spring is sproinging

a full moon has passed since i sat with you last.  many days of moving, dreaming, growing, planting.
 also driving, eating, pooping & sleeping.
this may be a long post. Lemme hit the high points first, then allow me to ramble:

• disaster strikes slowly. be vigilant.
• P is for polyculture
• Plow Forward. . . but only once: they call it conservation tillage
• hugelkultur beds
• unfurling @Taproot
• how to make straw from strawberries
• first wave plantings
• alfalfa: teeny-tiny cover cropping for compost/soil building
• going in to business

i have to admit that winter-spring tricked me.  And the space heater.  A "cold-snap" hit and I left the heater on in the seed-starting station too long. i am ashamed: a thousand apologies.  It was well after dark with ice winds blowing when, at joe-knee's behest, we peeked in on the wee seedlings.  the power had fried, ye gawds yegads.  The temperature had dropped about 20degrees... we rushed our solanaceae seedlings indoors and turned up the heat --(normally set to around 50 in winter as too much cold can stunt the fruiting ability of our nightshade friends)---  we lost around a dozen tomato plants, but set up my summer room to facilitate the growth of the hardier individuals.

hang on while i create a narrative by attempting to chronicle in chronological order...
crisis narrowly averted, i turned mine eyes unto the earth, into the dirt and all that lives and grows throughout it.
       doesn't it seem strange that most gardens mimic the organization of industrial agriculture? but that's a whole other rant... me madre always lets me play in the dirt satisfying my pythogenic paradigm(:))
              the P is for Polyculture
 
                   the goal with this polyculture bed is ease of install.  shallow-depth seeds will be broadcast, covered with soil and rained on. inoculated wando shelling peas are going in the middle, surrounded by dustings of daikon radish, black-seeded simpson lettuce, danvers half-long carrots, tall top earl wonder beets, golden self-blanching celery, cilantro & i think some perfection fennel and maybe some swiss chard.

i started by cutting down a cover of volunteer straw & inoculated dutch white clover

then i cracked open ma's compost bin, forked off the top and started sifting out compost

there was a few inches of black gold down there

i sifted till i got about 1/3 of my tote full

then i moved to the clay pile. folks are always disparaging our clay soil...sure it clumps but it's rich in trace minerals and surprisingly fertile.

got about another third

on to the mulch pile!

full. now i have nearly enough to spread 1/8in over the whole bed.

and this is how i improvise a seed-starting soil

mix it up like cob

like some kind of crazy mulch-soil

after some hand cultivation, i forked the cover crop residue off to the side.

while loosening the soil with my cultivator i found a rock to kill a tiller

hey baby, nice dirt.

i snagged some sticks from the burn pile to make a trellis for the shelling peas. after stripping the branches, i poked 5 holes within the hexagon to open up holes, then pounded the branches in

with a lil string

inoculating the peas. legumes are considered nitrogen fixers because they develop symbiotic relationships with specific bacteria that take up residence in the legumes roots. these bacteria are capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen and release it as plant food in exchange for a bit of sugar water from the plant.  basically that's bacteria in a bag.

this time i made a sludge and tossed the peas in it. now i just wet the seeds and sprinkle it on.

scattered the seeds, planted the peas, spread and tamped the soil.

re-spread the cover crop residue as a thin mulch layer

       so far, this bed seems to be doing alright.  i'm pretty sure the daikon radish popped up first, then the lettuce and either the cilantro, fennel or carrots, then most of the peas. well, some of the clover re-sprouted and the dandelions and some weeds i've not yet learned the magic of. the clover i'm happy with, it's another nitrogen fixer and if clover filled all the gaps between my food plants i'd be a happy panda.  i ate a couple dandelion blossoms because they taste good but i don't want dandelions everywhere.  the other weeds i pull as the spirit strikes me.

sheesh. too much computer time, so i'll end this post here.  we'll re-board this train of thought shortly.