Garden Madness, Spring Cleaning

I'll change the background later...On to more important things.  Next week we will officially open the season with a Spring Cleaning.  Wednesday afternoon (3/23) and all day Thursday (3/24) I will be at the garden trimming away some of the last brushy areas, spreading mulch, and in general making the area a tidier place.  If you're around and feel like doing some rewarding work, please do stop by.  For those of you who have never seen the farm, it will be a fine time to catch it before its great transformation.  On Thursday we will also be getting our first big delivery of the soil that will go into our vegetable beds.  I have so much excitement over this, I can hardly contain it!  I almost feel like planting something as soon as we get our first bed filled!  Speaking of which I will also be hosting the first Weekend Work Party on Saturday, 3/26.  We'll be fillin' beds, drillin' holes for mushroom logs and maybe even getting some more debris to the dump.  As always, I'll provide some simple lunch fixin's for the inevitable hunger that creeps in when you're doing hard work.  So please mark your calendars and be at 27 South Pine Street in Kingston, NY on Saturday, March 26th at 10am.  I'll see you there?

Please clean me!

Philly Flower Show after the jump.

So at the end of last weekend I had an unexpected trip to Philadelphia for their big, and I mean BIG, flower show, courtesy of Hudson Valley seed library.  They had a little drawing for free tickets and for some reason I thought I might as well.  Oh man, let me try to explain the enormity of this event.  For those of you who know the Dutchess County Fair, think of the horticulture center, and multiply that times 500.  If you stood on one end of the convention center in which it was held, you could not by any means see clear to the other side.  And all the in between was filled with greenery that I cannot even begin to describe.  How can they possibly grow 10ft tall corn in the middle of winter, transport it from who-knows-where and then set up a full veggie garden, complete with soil filled beds and fruit on the vine in the middle of what is essentially an airplane hangar??  Even though it was a bit of a mind blow, I'm glad I went.  Not only did I get to see Ken and Doug's blue ribbon winning display, I picked up some good ideas for the farm.  Even though the theme for this year was Springtime in Paris, there seemed to be a few edible/community/practical but still beautiful gardens mixed in among the over the top displays.  Here's some random pictures, like I say, I'm a farmer, not a photographer...

imagine if your window boxes looked like this

in this magical land, you can have 10ft tall corn AND peas on the vine at the same time!

it's a cold frame with its own heating element! I don't quite get it, but I will have to figure it out and install on the farm

I kid you not, this is made from all plant material

one of my favorite things there: a garden for the visually impaired.  the areas are sectioned off by wire, plants and elements with different tactile sensations are used and the white cards are printed in Braille