Sunday, January 8, 2012

Turning under the cover crop



The top photo is the cover crop, red clover, and the second is the bed next to it which has had the clover tilled under. I will be planting the spring garden in this bed. From back to front will be potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, chinese cabbage, kholrabi, lettuce, spinach, beets and carrots. My peas will go into the 'bean' row, the one just to the right. I'll planting the potatoes in about a month, and I wanted at least that long for the clover to break down in the soil. It won't be long after that when I transplant the broccoli and cabbage that is currently growing in the seedling racks under lights. Then the seeds for the rest will go in the beds and spring will be just around the corner. By the time all that is harvested, it will be time to plant the fall crop of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, and some pumpkins for Halloween, and I will get a second harvest from this bed. After the pumpkins, it will back into a cover crop for the winter and the following year, this will become the 'bean bed'. The 'tomato bed' follows the next year and the last in the rotation is the 'melon bed'. 
 As you can see below, my brussel sprouts still won't form heads. I am relatively certain this will be my last attempt at growing these. While I will eat them, I am not so crazy about them that I must grow them and seeing as how I have had zero success in doing so, it is a good thing I'm not. So no more trying (and failing) for me.


This is a picture of the last of my sprouting broccoli plants. It has about a meal's worth of small sprouts on it.
These are my two hens and two roosters. Say goodbye to the roosters. Their days on this earth are limited (because my budget for chicken food is limited, as is my patience for crowing roosters).



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