Mud season has arrived, which means gardening season is right around the corner!
The Willing Hands garden team is busy planning for the upcoming season at our four plots: the Willing Hands Garden at Cedar Circle Farm, the Farmacy Garden at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, 198 Church Street and Goodrich Four Corners. Â
The gardens play an important role in our work to end hunger in the Upper Valley. On these plots, we grow specific crops that are well-received by our recipient sites, and crops that balance out our food supply from farm and grocery partners. Think broccoli, onions, beans, carrots, cabbage, and salad greens.
The season starts with lots of phone calls. Farming Coordinator Mikey Van Siclen has been meeting with partners at Cedar Circle Farm and Dartmouth-Hitchcock to strategize this year’s goals for those plots.
At Cedar Circle, we are planning to invest in the subsoil ecosystem by applying significantly more compost than in past seasons. “So much subsoil life is involved in the life cycle of plants,” Mikey says. Nourishing the ground is an investment in the long-term health of the plot.
At the Farmacy we’ll expand the garden footprint with raised beds, fortify the plot from pests like deer and woodchucks, and grow the volunteer gardening community within Dartmouth-Hitchcock.
Next come the spreadsheets. With an eye toward which crops grew in which beds last year, Mikey carefully maps where each crop will go this year. In any given bed, he aims to alternate between crops that take lots of nutrients from the soil and crops which feed more lightly, in order to avoid overtaxing the soil. For example, where potatoes were last year, we’ll plant beans and lettuce this year to restore nutrient balance.
The field maps also outline the locations for interplanting–which helps utilize space more efficiently to increase yield–and insectary planting, which places pest-repellent plants like basil near pest-prone crops like cabbage and kale. This year, volunteers will help plant sweet alyssum near the tomatoes at 198 Church Street. Sweet alyssum attracts wasps that feed on tomato hornworms.
All of this preparation leads up to the fun stuff: volunteer-powered gardening! The Willing Hands garden team is looking forward to hosting a volunteer kickoff event in May at our garden at Cedar Circle Farm.