Posts Tagged ‘planting’

Fruit and forking

(THIS IS FROM A FEW DAYS AGO, SORRY!)
Just ended a two day period for Fruits according to the Biodynamic calendar.  It was a busy one as the last fruit period was too cold and wet to plant our many fruit seedlings and starts.  The fruit category consists of those plants which have their “fruit” in the realm of the seed such as beans, peas, lentils, maize, tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin and etc.  We were able to do some preparations prior to this period in planning for all the transplanting that we wanted to do.

We prepared our tomato rows by:
adding one yard of compost per 35’ row
tilling in the compost and mounding up the row (1’ high, 30” wide)
digging the planting holes (every two feet)
adding in our fertilizer, which consists of alfalfa meal, kelp meal, fish bone meal, oyster shell, greensand, rock phosphate, agricultural lime, and dolomitic lime.

We also prepared our 100’ rows for beans, cucumbers, melons, squash, and pumpkins.  We did this by visiting our local certified organic composting facility and picking up one and a half yards of compost each visit in the back of our 1984 full size truck.  I’ve gotten to know the owners a bit which is wonderful.  I even got a chance to chat with the owner after closing time about heirloom seeds and varieties.  A few days later by request, I delivered one of our red varieties of heirloom tomato starts.  It’s such a wonderful feeling to passing along one of our starts to someone who is excited and appreciative at the quality of our plants and can’t wait to rush home and plant it. 
So yes,  lot’s of compost forking going on.  I believe we moved around 6-8 yards in the past few days.  One wheelbarrow dump after another we covered our rows. 

Fruit day arrived on Thursday night at 8 pm and thus we began transplanting.  For the last hour and a half of day light we transplanted tomatoes one after another over at our greenhouses at Lincoln.  An early rise on Friday and we started in on the squash and beans.  Having to stop a bit before we would of liked we switched to harvesting and organizing our tomato starts for market day. 
All together we managed to get tomatoes, beans, summer squash, winter squash and cucumbers planted.
Now we’re in Root so I spent the night cultivating our rows of potatoes.

I’m glad to report the duck seems to be improving.  Sara has done an impressive job with some gauze and bandaged our girl up nice and tight to ensure the healing process.  It’s kinda weird having a duck live in our bathroom.  Farming.  I love it!

Out of Control Potato Planting

Soil and Rocks

Planting Away!

Planting, Weeding, Harvesting, Watering - It’s On!

The Planting Push

Cheapskate farmer

Planning

In The Big Field