Easter

The first weekend of warm workable soil or should I say the first weekend the very cautious Rental Lady at Tilton's felt like the ground was dry enough to rent out her rototiller.
Ah yes, the tiller, we tilled a ton of new earth, built a composter out of pallets, a huge new raised bed and turned the old garden over. We transplanted some double fruiting raspberries outside our fenced garden and freed a young apple tree found on the property from the grip of a vicious vine that was sure to cause its demise.
The fact that I can outline all of this work in a paragraph gives no justice to the labor it took to accomplish these tasks. The entire Saturday before Easter was devoted to transforming the old garden to the new garden (or farm as we like to call it). We woke early and gathered provisions and breakfast sandwiches. Wood for the new raised beds was half price "hags" or junky boards and pallets from Cottle's Lumber. Red got soil and compost earlier in the week with the dump truck from work Our Farm consists of the wild apple tree and raspberry patch, fenced garden and new raised bed for vegetables, lettuce and greens bed, cutting garden and clover patch ( so Red can lure, I mean feed the deer). A modest garden for a small family of budding homesteaders. The soil in our West Tisbury 'farmstead' is a sandy composite of local top soil and aged island compost with a significant amount of lime added to encourage a host of natural bacteria to flourish and balance the soil ph, as the sandy soil tends to be deficient in natural lime. One might think it too early to start a garden, however this winter was very mild and the ground has been thawed for weeks so we've decided to get a jump on the preparations as to make it easier on ourselves in future weeks. Also I was feeling the pressure of early peas and lettuce to 'get on with it already' the seeds have been sitting in packets on my desk for a few weeks already. And I wont deny I crave the sight of something growing in the garden, it's Spring already! My favorite part? It looks just like I've planned it for the past two months- like my drawing came to life. I hope our hard work shows and that ultimately our garden is as productive as we are.
So with earth tilled and refreshed, weeds combated, beds ready and peas planted I'm ready for a beer...