good dirt

We put the tractor to use Sunday morning, scooping up old manure from the horse enclosure and hauling it back to the garden area. From there, I got some good exercise shoveling and filling the raised beds. These are all old beds from last year, but the soil had settled enough that they needed to be refilled.

ready for planting

I got three raised beds filled yesterday, which means I now have four beds ready to plant. However, the temperature dipped to 25 degrees last night, reminding me why it is not good to get too eager to plant here in Minnesota. The average last frost date is just that: an average. I do have peas growing already (middle left edge of the photo), but these should not be harmed by the frost. And I can probably get away with planting seeds any time now. Tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings will wait another week or so before I plant them in the cevered hoophouse beds.

We also lifted the enclosure where we were raising the meat chickens, exposing a rather odiferous pile of chicken manure. I think once it airs out a bit, I'll move most of it to a compost pile, cover the rest with dirt, and plant the squash there.