Diggin In The Dirt

The weather is warming up. That means more time outside to play, garden and enjoy nature. Go out there and soak in the sun, breath in the fresh air and dig in the dirt. Many of you have your own kitchen garden and now is the time to get the soil ready and plant seeds.

COMPOST: Arrived on schedule on Tuesday. See Eric on top of our new mountain.

That’s a lot of compost, about 40 yards or 28 tons. We purchased it from Jepson Prairie Organics, <www.jepsonprairieorganics.com> out of Vacaville. We bought the Four Course®Compost, aged 3 years and is certified organic. It looks really nice and we are excited to have it. Now that it’s here, we will hill the potatoes and cover the asparagus. Many of you have asked us where to get compost. Check your local nursery, where you can purchase smaller amounts. We go to Front Yard Nursery <www.frontyardnursery.com> in Placerville on Mother Lode Drive.

POTATOES: Eric is so excited, as I’ve mentioned before, about the potatoe plants. I thought I should include a pic, so you can get excited too. We have 5 variety of potatoes: Red LaSalle, All Blue, Yukon Gold, Russet and Yellow Fin. Did you know the United Nations declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato? Their aim is to raise global awareness of the potato’s key role in agriculture, the economy and world food security. <www.potato2008.org>

EARWIG BAIT: We actually buy dark beer for the earwigs, although I think this case is going more to human consumption….he, he!! But really, last year we had so much earwig damage, we had to find an answer. Dark beer and dark soy sauce seems to be what they like. We host a pool party for the earwigs by laying out recycled Altoid boxes and fill them with beer. We did have some success last year, so we will try again this year. Right now, we have pools of beer and soy sauce in the carrot and beet rows.

 

En Primavera Ya

Every season the beds need some repair, so we spent a great deal of time on the carrot and beet beds. Below is a pic of Eric adjusting the water lines on the updated carrot bed. You can just see his new water system at the bottom of the pic. These will be installed at the end of each bed, allowing us to turn the water on and off to each bed, depending on the plants watering needs. It will be buried, but right now, they are kind of hanging out in space. We also put a row cover over this bed, to warm up the air and ground, creating a mini-greenhouse, to encourage the carrots to sprout and deter the birds. This weekend we will set out the “beer” traps for the earwigs. Lucky earwigs! There are three varieties of carrots in this row. The beet row is almost finished and it will have 4 varieties, one being the “Mystery Beet” because I put seeds in a baggy and didn’t label them. I’m hoping they are the Detroit Golden, as I can’t find them. Another new beet I’m excited about is the Forono, a cylindrical, deep purple beet. Yeah, I know, I get excited about veggies. What can I say.

This year, the asparagus is four years old. We bought them when they were one year old crowns. They have been in our beds for 3 years. I guess we were a little premature in expecting a full crop. Although we have been enjoying them, there isn’t enough to share with all of our paid subscribers. As you can see by the attached pics, we need to do some weeding in the beds. Any volunteers?

That’s it for this week! Enjoy this spring weather!

La tierra negra se vuelve verde
Y las montanas y el desierto
Un bello jardin
Primavera – Santana