Happy news on the Farmers Market front, I am prepping for the spring markets and I have some of my spring bulbs already reserved for an early spring wedding!  Now all that has to happen is for the weather to cooperate and we have an early spring.  With a wedding date scheduled for early April, my bulbs are now on a timeline.  But this one event will more than cover my initial investment IF they come up in time.  I am going to create a mini on-site greenhouse over the bulbs if they don’t pop out by mid-March.  Am I out of my mind?  No,  I am just doing what all homesteaders and farmers do, trust the Good Lord for weather and/or clever and witty inventions.

One thing that made the planting easier was good equipment and great help.  My young farmer friend, Laura, found out I was going to try to plant all of the 600 bulbs on my own so she got her friend, David and her mother, my friend, Phyllis to help.  She loves to climb trees so she had to scale the massive Hawthorne tree in our front yard before work started.

David, a local farmer operated the small tractor we borrowed from another neighbor, Jerry making this an entire region effort.  I am so grateful for good friends whose only pay was a good dinner afterwards at the local Country Kitchen. 

Jim blessed me by giving me the prime spot in the front of the house for the flower project.  It’s well drained with at least 8 hours of sunlight.  I was delighted that he would allow me to have a strip of garden in the front of our house as we both want to keep all the clutter to the back of our property.

The tiller behind the tractor made much quicker work of tilling than even our good Troy-bilt Horse.  David worked up two sections since he was here and now not only do I have a wonderful bed for cut flowers, I also have a section ready for planting the asparagus beds.  I am thrilled.   

We attempted a layout of the bulbs to see how much of a bed would be needed for 600 bulbs.  I laid it out correctly based on how much space all the books say is required but when we broke ground, it was so rich and had just the right tilt that I opted to plant them heavier, hiding the tulips in the midst of the other bulbs less favored by the moles and voles. 

The bed was tilled and the dirt removed to make for ease of planting the bulbs.  This soil has not been worked for at least 50 to 70 years.  I’ll continue this adventure in the next post.   I hope you are thinking about maybe joining me at a local Farmers Market this year, Buchheit has all the items we need to do the job right, except the tractor of course! Be blessed.  Anne May