Life Raft>Life Vest>Arm Floaties

To say that recent weather, a good 8 plus inches of slowly melting snow followed by a gentle rain, hasn’t been a lifeline would be to do it injustice. It’s a lifeline, to be certain. When I worked up some fields before the snow arrived, they dried within a day. Not good. I was low key freaking out. So this recent precipitation has been desperately searched for. As beautiful as it is after so much drought, it gets us to step B, and no further. We will be able to plant our first planting this week, but the irrigation will be on deck and ready for rapidish deployment.

  Momma Nature has thrown us a life line, but less in the order of a life raft than just a pair of arm floaties.  

 But you know what they say about beggars. And at a certain point we are all that.

 Char’Rese is now on board for the season which brings us to three. April is usually a little early to have the crew start (May is when the action goes full throttle), but there were enough project hanging over from last season, plus the perspective early start with the weather. that having early arrivals seemed like a good idea. So it’s myself, Char’Rese and Chris getting things going for this summer, with Manuel and Doug to arrive in May. A solid crew. 

 This week Char’Rese and I uncovered the garlic, got it all weeded and cultivated, and then recovered it with one layer of floating row cover to protect it from any potential early insect. It had actually emerged about a month ago, and we kept it tucked away regardless, under multiple layers of row cover.

 This week, I think Thursday, we will get out and plant our first round of greens (arugula, spinach, salad, baby kale, pad choi, radishes). A few days later we’ll seed some first carrot beds. We’ll spread compost and shape beds for onions. We’ll work some fields down and get prepped for some oats and peas cover crops, briefly…we’ll get a lot done for an early April. And we have to. We may have our little arm floaties now, but who knows what’s coming. We might have to swim of our own strength, so best to be as far along as we can. 

 With the way things are now we’ll be shooting for the third weekend in May to be at the farmers markets. That could tip one week either way, but that’s our target. Updates will be forthcoming. Until then we’ll be planting, working fields and hoping for full on life vests.