Spring is in the Air!

We’ve had such beautiful spring-like weather this past week and as I sit inside while teaching the children their lessons, I see all the jobs that need to be done in the yard and out on Wilson Street.  Earlier in the week, we did a garbage clean-up on Wilson.  There we noticed a beautiful patch of blooming crocuses growing in the middle of the field where we have boxes.  I also harvested some of our parsnips from the yard.  We plant them in deeper boxes, but even then, some of them hit the bottom of the box and curve around. 

Check out the size of that parsnip!

Today was a family work day.  We raked the yard, cleaned out some boxes from last season’s plants, brought in some compost to replenish the nutrients in the soil in some of the boxes, transplanted strawberries, added our yard and garden waste to the compost pile out back, and dug up a spot in the yard to plant parsnips in the ground instead of in a box with a bottom. 

transplanting strawberries

Last year we had a decent crop of strawberries from our two 4 X 8 foot boxes.  After they finished bearing strawberries, I filled some of my flat trays with soil and set them around the existing plants knowing that they would soon send out their runners.  The runners land and take root in my little flats so I can easily transplant young, fresh strawberry plants to a new location.  I filled a newly prepared 4 X 8 box with young plants today.  I have another 4 X 8 box to prepare and plant next time I get out there. 

This afternoon, my son worked in the hoophouse.  He has been busy fixing his tractor and making some implements to go with it.  He brought home a plow from our farming relatives in Tennessee and made a hitch to connect it to his tractor in such a way that he could raise and lower it.  He also made a sort of subsoiler which is basically a long, narrow, C-shaped piece of iron that can go deeper into the soil to break up the packed hardpan underneath without turning the soil over like a plow does.  It also can pull up rocks ( or whatever ) that a plow would skip up over.   He and his brother have been digging out all sorts of stuff over there and having a good time, I might add.

Tucker has been busy plowing

Spring is definitely in the air and my next job must be to trim the apple trees in the yard, plant peas and parsnips outside, and start a long list of plants like peppers, cabbage, parsley and others.

Until next time,

Janice