May Garden Update

With Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Loudoun Compost, and A.M Leonard all on speed dial, May has catapulted itself into the busiest month on record at Willow Greens Farm.  To be honest, I never thought I would keep up with all the beds to be made (10), all the compost to be moved (16 yards) and all the plants to germinate.  But barring any disasters, we actually seem to be right on schedule.

The Raised Beds

We worked from a projected last frost date of April 30, and this turned out to be accurate within a day.  The deeper beds are now filled with peas, parsnips, shallots, carrots and the first batch of leeks.  Given the infertility of our soil we’ve opted to fill each bed with 100% compost—which we hope will be a good growth medium—but it does not hold water as long as we would like.  This means that we need to stick to a pretty aggressive watering schedule.

The Flower Beds

These very utilitarian raised beds from Northern Tool will hold most of our flowers.  This year we are keeping it fairly simple with Dahlias from seed (providing corms in the Autumn), Black-Eyed Susans (grown from Classic Groundcovers’ pint pots), Verbena Boneriensis, Zinnias, and Sweet Peas grown on these rustic wigwams.  Placed by the gate, we hope the fragrance will greet us every morning.

The Climbing Beds

These two supported beds will be the spot for our Pole Beans and Birdhouse Gourds.  Underplanted with herbs, we hope these leftover bits of fencing will support a big harvest.

The Squash and Melons Bed

These are the only traditional planting beds in the whole scheme.  We’ve been warned there are some nasty beetles that feast on this crop, so we are researching ways to use netting or organic means to keep them at bay.  While I’m quite interested in the “no-dig” approach, I did break up the soil to a depth of about 3” and add compost.  As we move forward I’m hoping to add about 1” of compost each year and let the worms do the rest.  We are bookending each bed with a stand of Sunflowers.

The Greenhouse

I can’t say enough about how satisfied we are with this arrangement.  We decided that March 20 was the date from which we would heat the space and our fairly ineffective little heater kept pace with a few 20 F degree nights.  It still holds many trays of flowers and veg to be planted out, but it will soon be the permanent home to half of our tomatoes and chili peppers.

As if this weren’t enough, we are still busy overseeing several other projects: the completion of the Arrival Court, the renovation of the upstairs bathroom, and the much-needed replacement of the dilapidated fence in the White Garden.  But alas, these stories must wait for another day.