Chomping at the Bit, is the feeling I get this time of year as I write about my angst wanting to get to the garden and into the greenhouse to start working the soil and laying out the watering system. My other term I was going to use was, “Jonesing”. I imaging both those expressions has a story behind them.
I’ve got most of my seeds in and I need to get some trays and soil and such. As soon as the snow has disappeared and I can get to my two year old pile of decayed organic matter, the first thing I will do is load the greenhouse with mounds of that black magic and lay out my growing beds. I usually do a double cropping system in there starting with greens and short season root crops like turnips then go to a rotation of peppers and tomatoes. The most I can do as far as rotation in there is to switch ends from one year to the next. I’m going to attempt to grow a cover crop in there first, then terminate that and start planting. Once the ground looses its snow I also want to get cracking on my pasture improvement projects.
In the book I’m reading for the second time, “Nourishment” by Fred Provence, he speaks of the diversity in the forages and how it effects the depth of nutrients and the flavoring profile. I’ve always been in tune to the pasture quality but I’ve got a few things in addition I would like to try this year.