March 20, 2009

risking the onion move




Its a little cooler today than yesterday, but the sun has made the hard ground yielding, soft. And the brook to the river is revealing itself.

One thing I like about farming is the need to consider the hunches, weigh them against what can be observed and take a risk. A current example: I moved my leeks and onions to the hoophouse a couple days ago so I can plant more seeds under the lights. It got cold again last night: -8, perhaps colder with the windchill. I had dug and filled three pits with manure, spaced out along the center of the house and a sheet of row cover was over the onions. They made it quite happily.



You can see in the photo the repair I had to make when the 4 way connectors broke.
I now have somewhere to put the peppers (under the lights) that have germinated. I planted tomatoes and parsley today in the lightroom. Next step is to make soil and get ready to plant brassicas, lettuce and other starts in the hoophouse. I will also plant right into the bed to get some ruby chard and lettuce ahead for the first salads which take longer to grow than arugula, mizuna and tatsoi - the latter will go outside under the row cover.

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