Finishing a Raised Bed

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The weather is really beginning to feel like Spring and it's finally been a joy to work outside.

This week we managed to finish one of our new raised beds and even had a chance to take on a second. Once the frame is up and the newspaper laid out, it was time to fill our first bed with a combination of top soil with some organic mix. The size of the bed (16 x 6 feet) demanded that we use our tractor's front loader for the task.

Finishing the first raised bed

One of the key issues with the warming weather is the soft soil. With the large amount of melting snow and recent rains, the tractor cannot be easily used everywhere without leaving some major tracks. As such we have to be patient and wait for a morning when the ground is frozen or has had an opportunity to dry.

For the second bed, we decided to line the bottom with cardboard. We have plenty from various packaging and it has less tendency to fly off when the winds are gusting.

Lining the second bed with cardboard

Things are starting to look good....only 10 more beds to go! We'll be taking our time since we're not likely to directly plant or transplant anything until the 3rd or 4th week of May.

The raised beds are slowly coming along

One of the issues we have come across is a result of the Growing Dome construction. When the land was graded for its foundation, we ended up creating a "trough" between a slope and the foundation's hill. The net effect is a great accumulation of water between the two and some nasty spots of "quick sand", so once again we'll be faced with the installation of some drainage pipes.

Something we'll need to address with proper drainage

It's nice to see the beds coming along because some plants are really starting to enjoy the environment created by the Growing Dome. Within a few days we have seen quite a few sprouts and now we are a bit concerned that some of these plants will be rather mature by the time we can transplant them to the raised beds. The fastest growing plant has been our Persian Cress.

Within 2 days in the Growing Dome these Persian Cress seeds have sprouted

The Growing Dome has been quite a surprise for us. Even though the thermal mass (water tank) was not stable, it was surprising that some of our selected "guinea pigs" survived the entire winter. This includes a small Sage (which was set up in one of the hydroponic tanks), a Fennel, and of course our Strawberry which is now in full bloom.

The hardy Winter survivors of the Growing Dome

While our planting is now well under way, it was still time to collect Maple sap for our syrup. The difficulty we've encountered once again is the soft soil in the areas where we have to access the trees. There are quite a few places where we just cannot get the tractor or any other vehicle into the general area. We've come to terms with this by getting the tractor as close as possible. Tristan has worked out a simple sling arrangement to hook up our heavy buckets of sap to the tractor's safety frame making the transportation of these back to the barn at least a bit easier.

Necessity is the mother of invention....slinging the sap buckets to the tractor

Meanwhile we continue to work on our preserves and jams eagerly anticipating our Market and Tea Room opening day. Chef has been keeping busy preparing his stocks and making some of our jams with the berries we froze from our last harvest. This includes a new Kiwi compote blended with white wine.

Chef has been busy working on our preserves

With the restaurant kitchen fully functional, we also took the time to produce our own "Detox juice". Using the steam juicer, we produce a great Blackberry juice (loaded with antioxidants); we then blend this with a local Apple cider (2 parts Apple to 1 part Blackberry) to get a great and healthy refreshment. The Blackberry juice cuts the sweetness of the Apple cider while giving it a wonderful berry taste.

The steam juicer is back in action

 We'll finish this week with one observation concerning the Arctic Kiwis. These plants have a phenomenal ability to grow. Readers will know that it has not been long since we last pruned these vines. With Spring finally here, these vines have already surprised us with some significant growth. It's as if we were sloppy in our pruning. It would really be fascinating to capture the growth of these vines under some time lapse photography (perhaps a future project).

The Kiwis are already sprouting new shoots