Full of Promise: Planting Trees, Running Trials, and Lots of Garlic!

Last week I planted two peach trees and a mulberry:

These trees were gifts to my landlord, who is also a friend of mine. We are renting so planting long-term tree crops all over the land may seem like a waste but hey – life is short. Might as well improve the place we are planted, whether or not we are the ones who enjoy the ultimate fruit.

We were also successful in digging the trial beds for our amendment tests:

12 5′ x 5′ beds. This week I’ll gather the amendments and get these planted, Lord willing.

As you can see to the upper left of the image above, the cover crop mix I planted is coming up. Here is a closer view:

It is a bit chilly outside but not near freezing yet. I will plant the test beds with a few cold-season crops and see what happens. Probably kale, peas, turnips, mustard and garlic, though lettuce might be good too if the frost doesn’t take it out too fast.

Speaking of garlic, we also planted a 3′ x 25′ bed of garlic on Saturday. The bulbs were a gift from our landlord – I told you he was our friend! – and we’ll see how they so. There were some hardneck, some softneck, and some elephant garlic. I’ve heard softneck is the best for our area, so we’ll see what happens.

In a few minutes I am leaving for Baldwin Seed and Feed with my friend Elizabeth to go pick up some more garlic to plant. This time it will be a variety known to grow in this area. That’s the type I will use for my amendment test beds.

This is the arrangement I came up with for the trial, though it has not been implemented yet so there may be some tweaks:

This will be an interesting experiment. So much potential here – so much promise! I can’t tell you how nice it is to just be able to buy the things I want to test. Back in Grenada getting even the simplest things done was a chore. Here I’ve been able to buy lime, kelp, fish fertilizer and other amendments with the click of a mouse. Whew. It’s nice living in the first world again.

Over the weekend we also got our compost pile a little more loaded up, gathered rotted cow manure from a neighbor’s field, fixed the big path running through the garden, burned another batch of biochar, charged a couple buckets of char, filmed a video, had friends over, went mushroom hunting, fed and watered the field crop rows, planted some comfrey and enjoyed going to church.

The focus was on the last verses of Ephesians chapter 4, and I’ll leave you with those words. Have a great week – I need to get ready to leave for the feed store. After that, I am helping Elizabeth moved and divide some banana clumps. The perfect day!

^{Ephesians 4:}

²⁵ Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. ²⁶ “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ nor give place to the devil. ²⁸ Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. ²⁹ Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

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