The 2018 Garden: Beginnings
Late last week I walked away from the garden with dirt under my fingernails for the first time in months. It was just a couple of new microgreens beds we planted in cilantro, kale, and lettuce but somehow it felt significant. As did finally starting those broccoli seeds this week.
And then we started on the potato field. Lord willing, the plan is to mark and dig the rows and then add some amendments and plant around the middle to end of February. The boys asked for this job and made pretty quick work of the first few rows so we will be continuing this in the coming weeks.
The garden wouldn’t be the garden without the ever-present pile of manure and spent hay decomposing nearby. I am so grateful for animals who have turned our dirt into something resembling soil.
I’m not sure why but I am, more than any year previous, just really looking forward to the prospect of working towards growing more food this year, if the Lord wills. Perhaps part of that is remembering recently what it was like before we had a plot of land where we could cultivate the land or keep animals. Given this gift, it seems imperative to just keep planting. So we’ll see what the Lord has in store for the garden here, in 2018.
I have four grapevines that I am planting tomorrow. I also have two very domestic blackberry bushes that I will plant too. I have spent the last few days turning over my compost pile and getting the seasoned cow manure near the garden so I can throw it on after the next tilling. I have to say that my compost pile has the riches black dirt I’ve ever seen. I started it last summer and have been very diligent about putting vegetable peels and egg shells and coffee grinds on it as well as straw and leaves and some chicken waste. Our compost pile is a big attraction for our hens. They dig and dig and dig. I think for them it is a way to occupy their time. We are going to have weather in the sixties this week and I couldn’t be happier.