Rainy Day Rye (March 3 Garden Project)

It didn’t rain all day…and I was working in the hoop house some, so it was warmer there…but it was definitely the sort of damp, drizzly spring day that requires a little fortification, a little sustenance…a little nip o’ Redemption Rye and maple syrup!  Yessir, this concoction of Ellen’s was pretty tasty and gave me the strength to head back out to plant!

photo courtesy Ellen Malloy

This being a gardening post, my first true update of the spring, here’s what happened today:

We mucked out a bunch of delicious soil from the bottom of the chicken coop/compost pile and spread it on the bed you see covered here with the white floating row cover.  Ellen planted broccoli and radish seedlings.

We also spent some time admiring the Harvest Moon Farms garlic coming up through the straw and the spiffy new pizza oven you see on the left.  It’s just temporarily positioned there.  As soon as we can lay some concrete and rebuild the brick base, we’ll get it moved into it’s permanent spot.  In the meantime, it’s low to the ground but ready to fire up for pizza any minute!  Thanks to Paul Kahan, we’ll be eating arugula and egg pizzas soon.

The hoop house is working out incredibly well – sure glad we rebuilt it after the storm.  We’ve had our seedling trays growing in it since the first of February, plus there are some holdover things from last fall like carrots, beets, spinach and tatsoi.  In this photo you see the greens in the left bed with a couple random leeks popping up…not sure where those came from, but we’re happy to eat ’em…and on the right I planted cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower today.

Here’s a beautiful carrot top:

And these are beet seedlings:

It was also raining in the hoop house today, but it was a warm rain.  There’s so much moisture condensing on the inside that as the rain hit the outside, it knocked the inside droplets free and they rained down all over me and this tatsoi:

Saving the prettiest picture for last, these are parade spring onion seedlings:

Dinner for Carolyn and me last night was about 80% out of this garden.  It felt good to be planting today, knowing we are feeding ourselves!