And so the hard work begins! Time to rip pallets to build our beds.

Wouldn't have been able to do it without my new old truck. It's only a year younger than I am, so we understand each other pretty well. I've got big plans for this baby involving a seafoam green paint job, a neon pink shag interior reupholstering and some sweet wooden slat bed retaining walls. :-D

 

Mmmm, worms! Thousands and thousands of happy, healthy, wiggly worms.

Well then! Time to fill these raised beds with some dirt! 

We decided to first lay down a six inch layer of organic material; waste hay, fresh manure and a thin layer of compost to inoculate it full of worms and microbes. This layer of material will decompose and in the process release heat which will warm the soil around the roots of our plants, and hopefully radiate some of this heat into the hoop houses. Warming up the garden beds allows us to get a head start on growing things.

On top of this layer of organic material, we're putting another 6 inches of home mixed growing medium; a mixture of compost, coco peat, home mixed organic fertilizer, and occasionally some fill dirt. This is one of my favorite tasks so far. Steve calls me a hippy for it, but I'm comfortable with my healthy appreciation of dirt.

The first step is to rehydrate the coco bricks. They come in dehydrated blocks that expand to several times their size. It takes about eight gallons of water and some elbow grease to break them up and turn them into light fluffy wheel barrels full of coco peat.

Soft, fluffy coco peat is a beautiful red color. Coco peat, or coir, is the ground up husk of coconuts. It's produced mainly in India and Sri Lanka.

Although not a local material, it is a more sustainable choice than peat moss, which is mined from hundred year old bogs that are a non-renewable resource. Luckily, coconuts grow on trees! 

 

We've been fortunate enough to be given access to a beautiful pile of 15 month old organic compost. Black gold teeming with worms! Thank you Easter, Codi and Shina!

    

To mix the soil, we dump it all on a flat surface, add about a gallon of perilite and stir it with pitchforks and shovels until it's all mixed together. The final product is a beautiful, airy growing medium, full of worms, beneficial microbes, bacteria and more! Doesn't that sound great! :-P

 

 

We accidentally dug up this little vole out of the compost pile. Luckily he survived the ordeal without getting hurt. On the downside, he had to set up a new residence in the big tree stump outside our garage. Good luck little vole!

 

 Dear Living Room, 

You have been my faithful home throughout the winter. 
You warmed my backside by your wood stove through those long cold nights. You held me in your big red couch cushions, even when I gained a few pounds from lack of exercise. You encouraged me as I plotted and schemed for the future. Thank you. 

But it is time for us to part ways. 

You see, I've found someone new. Outdoors. He caresses my skin with warm sunshine, and his grassy ground is like soft shag carpet between my toes. 

 Maybe I'll be back in 10 months. In the meantime, let me move all your furniture around, and I hope you don't mind if I keep my seed starting table here while I'm gone. 

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The first seedlings emerge!