Spring finally springs in mid coast Maine

I had every bit of the material involved with this greenhouse, lying around the place already.  That was cool, because that made it sort of like, free.  So I made the largest greenhouse I could with the materials I had.  We needed a "cold frame" in which to move the plants out to, from the heated greenhouse, both to make room for more baby plants coming, and to "hardened off" the outgoing plants;which is when you get them used to life outside, by putting them in a greenhouse or cold frame, with no heat, as an in between step.  I had an old one that had once been my heated greenhouse, that  I took down last fall, with the idea of putting this new one up, but didn't get to it.  Then the big heated greenhouse got full a couple weeks ago, and I had to toss this thing up all by myself.

Anyway, it was bigger than our cold frame needs, so we planted the first succession of head lettuce out into it as well.  I figure on seeding beans between them in a week or so, so that when the lettuce comes out, the beans will be in place, for super early beans.

There on the left is the cold frame.  At its far end is the heated green house.  Attached to that, is the never ending barn I am still building.  The orange roof is my house (still with no siding) , and the little blue roof in the distance is the workers' house.  Who remembers the old pink ford pick up there?  That used to be my market vehicle as well.  Now it isn't legal to leave the farm.

The first radishes and turnips and bok choi and so on, is under that row cover there.  The blue pipe along the road there, is out because I am already needing to irrigate!

Everyone is already asking me, when the this or that is coming along....  Look at this scene.  This is what most of the farm still looks like.  This is what early May in Maine looks like.  We're lucky the ground is dry.  It isn't even warm enough to plant potatoes!  Be patient!

That's the old Deere there.  1962 ! Can you believe it?  Still goin... won't say "strong"... but still goin!

This is the best lookin garlic I have grown, so far here.  It just exploded out of the ground.  Now we just have to keep it weed free, and well fed for another 2 months, and it should be some of the nicest garlic I've ever grown.  probably going to be about 1200 lb of it....

This is not the winter's snow still hanging on.  This is the row cover, that goes on pretty much everything this time of year.  It does a few things.  It traps and holds moisture, both retaining ground moisture, and creating a humid greenhouse like setting underneath... which is to say it also retains heat.  It also keeps bugs out, which as anyone who has ever tried to grow brassicas could tell you, is invaluable against flea beetles.

Under there we have chard, kales, collards, and artichokes.  In the high tunnel there, we planted the first round of summer squashes.

Again, here is what most the farm still looks like.  There is a tremendous amount of effort and time put into just getting the blank slate prepared.  It's not like we can stick broccoli in the ground on the first warm day.  It's got to be dry enough to plow, dry enough to pull a manure spreader around, then make several passes with the disc harrow to mix everything and even the ground... kill any residual weeds that lived the winter.  Then you must wait until the weather allows  for each crop.

One wonderful thing about this time of year... is how clean everything is.  Despite the lack of bounty, midsummer can tend to be envious of this time of year... back when things were so fresh and clean and orderly.... no weeds.....