Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad and braising greens, Carrots, snap peas, herbs, green onions, the first of the potatoes, beans, and green top Walla Walla onions Field Notes. The key words for the week are green manures and mulch! Ken is nearly done mulching. And he has green manures coming up all over – field to the former flower garden! Last weekend Ken traveled to the Mother Earth News …
Ken has been mulching! Why? Mulch has many advantages over open soil – lowers weed pressure, moderates soil temperatures to promote microbial life, adds organic matter and fertility to the soil. We have used several different mulches. When we first met we would let the area around the yard grow, Ken would mow with a sickle mower, I would rake and we’d pile the trailers and unload onto the field. For several years we got …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad and braising greens, garlic scapes, green onions, snap peas, beets or carrots, European turnips, herbs, the last of the asparagus Field Notes. Green manures and mulch. Ken is juggling the usual sequential plantings of greens, tying up tomatoes, irrigating the greenhouses, cultivating with a push to get areas either planted with green manures or mulched. Green manures are like living mulch – they lessen …
What a beautiful summer day! Ken is busy with tasks he wants to finish before the rain that is forecast on Tuesday. He is busy preparing beds for green manure. He is also “slaying weeds” on this sunny day and preparing other soil for mulching before the rain and more weeds germinate. Mulch will lessen weed pressure on the crops and moderate soil temperatures to promote microbial life. I made a snap pea salad …
Well actually two. Thursday after midday meal Ken was ready to move the pigs, so we did! They had dug up their area and gladly moved to the next. Ken chose a woodsy location so they can stay cool in the summer heat. The geese range through the former pig area – they are gleaning any stray grain along with the wild birds The next morning before letting the …
