May 29 and 30: Sustainable Ag and Green Education (SAGE)

We had a wonderful blessing ceremony and ribbon cutting for the new SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture and Green Education) project.  Farmer Amy has great dreams and visions for the future of SAGE and all the energy and determination to make it happen.  I am really thrilled about this venture and so hope it will be successful and grow and grow and grow!  

I planted some sages, strawberries, and marigolds in the flower box that Amy had built along the edge of the new sage barn, trying to make it look cool for the opening night.  Amy gave a wonderful speech about her visions for SAGE and Chris led a blessing.  Then Dave spoke a little and invited Amy to cut the ribbon I'd tied all the way around the building.  The SAGE barn has 2 animal pens, currently in use for turkeys and geese, plus a classroom which will begin being used for school classes in he fall.  The little roof in the photo of Amy with the microphone below, is the new rolling chicken house, built on an old hayrack, so it can be moved around the field where the chickens can run around on the ground in a chicken wire  shaded enclosure, and then go back up into their roost at night.

The day before, a dozen or so volunteers had helped Amy plant the new 1 acre trial SAGE field of crops:  wheat and oats for SAGE animal feed, and potatoes, onions, corn, and other veggies for the Center kitchen, or for a Farm to Table dinner this fall, or, in the case of the 2500 onion sets, perhaps to sell at the pumpkin stand this fall. 

Late May---Garden all planted!

The last two weeks of May have been a busy planting time.   First getting all the beds raked and the paths defined.

A Selfie in the garden!

Then, bed by bed, digging in a little old manure and raking smooth again, and then planting.  But I kept telling myself, seeds that aren't in the ground can't grow, so keep at it!  There are still flowers to be planted around the edges, and the difficult job of weeding has already begun!

Red beets, celery, and chard---transplanted from seedlings started indoors in March.  Seem awfully little and fragile!

Tomato seedlings, also from the indoor march planting, look unhappy in their new beds, growing in holes cut in the landscape fabric laid down to discourage weeds.  These are the worst fields weedwise, as they've been in perennial strawberries for the past years, so I know thre are plenty of weed seeds and probably little pieces of grass rootlets just waiting to grow!

The perennial herbs are up and flourishing:  chives, sorrel, lovage, tarragon, oregano, thyme, plus a little bergamot, lavender (most of it succumbed to the winter this year!), and licorice mint.   I've tried to remove all the lemon balm, but I have no doubt some escaped my attention!  And the self-seeding dill and borage are coming up.

The raspberry patch looks great!

Mid-May: Eagle scouts!

May 17 was a big day in the garden.  Des Athy directed his scout troup in the construction of a new  walkway on the eastern edge of the garden and built 3 beautiful new bins for compost and manure and woodchips.

Des is in the gray hooded sweatshirt, holdiong the post, with a big smile!  

Thanks, Des!  What a super gift to the garden!

Laura and Violet came to cheer Des on.  Violet loved getting dirty!

The scouts also helped move the cold frame...temperatures are getting too warm for it!  The lettuce got a great start, and one spinach plant from last fall made it through such a  rough winter!  

Early May---Rototilling, snakes, strawberry flowers, peas, and lettuce!

Pat Feeney volunteered to bring his Mantis tiller and rototilled the whole veggie garden except the perennial herb and asparagus beds and the two beds where I'd already planted garlic int he fall and onions last month.  I've always dug all the beds by hand.  This seems like a really good way to get the soil looser, although I've also read that tilling destroys the earthworm burrows.  So it's a grand experiment and we'll see how it works!  It was so sweet of him.  Not an easy job even with a tiller!  

Yikes!  The first snake I've ever seen in the garden...on the weed pile!

Strawberry flowers already!

The peas and lettuce are up, along with a million calendula plants that self-seeded themselves last fall.

(I'm writing this about early May in mid-June;  once again I've prioritized working in the garden over writing about it!  But hope to get caught up soon.)