Seeding & Weeding. April Week 4.

Root Bottom Farm is staying busy: seeding and weeding. We planted 65 raspberries to replace the ones that died in the initial 2013 planting. The strawberries are going strong and the first sign of fruit has appeared. The starts in the greenhouse are almost ready to transplant in the fields. The microgreens are looking good and we are excited to start delivering to restaurants for the 2014 season. This Saturday is our first Madison County Farmers & Artisun Market in Mars Hill from 9-1.

On the flower side of things: The second wave of tulips and daffodils are in full bloom. I finished reclaiming all the existing beds, mulched the red hot pokers around the house and filled in missing dirt and leveled the beds. Kathleen seeded all the annual flowers (300 plants total). We still have 13 varieties of sunflowers to direct seed in the fields and all of the perennials to seed in trays. This week, I will measure and graph out all of the new perennial beds and finish designing. Over the next few weeks, I will build and design 4 large perennial flower gardens and fill in holes in the existing 10 beds.

In other news, we have had a random chicken find her way to the farm. She was badly injured and is currently being pushed around the property in her own personal chicken tractor. We named her “Yuns”. We went out of town for the weekend and were so excited to be able to leave the farm in Kathleen's hands. She opened and closed the farm, took care of the watering and seeded microgreens. She even weeded the rest of the asparagus! When we left the farm, the asparagus was barely ankle high...and now it's mid-thigh high! Magic.

 Planting raspberries.

 Kathleen prepping the raspberry area.

 All the holes are now filled in from what we lost last year.

 Farmer Decker checking out the little ones.

 The first seedlings are about ready to be replanted.

 Microgreens are right on track.

 Currently blooming.

  

Annual flowers are seeded.

 Thigh-high asparagus.

 Before (post weeding) and After

 After the stones, I filled in dirt and leveled the beds.

 Dandelion invasion.

 Early morning light and weeded garlic.

 Kathleen and some tiny unwanted guests.

 

 Pathway to one of my favorite (and deepest) spots on our creek.

Reclaim. Reorganize. Grow. April Week 3

Welcome to the farm, Kathleen :) The first week as an intern included helping to weed the garlic by hand (about 3 days), start the microgreen operation (ready to eat at our first farmer's markets coming up in May), make dandelion wine, seed tomatoes, basil and cucumbers and prep for winter squash, summer squash, cut flowers and a second wave of peppers and eggplant. Morgan also direct seeded spinach, peas, and more lettuce. At the beginning of the week, we saw two hard frost days and we had to cover and protect the strawberries.

On the flower side of things, old beds are being reclaimed, reimagined and redesigned. The perennial herb garden was remapped and re-planned to fill in holes and start new plants.

Property projects include repairing two driveways with gravel, building four parking spots along the road for guests and building a new driveway for the intern house. A total of 10 tons of gravel was shoveled, spread and poured on this property this week. Also, we are beginning the process of doubling our storage and counter top space in the kitchen after a crucial thrift find.

 14 Cups = 2 Gallons Dandelion wine (in 3 months)

 

 

 Spring Farm

 New wildflowers beds in the original compost pile. Liquid gold soil.

 

Creek rock and reclaiming old beds in front of the cabin. 

Filled in the low spots in front of the porch steps that can stay wet with gravel.

 Red hot poker bed that came with the property. Six beds done, four more to go.

 

Junk on the left. Discovering holes to be filled in with new life.

 New parking spots along the road.

 

Soon to be our new kitchen. Thanks Habitat for Humanity. 

A little sandpaper and paint, our kitchen doubles in size.

Found these old classics cleaning under the porch.

We went for a hike behind the farm on Sunday and found wild onions, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. Can't wait to get back up there this Summer.

First plantings and Spring weeding. April Week 2

    This week: Morgan started tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, collards, kale, chard and lettuce in the greenhouse. He direct seeded scallions, carrots, beets, lettuce, arugula, Asian greens, spinach and kale in the field. We transplanted onions in the field. We potted up gooseberries, jostaberries, black currants, forstythia bushes, butterfly bushes, lilies, lily of the valley and a few early flowers that will be established in various places around the farm. I weeded the herb garden, strawberries, blueberries, 1/2 the garlic crop and the established flower beds. And we got the mower running so I could start the cycle of mowing for 2 1/2 hours a week. In a few days, the microgreen side of the farm will be in production. As Morgan says, "You know, just doing a bunch of nothing."

 

Office view. Berries and garlic in the background.

  

Weeding the herb garden.

   

Currently blooming.

 

 Found this little island while weeding.

 

 Morgan's first cast of the year!

 

Planting berry bushes until their site is ready.

 

First asparagus is showing up!

 

 This is our guest house swing. This is not our rooster.

 Onions.

 

 Direct seeding in the lower field.

 1/2 the garlic is weeded.

 I found this little nest today. There was ALOT of gray hair in it. Haha.

Spring is here. Fields are tilled. Life is good.

The annual veggie and flower field. 

To the right of the frame is the garlic crop, blackberries and raspberries.

Perennial strawberries, blackberries and asparagus. The new tilled area (melons last year) will be spring greens, carrots and beets. In the back of the field there is a new rectangle plot that we will plant for the first time this year.

 Greenhouse Before and After.
This year we will build another greenhouse, the same size, just for tomatoes.