February came and went in a flash.
With a barrage of Winter weather sprinkled with random Spring-like days – we’ve been busy hurrying up then waiting on just about every farm project imaginable.
The compost pile is a work in progress. While the previous owners left us with decomposing garden goodies at the end of the Fall, we’ve had a bit of a learning curve figuring out how to keep this thing rolling. Compost bins in the kitchen have been filling and adding the pile regularly. A good collection of browns from the dried up asparagus trimmings helped to insulate. And I even tried my hand at turning the whole shebang with a new pitchfork. It was a bit of a struggle bus moment, but I did uncover some really great compost at the bottom of the pile and even mixed it into some potting soil for starts.
Starts are starting.
Sifting through our dozens of packets of produce and flower seeds, I pinpointed the earliest recommended planting for February starts: onions, peppers, cabbage and tomatoes. I’ve tried to start a new tray with a few of each weekly – ideally, giving us plants at staggered stages as we continue through the season. We know the garden is likely to be a bit large for our needs. And, in the current moment, we don’t have distribution plans for the harvests other than sharing with the friends and family that help us out. If the staggering works, we should be able to slowly harvest bits of produce across many weeks instead of needing to do lots at once. If this little trick manages to minimize some waste, we’ll be thrilled!
I’m still a bit unsure of how to start the flowers, but the time for them is coming up fast. By the end of March, we’ll have all of our starts accounted for – then we’ll be prepping for all of the plants and direct-planting seeds to go into the ground at the end of April.