In The Ground!

The first plot.

It is official! The gardens at Three Persimmon Farms have begun.  I dug out and planted three plots of the garden yesterday afternoon, a sunny and cool day, perfect for some hard labor in the field. I planted three types of peas, some carrots, some lettuce, arugula, one kind of beet and assorted radishes. In the herb garden, I planted some thyme seeds, and in one of the raised beds, I cast a mixture of short, squat carrots, radishes and lettuce. (I'd read about this method in a cookbook Rich gave me for Christmas. You just toss the seeds, rake and water, and let them come up where they want, since you're going to be eating them pretty quickly anyway. Sounds good to me. The three beds in the garden are in the most northwest corner of the garden, closest to the house. I will work my way east and south through the garden. In many ways, despite all the reading and planning, I feel like I am at a new job. Still getting used to my surroundings (trees, dirt, wind and sun) and my new coworkers (that rat snake hung out for quite a while yesterday, as well as some wooly spiders, a tiny bright red spider, a centipede, lots of earthworms and some hibernating bugs). For the most part, these new coworkers left me alone, and I let them do their business. Hopefully we'll all be working toward the same goal...

My new office mate.

The second and third plots.

I spent this morning (a warm and very windy one) getting seeds into a variety of peat pots and cell trays. I planted at least 265 seeds. (The tansy seed was so tiny, I lost track of how many I put down.) Ten types of tomatoes and peppers (hot and sweet), basil, huckleberries, ground cherries, lavender, marigolds, and geraniums. Hopefully they'll all germinate, and then under the lights for six weeks... I am sore but unbelievably happy with the work. And I know these pictures look a little gray and drab, but there's not much out there right now. I learned a few things about the soil yesterday. It has a lot of clay in it. I soaked the plot for beets, expecting to be able to just poke the seeds down, but met basically thick mud. So I had to abandon that plan and spread soil on top of the seeds. For some of the root vegetables I am really going to have to add some matter to lighten the soil. I was going to wait one more week to plant the peas, but was afraid that would be too long of a delay. And yesterday was perfect planting weather, with warm and rainy conditions forecast for the remainder of the week, I just had to do it then. We're going out of town this afternoon (hello, Milwaukee!) so next week I'll go about working the soil more and getting more beets, some onions, and many other things into the ground.

I drove into town yesterday and was surprised to see so many trees flowering. Out here in the country things are progressing more slowly, with more caution almost. Perhaps it's cooler out here, or the wind blows stronger (it certainly seems to blow constantly). In town, it seems as if every daffodil is in bloom. Here, ours just got the bulb heads. The crocus even seem tentative outside. But they are little bright spots in the yard. The grass, though, is green, and many of the trees and shrubs have that thicker, slightly green look to them just before they leaf out. This is such an exciting time. I'm reluctant to leave the garden, even for a few days, but am looking forward to being in a city, seeing some dear friends, and taking the train back to town. Stay well, think spring, and thank you for reading!