Category: Garden Prep

  • Oofda it’s hot…

    Oofda it’s hot…

    It’s been a hot end of May but we are chipping away at the springtime “must do” list. Planting the garden, building the new perimeter fence, and keeping everything watered and alive during this heat wave has taken up most of our days.

    Here’s some pics of the garden beds, most things aren’t germinated yet because they were just planted. Yeah the weather had been nice but we don’t really trust Minnesota weather to put tender plants out any earlier than the last week of May. We’ve been burned frosted too many times!

    You can see in the 3rd photo that those beds are beyond a fence… That will soon be contained within our new perimeter fence. Gotta get that installed before the corn pops up and the deer find it!

    Also used this hot weather to wash a few skeins of yarn I finished in the last week. 3 skeins of alpaca and 1 of angora rabbit from a friend. The rabbit’s name was Theodore and I’m pretty sure it’s the absolute softest thing I’ve ever touched 😍 I can hardly stop squishing it and saying “oh my god it’s So. Soft.”

    Anyway, using this heat to quickly dry yarn is one perk I suppose. Now, back to finish watering the garden…  🌱

    -Shara

  • Building Garden Beds

    Building Garden Beds

    When we established our garden, the fine soils and lack of slope made growing difficult. The ground would easily flood and then stay saturated for a long time, setting back soil temperatures, cultivation, planting, and harvesting. To alleviate this, we began using raised beds. This creates growing space that’s higher in elevation than the surrounding walkways, leaving it with better drainage, aeration, and sun exposure. Together, these improvements have allowed soil work and planting to occur 2-3 weeks earlier than before.

    After a couple years of shaping them by hand with shovels and rakes, it was clear that the benefits of raised beds were worth investing in equipment to make the process faster and easier. We now use a “rotary plow” on the BCS 2-wheel tractor to throw soil from the walkway onto the planting bed. This creates an elevation difference of 6-10″ between the beds and the 12″ wide walkway. It is a fast implement to run, shaping a 100 foot raised bed in about two minutes.

    If you have challenging soil holding you back, let us shape up some raised beds and start enjoying a more productive, healthy garden. Contact Casey or learn more at our From the Garden page.