Getting an early start

Trying to have vegetables in April means beating nature. To harvest greens and root crops in April, they need to be seeded in early February, transplanted in late February and hope the weather cooperates so you can harvest them throughout April.

Yesterday Sharon and Leslie helped me finish setting up a caterpillar tunnel. This is a simple structure consisting of 11 metal hoops covered with greenhouse plastic which is held on by rope. To ventilate it you simply pull up the sides of the plastic and the tension of the rope holds it up. It can be set up or moved in 2 or 3 hours. Once everything is growing well in early April we’ll be able to move it to another spot and have tomatoes planted by mid-April for harvest in early June.

In the next few weeks I hope to have arugula, lettuce mix, boc choi, radishes, salad turnips and other greens growing inside the new tunnel. Once I rake the mulch hay from the beds we’ll broad fork, spread compost and add organic inputs to balance the soil before seeding and transplanting inside the tunnel.

Cheating nature is a risky proposition. I’ve learned to make the farm economically sustainable it’s important to have vegetables to sell in early spring and throughout the winter. Low temperatures or a lot of snow in March or April could easily wipe out these crops. So keep your fingers crossed that everything works out and we’re munching on fresh salads soon.