Happy Spring! We have lots to celebrate at Growing to Give this week. Old friends returning to volunteer and new volunteers coming to help and join our community. We were so excited Saturday to welcome our first mother/son duo since covid caused so many restrictions last season. If you would like to bring along your child or grandchild to the farm this season we have updated our policy on our website.
A lot was accomplished these last two weeks with the change in weather. The warmer temperatures, snowmelt, and lack of rain are drying up the footpaths enabling us to move about the farm. We had volunteers participate in pruning elderberries with our elderberry expert, Abby Sewall. Several of us repaired one of our hoop house doors. We were able to place tarps over plots to kill off the cover crop, warming the soil, to get ready to do some spring planting. Volunteers planted thousands of seeds this week, and they planted an entire hoop house with spinach.
Our goal every year, of course, is to grow and donate more nutrient-dense food. This year, we also have a couple of other goals. One is to use less plastic and landscape fabric to suppress weeds. In our more established plots, volunteers are adding wood chips to the paths and we are planting mowable white clover in the wider paths In place of landscape fabric. Another goal this year is to continue to learn and implement low-till, no-till methods. This involves growing more cover crops, intercropping, multi-cropping, companion planting, trap plants, and another beneficial hedgerow. These methods should help us to grow healthier more productive plants and release less carbon into the atmosphere.
The highlight of my week was being able to see our friends (volunteers) coming back to the farm, with big smiles (under those masks!), tons of positive energy and determination. All this and having fun too!
As always, we thank our volunteers for making all this happen. I am so lucky to be part of it!
Hope you can get out and enjoy this Spring weather! Theda