Down on the Farm

According to the USDA, this part of Ohio is in Zone 5, which means that vegetable gardens should be planted in May, mid-month or later, after the danger of frost is passed.

I’m wondering if I can hold off my plants that long.

At the beginning of this month, I started seedlings—tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, onions, broccoli, and artichokes—in homemade paper pots. Despite my worrying and fussing over them, the seeds knew what they were supposed to do, which is germinate.

Everything came up except two plantings of peppers. Those seeds came from a well-meaning friend who didn’t know how to save them and handed them over moist and almost moldy late last fall. I dried them out before putting them away, but clearly something didn’t kick back in this spring.

Otherwise—holy moly!—I’ve got a forest of seedlings out in the family room. It’s too soon to be counting my August tomatoes, but the eggs have definitely hatched.

Over the last two weekends, with the considerable help of my husband, I have prepared the first of three vegetable beds in the back yard. Bed #1, which is for the seedlings, has been the top priority. Although used in the past as a garden, it was in sorry shape and the soil was heavily compacted. Starting a week ago last Saturday and finishing this one just past, we shoveled and spaded it, worked in a half cubic yard of compost by hand, let it rest, then worked in another half yard of compost. All of this was by hand: spade, shovel, and lots of back muscles. The bed is now soft and fluffy, which is a good thing as I have broccoli (which is able to go outside early) ready to graduate from the seed pot to the outside bed, not unlike a toddler making the leap from crib to a Big Bed.

The compost is purchased locally from Price Farms Organics, which bills itself as a “recycling facility for organics using composting technology.” (We like to keep as many of our dollars as we can in the local economy.) My compost of choice is Barnyard Café, which indeed smells like a barnyard (horse or cow, I'd say), mixed with coffee grounds. Very enchanting. It reminds me of my grandparents’ farm when I was little.

I loved watching the compost steam in the bed of the truck as we shoveled it out. My new entertainment when not at symphony events or watching my husband perform? Watching compost steam. With two more vegetable beds yet to come, spring should be a hoot.