Claire Thomas (Root Connection Farm) told me today that she covers her newly seeded flats with row cover to keep the rodents away. It appears the rodents can’t get up onto the metal tables, so those flats are safe, but we need to use the wooden racks to fit in all the flats. This week and next are the two biggest weeks for transplant starting. We are trying Claire’s method of baffling the rodents with row cover.  Another idea is to locate some cats to live on the farm. Maybe next year.

The watermelons were essentially completely wiped out by the rodent attack, but the winter squash were less affected. I took an inventory of the winter squash to see how many of each variety we needed to restart. On Thursday, the some of the first planting of winter squash started sprouting. This week John is restarting all the watermelons and enough of each winter squash to bring us back to the original planned numbers. I did have to order more of one watermelon and two squash varieties.

John planting winter squash

John also started our first basil planting, all our other melons and more cauliflower. He is also in the process of transplanting the tiny tomato and pepper plants into larger containers.

The crew worked mostly in the flower and herb gardens on Wednesday. I was expecting the dahlias to be up by now. When I dug around, I found the dahlia tubers were mostly dead. I suspect the extra wet fall and early winter did them in. We tilled the beds under and I got on the phone to order new dahlias. I’ll be getting a new selection of tubers next week.

Gardeners who want to ensure they keep their dahlia tubers every year will dig them all up, wash and label them, and store them over the winter. To save all that work, we cover the dahlia beds with straw for the winter and then see what comes back in the spring. We got four good years from our first planting, so we’re ahead on time and money. It is painful to plow a field under.

Today the crew spread fertilizer, tilled, and planted out the second planting of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. The also planted the first planting of Brussels sprouts.  Enrique and I made more raised beds, this time for the summer squash planting tomorrow.

 What’s playing today in the Jeep CD player?  Wynton Marsalis – The Marciac Suite