On May 11, we built the last few pallet gardens. Keith helped Steve finish building them.
A lot has been growing on at our place the last few weeks. In order to get the seeds and the plants in the garden, Steve was out early in the morning tilling before we got the boys out of bed. On May 18, we spent 6 hours working in the garden. And this past weekend, we did the same. We have a few more things to plant, but overall, great progress has been made. The boys have been great help, and this process has really provided some interesting and memorable family time.
With the projected heat pattern this upcoming week, we should have some good growth in the pallet gardens to include spinach, a variety of lettuce, radishes, carrots, and a healthy harvest of rhubarb for the first box on June 5. Remember if you are picking up on June 5, pick up time is between 6:30-8 p.m. on Wednesdays. Drop off times will be similar to last year.
Sam, Keith and I proceeded to plant green beans and peas in the pallets. We have not planted these crops in the pallet gardens before so we are looking forward to seeing how they do. They have began to sprout which is a great sign.
Keith, Steve and Sam also built some pallet gardens for the Northfield Montessori school garden. We prepared these gardens for them on Mother’s Day. As you can see, on these landscaping tarp and lathe were used instead of wood because we thought they would be easier to move. We will see which bottoms work the best.
On May 15, we were very excited to be tilling in the garden. Steve and Sam discussed the process and are more than likely also looking for a few worms.
The boys love to till with Steve, and they recognize the importance of safety in running the equipment and wearing ear protection to protect their hearing.
After the tilling was complete, we applied fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium), which is food for the plants to help them grow. Keith and I worked on this together, and I can sincerely say while this was a laborious process and not as computer precise as many of the farmers I work with, this was a fantastic time to have a great conversation with my son. This was then incorporated, and we were ready to plant.
On May 18, we marked out the garden. We tried a new method of marking out the garden which involved marking paint, thus the kids painting clothes were necessary. We planted a variety of cut flowers to include Zinnias and sunflowers, a variety of lettuces, carrots, beets, radishes, sugar snap peas, cilantro, popcorn (white and strawberry). Keith is pounding in stakes when we were planting.
During this crazy spring weather, it is so amazing that the rhubarb is growing like crazy. In addition to providing this for our CSA shareholders, we also sell the rhubarb for $3 per pound which equals about 3 cups. A portion of the proceeds go to the American Red Cross and Gillette’s Children’s Hospital . These charities were selected by the boys.
Teaching the boys how to plant seeds and evaluating the differences between seed varieties is so fun! Here, Sam is planting cilantro.
We planted six types of potatoes Kennebec, Norland, Pontiac, Purple, Yukon and Masquerade (purple and white).
Sam showing you the purple potato.
It is a good thing I had them dressed in their paint clothes. Shortly after we started to plant, I heard, “Look mom, a mud angel.” Well as you can imagine after 5 hours of planting the boys stayed very entertained with mud pies and worm farms while also assisting in the planting process. All in all, it was a great day in the garden even if I had to wash their clothes twice.
Great newsletter! What a wonderful experience for the boys. P.