Prepping the Spring Garden Beds

You thought your job was crappy....

Part of homesteading for me has been simply returning to natural rhythms. The farm revolves around the seasons, not arbitrary dates on the calendar. I put down grass seed after a rain, not on a certain day. There's a lot of work, there's always 10 projects that I'd like to have done, but the beauty of the farm is things can also wait. 

On Veteran's Day I had to work in the morning, but took the afternoon to go pick-up a load of compost. The joy of finally finding a compost supplier is beyond words! Compost, loads of really high quality compost, are what have really been missing the last two years in the garden. Due to the recent rains, I only brought home about half of what I could have, I didn't want to get stuck! A full trailer will grace the trees next February, if not sooner.

Saturday we spent down in Waco watching the Baylor Women's Volleyball team dominate West Virginia, followed by dinner with some great friends at Catfish Plantation over in Waxahachie. It was amazing, if you ever get close, you have to eat there. Split a cajun plate with someone you love.

This also meant that the compost didn't get touched. Strangely enough it was still waiting for me.

Sunday morning I finished cleaning out the grass clippings that I'd used as deep litter bedding in the chicken coops. I put it on top of cardboard (the theory being that it'll help kill the grass underneath, yet break down by next spring). I spent the rest of Sunday, with the trusty scoop shovel pictured above, putting down about six inches of horse manure on top of the 3 inches or so of chicken manure composted with grass clippings and nitrogen rich feathers. 

We're going to double the size of the garden space for next year, and I'm hoping that the addition of the compost will help increase our yields. I'm also really excited for the asparagus beds. Next year marks the third year they've been in, and will also mark our first harvest.

It was well after dark before I finished, but I'm sure I'll post the final product along with my vermiculture experiment soon.