No, not that white stuff, this white stuff. The milkweed pods were bursting open Friday sending their airborne seeds all over the farm. It looked a little bit like that other white piece of nature, but the 60 degree temperatures would not allow even the thought of a snowflake. One of the requirements of being a Monarch Way Station is abundant milkweed. We’ve got that covered!
We’ve been cleaning up flower beds and topping with a layer of chopped leaves and a bit of compost to hold them in place. I purposely asked for a bagger attachment for our electric mower so we can generate some of our own mulch. Straw is getting really expensive, so if we can, we stretch it by using chopped leaves. It was another warm, beautiful day to work outside, so we dug up some sunchokes and mulched the beds. Thanks, Wednesday volunteers, for helping dig the sunchokes and “winterize” our 5 triangle flower beds. These sunchokes are a bit hard to clean, but well worth the effort. Roasting seems to be the preferred way to prepare them, bringing out the sweetness in these tubers. These are native to the Americas and are in the sunflower family. If you decide you may want to add some of these vegetables to your own garden, be careful where you plant them. They are VERY prolific and hard to eradicate if desired. Otherwise, enjoy!
Our neighbor, Burnham, walked over several times this week to help us prepare for the moving of the Rimol greenhouse, which was scheduled to happen on Friday. Thank you, Burnham, for taking the lead on this and getting the word out to the Fix-It Team. I assured everyone it wouldn’t be that hard, and then I left! I had a date with a 4th grader that way surpassed me standing around trying to look helpful. So Carrie, the fixers, and John Newlin–plus the Friday volunteers who paused their work mulching the driveway gardens to come help push (watch a video of the action here!)–got the job done and by the time I got back everyone was gone, and the Rimol stood in its new location. Impressive. Thanks, Cathy, for setting up the coffee break station.
Saturdays are always busy, and we accomplish so much since we usually have so many energetic volunteers. This week the dahlias got dug up and stored on a tarp to dry. Wood chips were added to the paths, the garlic plot was prepped for next week’s scheduled planting, and then the Hebron Academy students arrived. This was such a fun group of young people–exchange students from Mexico and Belarus. Some had never been on a farm before. They were excited to be shown around as I explained who we are and what we do. They loved tasting the baby carrots pulled right out of the ground, and they asked thoughtful questions about the foods they were tasting. Then they jumped in and helped frame some plots with wood chips, worked on more mulching and laughed and joked with each other as they worked. (I’m assuming they were joking because it was all in Spanish.🙂) What a joy to have them visit us and a great way to end the week.
I mention wood chips in probably every farm report. James and Amy Fagan are responsible for us receiving this almost endless supply of chips. These chips enabled us to almost eliminate the use of plastic border strips around our plots and walkways. They keep us out of the mud in the spring, and I think add a natural symmetry around the farm. James is an arborist, and Amy is a long time volunteer and friend of G2G. Thanks to both of you for all your support, and Amy, thanks for allowing me to take your photo. Amy is a good sport when I don’t get the photo I want, and then I say “pretend you are working!” The following are good examples of my photo journalism methods.
This time of year we get to admire the plants that have been there all along, but were overshadowed by something bigger or brighter. Carrie is admiring this alyssum that has been there at the end of this bed, attracting hoverflies, smelling sweet, and just now really being the star attraction.
Everyone keeps asking me when we will be finished. I thought it would be by the end of this month. Now I am thinking mid-November? We still have veggies to be harvested, tunnels to secure, a few more chips to spread, and …? I really think no one’s ready to say good-bye for a few months. Of course, that is because the weather has been so warm and welcoming it’s been so fun to be outside working. Just wait until our hands are freezing, and we can’t feel our feet! Then we will hug each other and say “see you in the Spring.” For now, we’ll take it one warm fall day at a time.
It was a great week. Thanks to all of you who joined us.
Gratefully,
Theda