I began tilling on April 15th this season.
This is the farthest garden to the east on my 4 acres.
It's also the only one that keeps the ground hogs out via black plastic deer fencing.
I planted 7 shallots and 60 onion sets (white, purple and yellow) on a raised bed.
Next, I created sort of an anything goes bed about 20 feet long and 2 feet across.
I planted the seeds by broadcasting them over the bed, then raking them in.
I used 6 varieties of cold weather plants:
Spinach - Giant Noble
Parsnip – Hollow Crown
Radish – German Beer
Spinach – Bloomsdale Long Standing
Lettuce – Jung’s Sweet Repeat
Lettuce – Red Velvet
The next step was to cover the bed with insect netting
which lets water in but keeps bugs out.
Insect netting also buffers frosty mornings and helps keep things a bit warmer.
But the main idea is to keep the insects from munching
on tender greens and roots.
I saw this Red Bartlett pear tree at Gateway Farm & Pet back on
June 11, 2011 and just had to have it!
I suspected it was a 5 or 6 year old tree...
Ah ha! This beautiful tree is in full blossom as of the last week of April, 2012.
This must be the 7th year.
I can't wait to see what these pears taste like!
Another nice thing about April is that I can take the tractor batteries off of the trickle chargers
and put them back into the tractors for the season.
The Red Agway is a 1990 and the Orange Husqvarna is a 2001.
I gave them both new spark plugs and they run great!
Meanwhile, back inside...
I have 3 shop lights blazing 14 hours a day over the seed flats.
The onions were moved out into the greenhouse about 4 weeks ago.
Now, I have 22 varieties of tomatoes, 15 varieties of peppers,
6 varieties of flowers and many other miscellaneous items
including my 7 successful rhubarb plants from 2011 seeds.
:)
