An inch of rain and hundreds of plants to get in the ground

Rachel, Mary Ann, Nancy, Lou, Jeff, and I have been working our fannies off since late April to get four brand new gardens into cultivation. (This is in addition to Rachel’s two gardens at remote sites.) Our partnership with our light-industry host gives us responsibility for mowing any area of their property that isn’t planted: Lou and Nancy have done most of that. Jeff designed the fencing, installed much of it, and was out harvesting bamboo for more fencing and trellises tonight. Rachel helped me finish fencing what we call the Fertile Crescent, which is “mine” and Mary Ann’s. Mary Ann and I hit the hardware store for a second version of our favorite spade, and also found that a nearby feed-and-seed place (Holmgren’s) had a few plants I wanted, some Ambrosia cantaloupe seeds (Nancy loves them), and rhubarb. They also\ promised to provide some starter chick feed tomorrow (our chicks arrive probably Friday).

We finally took the plastic off the hoophouse (washed clean by the rain), dried it in the sun and spread it out to dry. Of course, all the grass and other flora under it was fried to a crisp, which gave Nancy an idea: Why don’t we spread this over the future strawberry patch rather than till it again? (The weeds have advanced considerably since breaking ground.) I think I may try this tomorrow.

A friend of Rachel’s has promised to bring a big piece of equipment tomorrow (rear tine tiller? rotary plow?) and help us build some beds and start some cover crops, but I don’t think it’s going to be dry enough to work the soil. We *really* got some rain last night, and with our Virginia clay, the moisture hangs around.

And this is good, because even though we have a plan to capture rainwater for the three southernmost gardens (all but Fertile Crescent), that plan hasn’t been realized. We want a cistern, but they’re expensive. Short term, our solution has been to dig deep swales, place beds and paths on the contour to capture as much water as possible, mulch deeply, and supplement rainfall with water from the spigot outside the plant. Luckily, the biggest bed (the one we call Iowa, which is devoted largely to Rachel’s CSA) is nicely placed to capture runoff from a little-used parking lot that will be filtered through about ten feet of sod before it gets to the garden. The rest is coming off a huge sheet metal roof.

Dixie (the southernmost bed, of course) is another of my responsibilities. It will be planted about 3/5 cover crops (a legume and some foxtail millet) and the other 2/5 will be what I hope manage to be dryland (unirrigated) crops that I refer to as my “subsistence mix.” There will be two grains, amaranth and corn; two oilseeds, sunflower and sesame; and two sweet orange storage vegetables, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I’m planting modest quantities of these this year (about 1000 square feet) but hope to ramp that up next year.

June 15 is the deadline to get all of this planted: cover crops, subsistence mix, and the rest of the vegetables in the Fertile Crescent. Normally I would put most of these crops in several weeks, even a month earlier, but it took too long to finish the semester, move, and settle the agreement with our industrial partner/host (a task handled by Nancy while I was still up in Pennsylvania College Town). If we’re all done by the 15th we will have made it just under the wire for most of what we’re growing. With luck, we’ll have a good harvest.

Right now I have to re-read the instructions on supplementing Dixie and sowing the cover crops, so I will have to wait until next time to tell you about the lovely soil and terrific siting of the Fertile Crescent, which I’m filling to the gills with good Virginia summer standbys: tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, melons, and okra, plus some herbs and summer greens. It’s one of the loveliest sites I’ve ever seen for a garden. And when I want a break, a short walk through an alley of pines brings me to a little knoll from which I can admire Rachel’s work in Iowa.

Pictures will come as soon as I’m able to deal with that. Soon.

Martha