Truck loads of compost arrived in February from Thistle Hollow Farm down the road. Passers by may have seen piles of dark soil migrating via wheel barrow into smaller piles all over the fields. The cubic yards and cubic yards of compost are now spread. The sprouting rye grass cover the fields in places and we have wheeled drop spreaders to add calcium phosphate, gypsum, and lime.
Compost, soil amendments, and rye grass are all preparing for healthy vegetables for our CSA members! We hope to have “friable” soil. Not necessarily the kind you want to stick in a buttered up pan and eat with a fork, although compost aged five years, like a fine wine, tempts some gardeners. Friable soil is soil that has the crumbly texture ideal for the root growth of plants. Next year along with the compost, soil amendments, and cover crops. Kettle Pond Farm hopes to add humates to the field.
Our green house brims with the miracle of life. Managers go away for the weekend and come back to find once blank soil trays popping with kale, lettuces, herbs, and onion sprouts. The garlic next to the green house planted last November looks happy and healthy. On April 5th in our northwest field, we direct seeded (meaning put directly into the ground) peas! Peas resist cold temperatures and will yield fruit in June. After planting we put posts in the ground to support lattices for the pea vines to grow up.
A new addition to Kettle Pond's fields is The Learning and Giving Garden for community use. Tepee frames mark the East side of the Learning and Giving garden.. Angela Possinger a neighbor and biology student at Roger Williams Univeristy is organizing the plot. Many of you know her as the education coordinator.
Three and soon to be four tepee structures consist of four seven foot sticks tied at the top with straw bale twine. Peas have been planted round the base and will grow up to cover the frames. A door will be kept open on these playful structures to invite children and anyone to sit inside to contemplate the growth around them.
Pea tepees join gardening with human space. Here is a link with articles written by a dynamic dance collective about the human body in landscape (it even mentions a neighborhood pea field). What better snack than a fresh peas in a pod plucked off the vine. Picking peas in large quantities can wear a farmer out, but it seems young kids can't pick enough.
-Written by Ellie, our favorite work exchanger.Photos by Kelly.
Top: Kelly spreading compost.
Bottom: Possingers and their tepee.
