Spring Planting

It's year four for our experiments in backyard farming, and my husband Jim and I are finally beginning to feel as if we can pull off the feat of growing out own food in a way that's not completely chaotic. For instance, we now know that we need to begin weeding the fields where onions, garlic, leeks, and shallots are planted as soon as we glimpse even a micro-weed because if we wait, those micro-weeds will morph into multiple weeds, grow tall, and choke out the real food that we wish to grow.

We also have attained a certain level of predictability in our understanding of when to expect certain vegetables, fruits, and herbs to be ripe for picking. This week, for instance, is "asparagus" week. We started our asparagus bed in 2012 by purchasing a set of what are called crowns. We placed these crowns into the ground, and whooped with delight last spring as we started to see small asparagus tips poking their way out of the soil. From May 2 through May 7, we savored the taste of sweet, freshly-picked baby asparagus shoots before the young shoots started to feather out, a sign that seeds were starting to sprout. We let the garden go and, well, unfortunately, the weed growth completely outpaced us. Still, this year, we have some slightly larger but still fresh and tender shoots climbing out of the ground. We ate asparagus on Saturday night, Monday night, and hope to do so at least three or four more times in the next couple of weeks before the shoots feather out.

The baby bok choy and tatsoi also have made a marvelous rebound after being transplanted on a beguilingly hot April afternoon a little too soon for their comfort. They didn't grow at all for about two weeks so I harvested several baby leaves from each of the transplants, figuring that if I did so, I would either encourage the plant to grow newer, bigger leaves and thrive or kill it off altogether. If the latter occurred, I reasoned, we should enjoy these tender greens while we could. We savored the sweet spring flavor and to my delight the plants rebounded.

Another lesson learned lies in the small pots of cilantro and arugula. I put some herb seedlings in the ground in 2011 shortly after we moved into our house, only to see the rampage of grass that used to grow wildly over all of the land's spent soil completely engulf the bewildered starts. In 2012, we decided to keep the herbs in large containers. That worked until we forgot to water the potted plants twice a day, and slowly they withered. We thought we had rectified the issue in 2013 by moving the potted herbs into the lawn near some of our other gardens, where they'd be sure to receive regular waterings. But then we forgot where we put the herbs, and when night fell and I was in a rush to cook, I didn't have the time and energy to search the lawn looking for these mystically savory enhancements. This year, Jim planted the herbs in smaller pots, and to my delight they have blossomed out beautifully. I am keeping them on the deck and making sure to eat from them regularly.

One of our favorite routines together is our garden walks. It is ideal if I can do the walk twice a day, but my work schedule often dictates that the garden walk occurs primarily in the evening, against a setting sun. Tonight I started with the asparagus patch. This was followed by a glimpse at the strawberry plants we started last spring, the just-beginning-to-sprout peas, and the luscious selection of leaves from the baby bok choy and tatsoi. From there, we walked over to two massive fields that appear empty at first glance but in reality are filled with potatoes planted yesterday and field corn planted today. The latter is our great 2014 experiment: we'd like to see if we can produce cornmeal and popcorn. The field corn when it springs forth will tower next to the garlic field that we began in November and, on schedule, is sporting about a dozen twenty-foot rows of languid green shoots, shoots that will grow taller and tougher as the pleasant breezes of spring give way to the heat of summer. Next to the garlic are rows of onions, leeks, and shallots along with rows of thickly sowed radishes, carrots, turnips, and more peas on the side.

We walked through an area that we're calling Our Mother's Garden to check out the new blueberry bushes, blackberry vines and raspberry canes we planted a week ago before making our final trek was to the garden that resides just south of our barn. It is filled with gradually growing brussels sprouts, fast-sprouting cabbage and a series of collards, kale, beets, spinach and celery seeds that have yet to make an appearance as plants.

Still to come are tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squashes, beans and more and more peas and greens.