Rain at last

It started raining last night so it looks like I'll be able to get started soon.

As soon as the compost heaps are accessible it'll be time to start planting. One of the first things to go in will be the solinaceae. Peppers, tomatoes, tobacco and those first few first early potatoes under cover. In a few weeks when the weather has moderated a little we'll be looking at putting plants, (dormant under cover in pots for their first year) like honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), grape vines bay trees and an assortment of other things into their final positions.

The gardens will be in several zones. Zone 0 is my bender and it's immediate surrondings. I'll describe that in another post. Zone 1 is the area immediately around my bender and it's where I'll put the things that I use most often and it will also house my high attention nursery. To the west of that are two fenced off areas that once held the pigs. There is a small pond in one corner and we also have access to a water supply powered by a solar powered pump from another pond which irrigates the polytunnel. In the summer water is in short supply here so we make a lot of ponds around the place. One of the side effects of this has been an explosion in the variety of wildlife around the place. This will be where the bulk of the raised beds will be. They will be about 3 feet wide by 20 or 30 feet long. Double dug with wooden surrounds. Once dug once they will never be dug or stood on again. Management will be done by continual mulching.


Companion planting will be done throughout and rotation on a 4 year rotation will be done and in breaks in production green manures will be grown in the beds. Eventually we will install an irrigation system from the ponds.

Another important job to do now is to plant those seeds that need a period of cold to germinate. In an ideal world one would refrigerate the seed in damp sharp sand for a specific length of time but I've found that frequently just a few weeks of exposure to freezing weather outside does the trick.

The year turns, we should be through the worst of the cold for this year, although there will certainly be a few more cold snaps. 

Come on thaw, I've had enough snow.