Spring has sprung and a new garden season is underway. After taking off last year to give the beds a much needed rest, this year will be especially important to get back into the hang of seed starting, crop rotation and enhanced production through succession planting.
I say "enhanced production" because with the currently raging COVID pandemic (aka "The Rona"; aka Wuhan Red Death, CCP Virus, Wuhan Lung AIDS, Kung-fu Flu, Chinese Lung Clap, Chinese Bat Cancer, Chinese Lung Crud, all courtesy of the Rott) the latest contagion to crawl out of the Chinese petri dish, we'll be needing all of the fresh veggie supplementation we can grow over the next few months.
Last summer there were three superficial tills of the beds to suppress weeds and keep our notorious clay soil workable, followed by over seeding with winter rye. After the last till, I over seeded the main plot with buckwheat. This was a spectacular cover crop that was left in place to die down and overwinter. And back in February that too was worked in.
Right now we have a very early crop of mini bok choy, mustard greens and (not pictured) a couple of broccoli. Soon to be followed with more greens and lettuce. Kale and chard were direct seeded last weekend but with the temperature drop these will be delayed a bit. And by May we should be starting tomato and pepper seeds indoors together with more direct seeding outside of squash, beans and cucs.
The other big chores last weekend was to do a final straw-in of the strawberry bed that was established last season. This will be the first time doing this in one of the long beds which should make harvesting a lot easier than doing a big bed in the main plot. I also planted the new raspberry sets in their bed. This time around there were five "Jewel" black (summer bearing) and five "Anne" yellow (ever bearing). These will be ready for first crop next summer.
Other spring time beauties around the compound (as always click on the pic for a larger view):
Heartleaf Brunnera
Regina cherry
Red Bud
