January Thaw

The snow melted today, and although the pond is still frozen, the world seems a milder place! I decided to move my garden beds. I had posted about the plans in a blog last week, and while I didn’t think I’d be able to do it for another month or so, with today’s kinder temperatures I decided to go for it. First I needed to determine how difficult it would be to move the beds…were they frozen into place? I used a shovel to try and pry a corner of one of raised beds from the frozen ground. The thawing temperatures must have helped because it wasn’t as difficult as I had imagined!

Messy, Messy, Messy!!!!    Once I realized it was going to be possible to do today, I removed all the plastic coverings and the pvc hoops from each bed. I hauled over my cardboard, newspapers, and junk mail that I had been saving so that I could line the bottom of the raised beds’ new locations. The mounds of dirt that you are seeing between each bed was the dirt inside the old location.

The fields are a disaster. MUD, MUD, MUD is the word here!! The ground had been frozen and covered with snow for over a month; however, now that we can see the ground, the mucking begins. Wheel barrow after wheel barrow load came off the fields today and dumped into our compost area and/or to the raised beds that won’t be used for several months.

We never plant onto fresh manure. It’s VERY important that it either ages in the compost pile with “brown” ingredients (paper, leaves, straw) or if it is added to the empty beds, nothing should be planted here for several months. Compost and soil will be added to this later when we are ready to plant.

I still have a few more raised beds that I need to haul over to this new location. When the growing season is upon us, arbors will create a tunnel of veggies between the left and right side beds like the picture shows below. I might find that it looks awful or doesn’t work the way I’m hoping, but I am definitely excited to give it a try.

Two of the raised beds are already primed for early spring planting. The soil inside is gorgeous.

The sun’s glare isn’t allowing the picture to show how rich with humus this is.

Although it is recommended that beets are sown directly into the soil, not started as seeds inside, I DID start them inside almost a week ago. The have already sprouted!!! I will be planting them outside and placing them under “cloches” within the hoop tunnel as a precaution against the cold for these tender young plants. Stay tuned!!