The power of the quinoa is in the hills, at least around our parts where we need a slightly cooler nighttime temperature  in order for the Andean plants to set seed. And so, on a mildly rainy day last week we disappeared into the coast range and planted the quinoa starts at Frank’s house.

quinoa gets buddy-buddy with an apple tree

We also found some space for the last of our radishes, which were quite happy to join the quinoa outside.

Hydrating the radish starts before going out to be planted

This young buck was living in our manure pile

At the moment, we have completed transplanting out all of this year’s lettuce, our greenhouse full of plants has dwindled to a few stragglers here and there, and we are beginning to weed what we planted a month ago. Overwintered kale and mustard is beginning to set seed and others are in full bloom.  Everything is poised to jump up very soon!

I just got back from a trip to Michigan to visit family, and wham, we are back outside working! This week we transplanted our first set of lettuce and spinach, and we will be planting more as soon as it dries up enough to prepare more beds.

Anaka and I ran the manure bucket brigade

The last part of the week was spent feeding some Scarlet Ohno Turnips, and Wild Garden Kale, with composted chicken manure mixed with terra preta.

It has been wet the past little while, and to get to the field we are currently working in you either need a high clearance four wheel drive vehicle, or a row boat.

too deep for boots, too shallow for boats; we scraped bottom

We also began work on an expanded deer fence for an old and new section of field. Friday was spent with an auger, gravel and shovels, securing the new corner posts.

When this fence is up, our seeds will be certified Deer-Free.

mapping out the new territory, known as "the back field"

Drill, baby, drill

These days at the Wild Garden, we are doing our very first selections on the seedlings we have recently planted.  When planting, we sow more seeds than necessary in each cell of our flats. The

making the cut

plants then need some space when they come up, so we take that opportunity to remove anything that looks like it should not be there. I also did a different type of selection the other day, separating a variety into its black-seeded and white-seeded types.

don't sneeze

Additionally, we have been observing wildlife. Some hungry squirrels have begun to raid a compost pile in search of delicata squash, bits and pieces of which may now be found in and around nearby trees. One particularly defiant specimen has taken to eating on the front wheel of a subaru:

*note: squirrel is cuter than it appears to be