Spring wheat planted

I put in a small section of Red Fife spring wheat today.  The section is very small since I do not want to use up too much of this prime ground.  I wanted to put the wheat in the area next to the winter wheat, where vegetables were grown last year.  But this area is too wet to plant today.  There is rain in the forecast for the next few days.

Ground was worked up with a spike tooth (to spread out compost that was applied over winter) and then the cultimulcher, using all three donks.  I put the wheat right up against the garlic to save room.  I hope the wheat is not too tall to affect the garlic before it is harvested.

Using the Earthway seeder I drilled the wheat to 1" and made a second pass of medium red clover at 1/2" depth.  There were 6 rows of each, and the total strip is 5' wide x 120' long.

Yesterday and today I finally got to use my Christmas present Rogue scuffle hoe.  Wow, does it work!  The rows of garlic have a clean start to the season now.  Garlic has been poking up for a week or so.  I should add that this ground is just barely dry enough to be worked and walked on at this point, and nothing more.

Maple syrup harvest

I tapped nine trees in January, eight ash leaf maple and one Norway maple. The weather warmed very suddenly and I did not think there would be a harvest at all. However, I managed to boil down 3 quarts on March 19 and another 4 on March 31. Curiously, the later batch was a little lighter. There was very little weather during this window where the nights were in the 20's and the days in the 30's.  It was more like days into the 40's and 50's, and nights just barley down to 32.

First greenhouse planting

As an experiment, I seeded a stretch of the old garden and then rolled the new greenhouse on top of it. This was March 20. I used the Earthway Seeder and put in peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and some other stuff.

There were some hard frosts in the following week.  As of April 1 some stuff was poking through.

Using row covers for the cold nights. 

Direct seeding

The small greenhouse is not in the garden yet but I want to start learning what's possible with it. So I planted carrots, radishes, and lettuce in the corner today. Last frost date is nearly 2 months off we'll see what happens!

Still frozen in

Pretty impressive cold and snow for March 1!  The garden is still under a foot I would say. I dug out the cold frame to see if there was any spinach. There was nothing to harvest but it looked to be alive. 

I started a 48 cell flat of celeriac yesterday. The lettuce I started last week is just starting to germinate. The flats are not heated and the soil is around 59 degrees when I wake up. Should probably rig up a heater for long term, or put them on the fridge to get them started. 

Garden Plan 2015

No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, or so I've heard.  Well, as I wait in late February for this deep freeze to end, here is the best I can come up with for Garden 2015:

• Finish composting east radish strip
• Work in and spread compost with spike tooth drag
• Plow oats and peas for early greens and vegetables
• Move winter spinach to safe ground so I can plow up old vegetables (spread compost prior).  Plant to buckwheat, then bare fallow, then oats/peas
• Frost seed winter wheat with clover
• Plant radish strip to naked oats, barley, and spring wheat, with underseeded clover.  This will be a few rows each, basically test plots
• later vegetables and cucurbits to go in lower West strip (oats, peas, radishes).  Compost, plow, and either buckwheat or bare fallow
• Move pasture gate to the North and rabbit fence the entire field (TOP PRIORITY!)
• Corn can go in East winter rye strip???

First flat

I'm Planted the first flat of the season yesterday, using compost mixed with perlite. Kale, broccoli, lettuce and spring onions. Completely unlabeled as per SOP here. 

This 231 cell flat was seeded to spring onions, tropeana lungs onions, and jaune paille onions on feb 27: