First Post of Spring!

Last Wednesday it was up to 80° here.  This morning it's snowing.  It's just light flurries, but there it is.  I can't complain.  A late March or even early April snowstorm is to be expected as often as not around here.  The ice is gone from the ponds and you have to really hunt to find a little bit of snow that hasn't melted yet.  The Canada Geese are grazing in the field below the garden every evening.  Two nights ago I heard spring peepers and wood frogs.  Crocus are in full bloom and a few daffodils are open in front of the sun porch. The grass is starting to green up.

Of course in the garden, controlling the grass is one of my highest priorities.  Section 14 is pretty well under control.  I still need to root out some rhizomes on the downhill (east) side of it, but it looks good.  I planted more garlic and got a fence around the section.  The fence is none too soon, as the chickens were scratching a dust bath area in the first garlic bed, and I may have to re-plant a few there.

Toward the bottom of the picture there's a horizontal line of damp soil.  That's where I stopped planting garlic.  The last few feet are still open, although it seemed like a good spot to tuck in some short rows of lettuce.

I'm working with a general pattern of beds four feet on center, which should usually come out to 30 inch growing beds and 18 inch paths, but I crowd the paths a little.

I want lots of garlic, but I also want to have things mixed in so it's not just a solid block.  I planted the next bed space with two rows.  One is chard and one is curly kale.  These are both fairly cold tolerant.  It's supposed to go to the low 20's tomorrow and Wednesday mornings, but they aren't up yet so they should be fine.  It occurs to me that if I can round up enough scrap boards (half rotted is fine) to set on top of the rows, that will keep the frost out of the seedbed.  I've been watering them lightly on the warm days.  The national weather service says we're in a light, short term drought.

And then there's the third bed, which I planted to garlic again.  There's about 100 cloves that are well sprouted transplants from the section 7 bed where I grew garlic last year and didn't get quite all of it pulled out.  Their leaves are about 4" tall already, showing me how far behind the stuff I'm planting as less sprouted cloves is.  But it's an early spring, mostly, and there's time for it all to do well.

Here's the third bed in the center, just before planting all the garlic.  The poultry net fence is set up around the section, but not electrified.  On the right, I keep digging and pulling out rhizomes.

I think the fourth bed will be spinach, but I'm not there yet.

As I move through and watch the grass starting to sprout, I know I can't be too fixated on one spot.  I'm going to miss stuff, and it'll have to be dealt with again later.  The goal is to keep any one spot from getting too bad to deal with later. Were the grass is sprouting fastest, I go in with the digging fork and turn over the most advanced areas, shaking their dirt onto the green grass around them as a mulch.  Instead of being meticulous about working down a row, I look around like a grazing animal, cherry picking the most lush clump to go after next.

Sections 13 and 12 are going to be the hardest.  The grass and the rhizomes are thickest there.  I did some experimental digging and the spading fork isn't going to work.  It's too dense of mat.  Instead, I'm going to turn it all over with a square point spade, cutting the rhizomes into little bits, all of which will sprout.  Then I'll go through it repeatedly with other tools and slowly pull out the little bits.

Section 11 had corn hills in it last year, and was supposed to get squash and beans but that never happened before I hurt my back.  The corn had been planted on ridges, and this seems to have discouraged running rhizomes.  The soil needs more organic matter, but the weed problems are going to be from annuals that can be controlled with normal cultivation.

Section 4 looks promising.  There are some rhizomes, but there's a lot of organic material in there, including lots of year old wood chips and crab shell.  Digging is easy.  Using my hit and miss method of going after the most noticeable grass sprouts, I've turned a lot of it over somewhat. already.

I've recruited one other gardener, who's going to take on the west half of section 7.  That's about 1000 square feet.  That area had a lot of hay added a few years ago.  I paved most of the section and let it rot there, and then last year I had a lot planted there that the weeds took.  Again, with normal cultivation for weed control, it should do fine.

So, weed control and cultivation tools:

I've been using the spading fork a lot, and it works fairly well.  I notice it has a crack in the fiberglass handle, and I'll have to watch that.  New handles are something that I shouldn't need for most things if I'd only take care of them.

The handle of my square point spade was treated last year with "Boat Soup", which is a mix of melted parafin, turpentine, linseed oil, and pine tar.  It probably should get another coat, as should many of my tools.

I've mentioned the three tooth cultivator from Glasier.  It's due for the treatment.  The nice thing about that handle is it's just a conical point, and if it breaks, I can make a replacement easily enough.

My largest hand cultivation tool is my broadfork, which I got from the dump.  Amazing what you can get there.  I've put it to heavy use and there are a few repairs visible if you look closely.  I think the reason it was at the dump was that the tines bolt on with one bolt each, and they turned too easily.  I welded them so they don't turn.  I've also broken one of them off and welded it back on with a reinforcement, and I've nearly ripped the whole thing in half and welded the cross bar back together.

And then there are the wheel hoes.  I've got one that's an old Planet Jr., and I have multiple attachments for it, but it doesn't get much use.  It needs the handles replaced and some things tightened up.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it seems like most of the tools aren't very well suited to my soil.  They tend to get caked with mud and fine roots and then they don't cut.

The wheel hoe I use is one I made myself out of old bike parts.  It's propped up at an awkward angle here, but you can see the geometry well enough.

The tool bits attach to a holder from an old commercially made wheel hoe.  I got that bit at a junk shop for $5.  It's bolted on to a bike handlebar gooseneck that's designed to clamp into the head tube with a wedge and bolt set up.  The idea was that I could pop that out and change tool heads easily that way, but instead I've been bolting and unbolting tines from the holder.  The holder can take five tines, and I can make tines from any small square stock.  The originals were 1/4", but the one that's in there now is extra long and made from 3/8" stock.  This is the first useful thing I've made on my little hand cranked blacksmith forge.  If the soil was loose it'd be about right, but because I've run into some heavier clumps with grass root balls, I bent the tine.  I was able to bend it back without heat, and then I added the wire as a reinforcement.

The original tines were almost vertical in the soil.  I intend to forge a set that will run horizontally in the soil the way the ones on the three tine hand cultivator does, not too deep.  The stock for these will have to be much longer than the originals to work right.  I actually tried using hose clamps and attached the three tine cultivator to this wheel hoe.  That worked well.  Of course bike parts are cheap and I may just build a variety pack with different tools on each one.  Because of the welding, it's impossible to change  a tire once the thing is put together.  The tire on this one is actually flat, but it doesn't seem to matter much.

The last thing I have to talk about is how I want a new garden building.  Call it Nominative Determinism.  My last name actually means "small house".  For the last several days I've had the Eze-Up market canopy set up low in the garden, and I've got a low table/cart and a folding chair there.  I've had to take it down today because of the forecast wind.  What I want is something durable that I don't have to take down.  Several years ago I had a small yurt set up, made from two 16' stock panels.  I still have the parts.  I just need a level platform to set it up on.  It would be just inside the gate, 11' diameter, and give me a place to get out of occasional showers, as well as a place to stretch, keep a few tools, a water jug.  And it'd have to have a door to keep out bugs and chickens.  The trick is finding the time, between the garden work I need to do and my day job.