot spot (literally) to unwind after all this work is even better than a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Actually, make that even better than pot of gold at the end of a double rainbow.
At eight days past the spring equinox, many big things are beginning to crop up in the garden and I suspect there might be more garden updates coming soon!
In the meantime, please get outside, enjoy this beautiful time of transition, and have a very Happy Spring!
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