Category Archives: sowing seeds

double-digging is worth the pain…

Remember when I was double-digging all the beds in the garden in 2010?  Aside from marrying D, that was probably the best decision I have ever made.  (I’d count E in there, too, but she was a gift, not a decision.)

Today I weeded, broadforked (for deep aeration), and used a regular garden fork over the top of one of the beds to prepare it for spring planting.  The broadfork is heavy so requires some full body effort, but the entire job was manageable in two hours — even on a 100 square foot bed.

bed ready to plant

I found few rocks, hundreds of worms, and great tilth.  After planting, I’ll put some top dressing on it, but this particular bed needs no ammendments this year.

hen in the garden

The only thing it really needs is for me to figure out how this particular hen keeps escaping her luxurious digs down by the creek.  Hens are *not* helpful in a just-planted garden.  Today I put her back over the fence four times.

seeding onions

I really enjoyed reading this blog post from Gathering Together Farm about seeding onions.  It’s fun to see behind the scenes at a farm and to see an electric seeder machine up close.

Now I would like to show you how Curious Farm seeds leeks:

Using our favorite tool — benign neglect — we allow some of our leeks to bolt and flower.  We say it’s for the bees.  Bees love onion and leek flowers.  Did you know that?

Then the flowers dry up and fall over, get rained on, and become papery skeletons of their former selves.

Then one day in winter, we go outside to put some dried leaves and other garden debris in the compost pile.  When we pick up the leek flower, we see the seedlings growing right there where the dead flower fell over — hundreds of them, just from one of last year’s forgotten flowers.

leek seedlings

In a few days, we will separate these hair-like leek seedlings and replant them in a new bed.  Many will survive and produce beautiful leeks.  Because this seed grew on its own from leeks that were happy in our soil, they’ll have an even better chance of growing well than other leek seedlings.

Curious Farm :  we take lazy gardening to new heights.

digging in

Hello!  Here’s how it begins…  We’re preparing the soil outside and setting up a website here so that we can keep track of our progress and stay in touch with you.

Think good thoughts for us.  Come summer, we hope to have plenty of garden goodness to share.