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MY SPRING PREP THIS PAST WEEK
1. I laid black plastic down on my raised beds to warm the dirt up more quickly. Sandy dirt is great in raised beds because it helps warm the temperature earlier, meaning you can plant before the last frost (if you use row covers) -- or that your plants will just grow faster with happier warm roots. Thank you to Katie who gave me the plastic she wasn't using anymore. <3
2. Picked up these ladder mesh things at Lowes to make some fast and cheap ($3/ea) row covers.
3. Cleaned out more cell inserts that I really should have cleaned last October before storing them in the garage, but I was really burned out. I'll plant more seeds in them this week - it's only 4-5 weeks until the last frost here in Winston-Salem, NC.
4. Ziptied the climbing roses to the fence, continuing to train them. My favorite instructional video for this is here. It's an art.
5. Put the wildlife cam back up to see where raccoons were coming in and digging around. It's gonna be a long journey with them this spring. Has anyone ever successfully used an ultrasonic repeller?
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YOUR TASKS FOR THIS WEEK
1. Train your climbing roses.
2. If you're ~4 weeks out from the last frost, carefully rake leaves off your garden beds. I recommend putting gloves on and doing this with your hands. You don't want to rip up any young plants starting to emerge. Leaves insulate the ground which is great for holding the late summer's warmth deep in the soil and protecting roots from harsh winter weather. But, once the spring sun is out, leaves can have the opposite effect: keeping the soil cool. Letting the sun hit the direct soil will warm it up more quickly.
3. If you're planning on building raised beds, draw out your plans and get supplies this week. Don't wait. Stores will be sold out of lumber very early this spring. I recommend letting lumber sit in the sun for a week prior to constructing so that it will dry out and not warp. It also recommend letting the dirt sit for 1-2 weeks before planting directly into it. This means you should get lumber about 3-4 weeks prior to planting.
4. If you had plans to lime your lawn or areas of your garden to help raise the PH levels and correct acidity, do that this week. Winter is the ideal time for application and the window of opportunity is closing fast.
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PLANT OF THE WEEK
Takane Ruby Buckwheat. Over the winter I learned about Brie Arthur's garden and "foodscaping" practices. I'd never thought about growing any type of grain before - outside of making a mental note to use rye and barley for winter cover crops that I could then use for manure/compost in the spring.
There are several grains that are beautiful - even the most plain resemble ornamental grasses that we often put in our landscaping. It occurred to me that I could plant a flowering grain that would look beautiful and improve my soil and bring pollinators in and look gorgeous as cut flowers in arrangements AND allow me to harvest in the fall to make high quality ground flour.
This particular buckwheat is a superfood from Japan and grows throughout the Himalayas. Bees that feed on it produce honey with 100x more antioxidants than others. They bloom within 30 days of being planted and I'm really looking forward to planting them in large blocks throughout my yard, rotating them over the coming years to improve my soil.
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Until next weekend -
Lauren xo
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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