Greens in the Cold Frame

Smaller weeding chores in the cold frame!

below: Michelle showing me the different plants - or, what to NOT weed.
Right now, the cold frame consists of:

LETTUCE:

PARSLEY:

KALE:
CLOVER:
and LAMBSQUARTERS (see below)

Lambsquarters

Apparently most people consider lambsquarters (a cousin of spinach) a weed - which it kind of is, but can also be a magical ingredient in the kitchen. It's also a wild herb, which means more nutrition! There are lambsquarters all over the garden, so I'm having to pull up most of them because they overcrowd other, more desirable plants. But Michelle, in her raw food innovations, has found a perfect and delicious way to utilize this plant: in a smoothie. So she has set aside a section in the cold frame, with the other greens, for the lambsquarters to flourish as they may, without being considered a weed.

Here is a not-so-great picture of some of the taller lambsquarters:

And every morning thus far, I am sent to retrieve a handful (or a couple of handfuls - depending on how many guests are staying at the B&B) of the plant for the green smoothie.

Also in the smoothie: variations of kale, spinach, mint, parsley, romaine, watermelon, pineapple, papaya, banana, and whatever other kind of fruits and greens you can find in your kitchen. This has bee pollen (from the beekeeper down the road) sprinkled on top for good health - apparently it's miraculous for allergies.

Bean Trellis

Another picture of weeding progress (with me in the picture this time to prove that I am, in fact, doing all of this work!):

One must be creative when managing a garden on a small budget. This place is infested with creative people, evident in this old swing set that has been reincarnated into a makeshift trellis. Last year's beans apparently didn't know the difference between a thrifty, improvised trellis and a store-bought one, as they attached themselves to the rope like a charm. Michelle planted the new fava beans about a month ago in a new spot, so after I dug up all of those weeds, we transported the swing set trellis down the row a bit to reside over the baby fava beans that will hopefully cling onto it.

And here is a close-up of the fava beans in all their glory:

Progress on the New Bed

Michelle's husband, Mike, actually built this bed last year, but nothing was planted in it, so along with the heavy weeding, it needed a little more attention than the others. Here's a before & after:

This picture was taken right after I finished uprooting the weeds, but unbeknownst to me, more work still had to be done before the bed was ready for planting. I actually accomplished this relatively quickly and was proud to show Michelle my progress when she came out that afternoon, only for her to tell me "oh, did I not tell you to sift through the soil and put all the rocks into a pile?" Well, no.

So that was another hour or two of work, stomping the big fork deep into the ground, upturning the soil, locating the rocks (which are plentiful in the Catskills), throwing them into a pile, and discovering that I really didn't pull all of the weeds up from their roots. Still lots of roots remained, so I spent the rest of the late afternoon getting all of them out and aerating the soil so that the darker, richer, wetter soil underneath could mix with the dry, rocky topsoil.

While doing this, I discovered a layer of wet hay about 6 inches deep and didn't know what the point of this was. I later found out it was a part of the compost, and that I should leave it there. I didn't inquire more, but perhaps it's also a weed management technique - kind of like mulching, but....underground? I'm not sure. Need to investigate this.

Well voila! A bed prepared. Time to plant!

So. Many. Weeds.

I've spent the first 5 days here digging up the giant, 4-foot weeds that in the past two months have established residency in the garden. Their roots are so deep in the soil and so tangled with other roots that my arm muscles are now the size of a body builder. But not to worry - there is still lots to learn about horticulture even in the midst of monotonous manual labor!

One thing learned: I've had to be careful not to pull up some last years plants that have survived and are beginning to sprout in the forest of weeds. Which means I need to be able to identify the plants in their early stages. Which, by the way, is tricky - because the fava bean, sugar snap pea, calendula, and sunflower youngins (just to name a few) look exceptionally different than the matured ones.

I accidentally uprooted a few of the heirloom radishes yesterday, because they weren't distinctly marked and to my inexperienced plant identification skills, they resembled a weed. But it was only a couple, and the chickens had actually gotten to them first, which sort of got me off the hook, although I did feel extremely guilty. I'm being more careful now, though. I'm learning!

Here are before and after pictures of my weeding progress: (they're from different angles, but you can orient yourself via the cold frame.

Turquoise Barn

Today is my third day at Turquoise Barn, a bed&breakfast/art studio/organic garden/hostel/wonderful 3-person family in the New York Catskills. I'll be here for about three weeks working primarily in the garden, but also doing other odd jobs in the store (that sells jewelry, vintage clothes, candles, soaps, coffee, etc) AAAAND growing and eating and learning about the marvelous benefits of raw food via Michelle, a renowned "raw foodist."

Michelle runs everything mentioned above, which is a full time, high-stress job, so the organic garden has not received the attention it deserves in the past few months. This is good for me, as there is plenty of work to do, and I'll get to see all the work that goes into building it up.

I know it's scary....but it's really not as bad as it looks. There are LOTS of weeds, but look at it - it's huge! (this is only half of it). And the beds are already built up and the rows are nice and .... well, weed infested. So much potential! So much work!