Red Necks and Sore Backs, 2018 Edition

Yesterday was the first day out on the farm to prep our garden for the upcoming seeding of 2018!

We began with removing the gigantic black tarp we kept over most of the garden through the winter. It helped IMMENSELY with weed control and we had many a worm friend say hello when we pulled it back (this was not an easy task with standing water on a lot of the tarp.. what a forearm and back workout!!).

We highly recommend using a tarp on a new garden to help kill any weeds and grass and it gives a great environment for worms to do their magical work. We pulled back some seriously good looking soft soil that we were excited to get our tools into.

Now, this was back-breaking work! Due to our limited budget and newbie-ness that is Uprooted Farms.. we have four hands and (relatively) young backs for machinery, so we used what we have, and started forking and raking the beds up. Will we ever appreciate equipment when we get it! Those bed prepping attachments on walking tractors... drool....a lady can dream, eh?

After 4 hours of very labour intensive activity fueled by beer, cheese and sourdough bread, we pulled off 7 rows of prepped beds (approx 100 feet long), with 5 more that needs a bit of tractor attention before we prep them as well. With this.. we more than triple our garden beds from last year, not including the city gardens we have in Calgary! Wow.. when can you say you have tripled your business within a year? That's right, Uprooted farms can! I will tell you now, a key to this is having a strongman as your business partner. Who needs a work horse when you have Ben around?

We will be back at it again next weekend, hopefully seeding and finishing the remaining garden beds. We are still gardening in the shall I say traditional way, waiting until May long weekend to seed, but one day we do hope greenhouses and hoop houses become our jam, and transplanting can one day happen!

So as I nurse my red neck and sore back, I look forward to the planting of 2018 and hopefully more fruits of our labour arriving in the next few months.

I will be updating our seeding progress next week! We are excited to get out with the birds and the bees once more!

Until next time my friends,

Kait

#hardwork #tarping #soil #bedprepping