Weeds!

Monday, May 10th
A few more interns started at the farm today:  Jenna, Andy, and Maria.  This is reassuring to me, as it's been so long since we had a nice big crew to work with.  It will take a lot of pressure off of all the work we have to do in the coming months.  We did Field Tour today for the first time this year.  Field Tour is, as you might think, when we walk around the different sections of the farm, noting what is happening in the field and taking notes on any work we should do in the coming week.  One thing we knew we had to check was our newly transplanted cucumbers and squash, as it froze the previous evening!  Fortunately, they were covered by remay.  While some outer leaves look damaged, most plants had new growth and looked healthy and ready to keep growing.

It's still early in the season and getting cold at night, so some sections of the farm are still totally empty (such as solanacea).  Other sections still have cover crop in from last fall (rye) or new spring cover crops (oats and peas).  There are also some over-wintered crops from last fall:  scallions and spinach.  And garlic, but that is heavily mulched and won't be harvested for a long time.  Of course, there are all the brassicas we've been transplanting lately, as well as onions and leeks.  And there are lots of crops that were direct seeded by Claire that have germinated and are coming up well:  peas, carrots, and beets.

Along with all these germinated seeds are germinated weeds!  And now is the time to deal with them, before they start taking valuable resources away from our crops.  So one half of the crew weeded onions, carrots, and peas today, with wheel hoes and hand hoes.  The other half finished up the new herb garden by finishing the raised beds and transplanting the perennial herbs to their new location.  All in all, it was a productive day, despite the fact that the tractor is down for the moment and needs repairs.

Weeding is a satisfying job, but doing it for the first time reminded my of how many more times we are going to do it.  Today was only the beginning!