Spring is in the air!

Nothing like knowing that Spring has sprung, that we turn the tide now against the hard winter and smile in anticipation of the coming growth. It's intoxicating!

We have been very busy throughout most of the winter. And now that Spring is shifting from 1st, to 2nd and soon into 3rd gear, there is a sense of urgency to get everything going. Lots to do is an understatement.

Katie and I finally settled on a design for the beds on the inside of the dome greenhouse. Ergonomically and mathmatically, the number is 6: There will be 6 beds separated by 6 walkways. There will be ample space for hanging as well, which will be pretty cool (and delicious!). Eventually, we will have grape and hops that will be trained up archways that are partially suspended from the interior of the dome. Tres cool.


Another shot of the beds so far. I still have a good deal of mortar/plaster work to tend to. As I complete wall space, I will follow with raised beds and fill from our local horse stables.


These guys are being transplanted outside. This is everything (minus a few that already made it outside) that survived the winter. One of our experiments was to put these plants through a cold winter outside just to see who would make it. I may have explained this in a previous entry, but what I did was dig a big hole where the cold frame would go and fill it with horse manure and other compost-able material to supply warmth to the root zones of the plants in the cold frame in the dead of winter. The result? A lot of kale, spinach, chard and onions made it!


These are itching to get into new beds. Here we have a few lettuce varieties, cauliflower (not personally fond of it), tomatoes and some other things. These last few days we are looking at frost in the night time - and now that I have disassembled the cold frames, we will be bringing a good deal of these inside for the evening - at least for a few days until the sudden sub-freezing goes away again.


Downstairs, there are still 2 trays of herbs that are waiting to make their way into new, comfy raised beds in the dome. I am thinking that most of the herbs will do really well in the dome, where the warmth will be constant and high as we move into summer. Our strawberries will eventually have to be moved outside. Kale, spinach and chard as well.


Things are progressing nicely. Next up I will show you the new fruit and nut trees and the other goodies we are putting in as the time comes.