Monday, July 28, 2008

Rain in the Forcast

...means its time to seed the field. The original plan was to plant an annual cover crop for tilling in this fall, but since May & June's heavy rains delayed the final discing of the field I don't think there's time to get a summer cover crop in. Especially since I still haven't gotten around to getting irrigation hooked up... So instead we're just skipping to the permanent cover: clover. It's readily available, fixes nitrogen, doesn't grow too tall, and provides great bee forage & beneficial insect habitat. I blended a couple kinds of white clover (Dutch & New Zealand) with crimson clover, threw in a couple ounces of wildflower seeds for fun, and then added all the leftover packed-for-2007 garden seeds I had in my seed collection just to see what would happen. Who knows, maybe we'll see some fennel and leeks and radishes out there. :)
The grass has grown back somewhat, but there's lots of room for my clover to get established - provided of course that it actually DOES rain this week! The new seed spreader I bought for the job worked really well, I sure wish I'd had it when I was seeding the lawn last year!
As always, the cats supervised our work.
Even Marcel came out and watched. He sure is doing well these days, he's lost a pound and has actually been seen frisking around the yard like a kitten. A really BIG kitten. :)
Update 7/29: It's really raining! Not just teasing me with dark clouds that pass by. Hurray! I really didn't want all that seed to go to waste...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You definately got your wish....it rained like crazy last night! I don't think I'll have to water my own garden for a few days to come :)