Time to celebrate—the first tiny leaves of spinach, Persian cress, and vitamin green are up in the garden bed!  Spinach seeds have tough outer shells and are slow to germinate in these cool spring days—they took 9 days to appear.  Persian cress is a small-leaved salad green with a tangy, mustardy flavor and vitamin green is an Asian-type green in the brassica family.  Both are fast growing, and sprouted in 6 days.  I will plant several more short rows (12” long) in 2 weeks or so, to have a continuous harvest.   

Gray skies, looks like a good time to make another batch of charcoal.  We use trimmings from lilacs and fruit trees that have dried for a year and burn them in a metal barrel with the lid on.  The idea for adding biochar, or charcoal, to garden soils comes from the Amazon where dark, rich, fertile soils were improved 2,000 years ago and are still rich in nutrients.  The charcoal increases the activity of soil fungi which makes soil nutrients (iron, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.) more available to plants improving their yields and quality. 

We got a jump start on Spring!

Stop in today for SALAD GREENS, HERBS, and ORGANIC MONTANA CERTIFIED SEED POTATOES.

We also have 4-packs of broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and much more!

Raspberries and strawberries can be planted NOW!  They don’t mind “our crazy” spring weather. 

Soil tests are done for the 7 raised beds in the vegetable garden.  Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) are both sufficient.  But Nitrogen (N) levels are low.  So I’ll be mixing dried bloodmeal, a nitrogen source, with compost that was made last summer, and charcoal.  Since making our own compost and charcoal that last 8 years or so, the soil has transformed from gooey clay into dark friable stuff I can loosen with my fingers.  And it has that luscious, greenhouse-y smell.