Last week we added calcitic lime and sulphate of potash to our field, tilled it in, and built pea trellising. We then sowed our first beds of peas, fava beans, radish, turnip, beet, carrot, spinach, arugula, raab, and mesclun. Next week we will be sowing more cool weather crops, as well as planting potatoes and onions. All this work leaves one with a deep feeling of satisfaction.
We managed to grow a pretty decent cover of winter rye on a large spread of the field this past fall. That was also tilled in, but left the soil clumpier than was anticipated. It will need tilled again, and time to decompose before we can plant in that part of the field. This has caused us to change some crop planning and tweak the rotation, which thankfully was easy enough to figure.
The Spring has been colder than we've grown accustomed to. Some of our cold-weather flowering annuals were actually damaged by frost in the cold-frame — a first in the nine years I've been raising plants here. The wind has also been a bit maddening at times, pummeling us in the field and ripping up ground-cloth like great black sails.
We're fortunate this year to have a very diligent and hungry guardian hawk hunting the field. I've already seen him carry off two squealing rodents. We also have daily fly-bys from two Canadian geese who are likely nesting in the neighboring wetlands. They do not carry off any rodents, but cause our chickens to posture, which I suppose keeps them on their toes.
