A Foggy Day 4/21/09

It has already been a productive start.  After the wintry months of planning and note-taking, we sprang into action in March starting seeds in the basement with a borrowed grow lamp.  We lowered it after our leggy lettuces and leeks emerged down to about two feet from the trays.  Our col seedlings were moved out to the coldframes I built to harden off for a few weeks before getting them in the bed.  The yard we have to use is about 35'x50' and the plan is to grow in about 600 square feet of it.  As of today we have a 7x7 herb bed, a 1x10 pea row, a 20x6 bed containing the col crops, various greens and onions, and a 6x8 bed with our beets, carrots and parsnips.  We have yet to create our beds for our cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and squash.  But they won't go out until mid-May, so we still have time. 

We tested our soil a few months ago and our lead levels are in the low-medium range, so we are not at much risk, but we are keeping our root crops further away from the house.  Our soil was somewhat deficient in Phosphorus and the ph was at 5.9 (too low for our veggies).   Once my Broadfork finally arrived, I put the prescribed amount of ground dolomitic lime, a combined fertilizer of Pro-Gro's 5-3-4 with a few pounds of bone meal to get the Phosphorus right, and a healthy layer of last year's compost.  The broadfork worked really well tilling and aerating, and for mixing the amendments without unduly disturbing the layers of soil. 

I treated the col seedlings with Bacillus Thuringiensis which is used to prevent cutworm and root maggot issues.  Unfortunately there was a few days of lag time before I could apply it and they got to a good handful of the seedlings.  While BT is "harmless" next year I will use a different pesticide to avoid developing pesticide resistant insects.

 

Anyway, the peas are up, and the arugula has poked through the soil.  I planted two varieties of blueberry bushes yesterday, mixing in soil from under the duff layer of a pine stand which contains beneficial fungi, peat moss and compost, with a thick mulching with pine needles to eventually lower the ph to the very acidic range blueberries need.  

There is too much to report on this first posting, but with more regularity, I hope to cover fewer subjects at a time with more depth and pictures.