Planting Bee #1 Succesful

Planting potatoes - one per square foot

We had five volunteers today for our Planting Bee #1. Two planting teams of two people;  each team planting from both sides of a row, and a planting-gofer to shuttle plants to the teams and direct them as to next steps.

We planted ten beds of potatoes, eight beds of corn, two beds of onions, and some eggplant. Our next tasks are to plant all the seeds: mangels, beets, carrots, sunflowers, pickling cucumbers and the rest of the eggplant.

Eggplant is somewhat of an anomaly in this group as it is not quite "historically accurate" regarding Riel House. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, grew and consumed this vegetable from his Monticello garden in the late 1700's. However, it was not popularized in North America as a vegetable to be consumed until the turn of the twentieth century. Also, in temperate climates such as Riel House, eggplant is typically started indoors eight to ten weeks prior to last frost and requires at least 80 days to mature before first frost. We have set ourselves a challenge.

After we were done, it was time to sit back and take pictures:

We're Ready to Plant!

Our two planting bees will occur on the next two Saturdays. Here are the layouts for the two vegetable gardens:

Kitchen Garden 2016
Produce Garden 2016

I am surprised by the effort necessary to get ready for this. Are the seeds heritage? Would the seeds be familiar to the Riel household of 1886? Are the heritage crops worth growing? Who will consume them? What goes in which bed? What are its companions? How will crop rotation work in subsequent years? 

Let the growing season begin!

Growing into Spring 2016

We have had a slow start to the growing year in spite of some very nice weather at the start of May.