Patchwork Green is a hillside and ridgetop farm overlooking the beautiful Canoe Creek Valley several miles north of Decorah, Iowa. Our family grows five acres of vegetables on a farm near Decorah, Iowa. We grow a wide variety of high quality, chemical-free vegetables using sustainable techniques.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Accomplishment

Ahh, sunshine!  Nights above freezing!  Crazy-loud birds every morning!  Yes, we are reveling in spring.  

Nina, our newly 5-year-old daughter, is determined to ride a bike this year without training wheels.  Living on a gravel road with a gravel sloped driveway makes this a challenge, and anyone who can learn in this setting is going to be a great biker.  So, we get the ‘Mountain Lion’ bike out every decent afternoon and carefully make our way back and forth on the most level spot we can find.  The Lion has taught her two older sisters how to balance on two wheels, and I think Nina will master it soon!

The ground is firming up, and the frost is out in many places (but not all).  We have repaired the collapsed end-wall of our cherry tomato hoop house, and will put the ‘skin’ of new plastic on the entire house tomorrow.  Next week, we’ll actually transplant boc choi, kohlrabi, lettuces and beets in there, and directly seed some carrots and arugula.  The week after Easter, when the ground will be significantly warmer, we’ll transplant the cherry tomato crop into the hoop house.  By the time the tomatoes are several feet tall, the early crops will be harvested and out of their way.

It feels like we are finally accomplishing garden work now.  Compost is spread, construction is happening, the last of the 2013 trellises and dead plant stalks are removed.  Although I enjoy perusing seed catalogs, contacting CSA members and seeding flats, it feels good to be doing real physical work again.  Well, other than shoveling snow, that is!

Have a great week.

Erik Sessions and Sara Peterson
Patchwork Green Farmers