{"id":1523,"date":"2017-02-26T10:55:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T15:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2017-02-26T10:55:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T15:55:30","slug":"all-tidy-brightey-for-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/all-tidy-brightey-for-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"All Tidy-Brightey for Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s that time of year – one of my favorites – to get ready to go into high gear for Spring Planting<\/strong>.\u00a0 Yay – it’s time to tidy up!<\/p>\n

Spring is when the garden beds get cleaned up.\u00a0 Since a lot of beneficials winter over in the debris from fall crops, waiting until spring to clear the dead branches, leaves and other materials gives those beneficials a nice home during cold weather.\u00a0 In thanks, they’ll be there for your spring and summer crops.\u00a0 And everything that decomposed over the winter (like root mass from old plants) is busy feeding your worm population as well as the soil.\u00a0 It’s a win-win.<\/p>\n

After four very labor intensive days here on The Little Half Acre, the main garden beds are now tidy and planted with various lettuces, kales, spinach, radishes, parsnips, turnip greens, rutabagas, kohlrabi and onions.\u00a0 Fresh wood chips line the pathways between beds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ditto for the two new terraced beds that we put in last fall.\u00a0 They’ve been cleaned up and in two more weeks the carrots, beets, potatoes and turnips will go in the ground when the Farmer’s Almanac says it’s time to plant root crops, according to the phase of the moon.<\/p>\n

Last year’s main garden beds were simply raked up mounds of compost.<\/p>\n

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Straw covered beds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a quick way to get veggies growing.\u00a0 Same for the straw bale terraces.<\/p>\n

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Straw bales in spring<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a quick fix for our rock and clay half acre and, had we not been in the worst drought in decades, would have been quite successful.\u00a0 As it was, we fed ourselves, one of our daughters and even a friend or two when green beans, tomatoes or cucumbers threatened to over run us.\u00a0 But the plan was to establish permanent, or semi-permanent, beds depending on location.\u00a0 The terraces were the first to go up, replacing the straw bales.\u00a0 And the decaying straw went into the terraces (along with expended microgreens compost and root mass) as part of the new soil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The terraces will be permanent since they have greatly reduced the steep slope in the one area that gets the most sun on our little homestead.\u00a0 Going up and down the slope got particularly dangerous when rain turned the clay soil into a giant slide.\u00a0 The Happy Homesteader (me) had more than one mishap!<\/p>\n

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Wood chips will go between<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not shown in the photo is a bunch of wood chips between the two terraces that levels the path between them.\u00a0 No more falling down the hill!\u00a0 The narrower boards along the back of each terrace will allow me to add trellising as the snow peas and Wando garden peas get taller.<\/p>\n

The main garden area will eventually move (at least partially) into the general landscape, according to permaculture practices.\u00a0 Until that happens though, they need to be very productive veggie plots.\u00a0 So, since we only had enough lumber to build wood frames for three of the raised beds, the Happy Homesteader spent the last four days carrying six to eight feet sapling trunks up the steep incline to turn last year’s raised mounds into true raised beds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Innocent Bystander (hubby) hauled bucket after bucket of wood chips up the steep incline to line the pathways between the beds.\u00a0 There was lots of sweating,\u00a0 grunting and sore muscles involved, along with the occasional four letter word, but now I can plant all the way to the edges in each of the raised beds.\u00a0 I’ve gained more growing space and that’s always a good thing.\u00a0 And as the beds progress from rows of veggies to permaculture food forest, I can easily move the three wooden frames to another location and plant veggies in the new location.<\/p>\n

Speaking of planting, according to my handy-dandy planting guide from my local Ag office, it’s time to plant all the usual spring seed here in Zone 6B.\u00a0 Those tidy beds now hold all the stuff I mentioned above and the snow peas and garden peas that were planted weeks ago are up about an inch already.\u00a0 But I just ordered a bunch of frost blanket because I know<\/em> we’re gonna have plenty of freezing temps before it’s over.\u00a0 We’ve had above normal temperatures since January and that’s great because here’s what that’s done for all the winter crops that have been surviving and growing just fine under row cover and low hoop tunnels since October —<\/p>\n