Week 11, Spring 2023
Last week was a busy one!
As the spring season comes to an end, we have been running around like crazy trying to get things wrapped up for a smooth transition into the summer season. On monday we focused our energies on putting up tubes around all the little baby trees we have planted these past few weeks so that they are protected from the deer and the wind, and so that they have some support while they grow (honestly don’t we all need that?). We also prepared some straw to soak so that we could do a mushroom inoculation the next day.
On Tuesday we did in fact inoculate some nice gray dove oyster mushrooms, which are currently settled into the cold and dark basement. We also did a ton of weeding and watering of everything and even planted some yellow lunchbox peppers.
On Wednesday we prepped a bed then planted bush beans, and focused a whole lot of time on getting into weeding our strawberry patch (where the grass has quite literally taken over). That is still a huge work in progress as we need to lay down some big sheets of black plastic to kill the weeds and grass, but first we have to find all our little strawberry friends and make sure they don’t get covered! During this we found a cute little Fowler’s toad (picture at bottom). We also started preparing our 3 sisters bed. A 3 sisters bed is an indigenous way of planting corn, beans, and squash so that they all rely on each other, “Corn provides tall stalks for the beans to climb so that they are not out-competed by sprawling squash vines. Beans provide nitrogen to fertilize the soil while also stabilizing the tall corn during heavy winds. Beans are nitrogen-fixers meaning they host rhizobia on their roots that can take nitrogen, a much needed plant nutrient, from the air and convert it into forms that can be absorbed by plant roots. The large leaves of squash plants shade the ground which helps retain soil moisture and prevent weeds.” (Nativeseeds). To do this we create a row of soil “mounds” to plant in, which can take a lot of work. All of these mounds must be 2 feet apart and have a 1.5 feet diameter, so there is a lot of digging, measuring, digging, measuring, you get the jist. After this long day we rewarded ourselves with a bowling adventure which was a blast! Lexi crushed us in the first round but Felix pulled through and won the second round. Though I didn’t take many wins while bowling, I was able to beat a claw machine and take home an adorable stuffed pink hippo.
On Thursday we continued this work and finished all the prep required to plant! Some of us did some soil sampling out in the field in the morning, so close to finishing that test site! We also got some new goji berry trees in the mail which needed to be planted asap! We found some nice spots for them and prepared by using a weed whacker to get initial weeds, measuring and digging holes, weeding around those holes, then finally getting them into the ground. We gave them all tree tubes right after and even had time to transplant some broccoli in a bed right next door to them.
By Friday we were so worn out! We pushed through and planted the corn, squash, and beans in the 3 sisters bed and started transplanting some tomatoes into bigger pots.
All in all it was a great week and one that we are proud to have gotten through!
See you next week!
-Claire
