Today we were back at the greenhouse, making more soil mix, and seeding broccoli, basil, green onions, and several types of winter squash. Both basil and green onion seeds are quite small, making the task somewhat tedious. But once you get into a rhythm, it's not so bad.
We finished the day by going over to the farm and mulching the newly planted leeks. Leeks were the last thing I remember harvesting in the fall. I remember them being so long and fat, and these were so tiny. It was a good way for me to mentally measure how much time passes throughout the season.
On another note, amazon.com informed me that they finally shipped my camera, so I should be able to take pictures by next week.
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Transplant Dance begins!
Today was my first day in the field. We unloaded a monster hay bale pile first thing in the morning. That got the blood moving! Claire gave us a short orientation and we headed out to plant brassicas. Specifically, several varieties of kale and broccoli.
Transplanting takes many steps. We all tried our hand at: setting up the beds, placing compost, watering the compost, setting starter plants, planting them, and then covering the entire bed with floating row cover to protect the young plants from flea beetles. We even mulched some of the plants with the aforementioned hay. All in all, it was a productive day. We set about 600 kale plants and 1200 broccoli plants. Suffice to say my body aches a bit. But I feel pretty good otherwise. I must remember to drink more water. That seemed to be my only real problem today.
Transplanting takes many steps. We all tried our hand at: setting up the beds, placing compost, watering the compost, setting starter plants, planting them, and then covering the entire bed with floating row cover to protect the young plants from flea beetles. We even mulched some of the plants with the aforementioned hay. All in all, it was a productive day. We set about 600 kale plants and 1200 broccoli plants. Suffice to say my body aches a bit. But I feel pretty good otherwise. I must remember to drink more water. That seemed to be my only real problem today.
Day 1 at the Greenhouse
Today was my first day back on the farm. Well, back at Claire's house, anyway. She has a large hoophouse in her back yard where all the plants get their start. To start our day, we made soil mix by mixing compost, peat, sphagnum moss, perlite, and soil amendments. We filled around 100 starter trays and then seeded tray after tray. Today we did broccoli, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, cucumbers, and basil. We also up-potted tomatoes by moving the tiny seedlings from a free starter tray to individual cells.
Greenhouse work is pretty easy going compared to transplanting, and I couldn't help but think of the many hours we would spend later, bent over and putting each of these seedlings into the ground. My legs hurt just thinking about it! I'd better quit writing and do some yoga.
Greenhouse work is pretty easy going compared to transplanting, and I couldn't help but think of the many hours we would spend later, bent over and putting each of these seedlings into the ground. My legs hurt just thinking about it! I'd better quit writing and do some yoga.
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