Here’s a recap of what’s happened at the yurt over the last month.
March 30: Started cutting trees for next winter’s firewood. Mainly black birches so far.
March 31: Planted genovese basil, cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and medium-heat peppers. All seeds from High Mowing.
April 7: Cut fourth birch tree so far.
April 7: The basil sprouted.
April 7: Built four new raised beds, 5×3 each.
April 10: Both types of tomatoes sprouted.
April 10: Cut beech logs for shiitake mushroom plug spawn. Ordered the 100-count plug spawn from North Spore Mushroom Company.
April 11: Burned a big brush pile of stuff leftover from last year, and the canopies from the trees I’ve cut so far this year.
April 11: Ordered four cubic yards of topsoil-compost mix for delivery for the new raised beds.
April 13: Dug a new in-ground garden bed.
April 13: First day we hear the peepers making their ruckus.
April 14: Bought two raspberry plants from our local Agway and planted them. One is a Caroline Red and the other is a Polana, both self-pollinating and hardy down to zones 3 and 4. Also got some fish and seaweed fertilizer to try out (Neptune’s Harvest, 2-3-1).
April 14: Bought two small rosemary starts from Walker Farm and potted them, so that we can bring them inside when it gets cold and hopefully overwinter them.
April 16: Inoculated one beech log with the 100 shiitake plugs.
April 16: Ordered more plug spawn from North Spore. Oyster mushrooms this time, and 500 of them.
April 18: Inoculated nine poplar logs with the oyster plugs.
April 19: Spot our first spotted salamander, which is unfortunately dead.
April 21: Spot our first red eft, which is thankfully alive and well. Move said eft from the road.
April 21: Finish the oyster inoculation process by sealing all 500 plugs with melted wax, and then setting up the “mushroom farm.”
April 22: Bought 12 cabbage starts and two blue lupines from Walker Farm. Planted the lupines.
And the month continues apace!
