The growing season in Central Massachusetts is absurdly short. The night temperatures were dropping into the 30’s (farenheit) until a week ago. The past few days have been perfect blue-sky days full of sunshine and warmth.
Which means we’ve been busy in the dirt.
Last year we devoted a few rows in our main garden area to straw bale gardening – in which you prepare the bales for planting with applications of fertilizer and water for about 10 days.
Last year’s results were a bit disappointing. Partly because we hadn’t done the best job in preparing the bales, partly because the drought stressed everything we planted. We’re trying it again this year, armed with more knowledge and experience.
The advantages of the straw bale method include having the plants higher up – easier for the farmer’s back, weed control, and better control of the growing environment, especially if the soil is less than optimal.
We also started planting our potatoes, corn, and winter squash. It always feels like a race against the coming winter, given how long these take to maturity.
It’s definitely a frenzy of planting right now, but once everything is in the ground and the watering is set up with their timers, the day to day work of weeding isn’t too onerous.
We’ve already been enjoying the fresh asparagus. I need to harvest the rhubarb (I’m planning on doing a country wine with rhubarb and some fruit I have left over from last year in the chest freezer). Soon we will have fresh peas and leafy greens.
Inch by inch, row by row.