What's new in the garden?

(below is pink alstroemeria, lambs ear, and blue centaurea)
What’s new in the garden you ask? Well, the tulips are done. Tulips are grown from bulbs that are technically “perennial” or will theoretically grow again next year. But this is actually quite challenging when done outside of their native region and because we have limited bed space we take them all out so we can plant new flowers. So we are prepping many beds right now for new flowers. Prepping means turning over the cover crop with digging forks (kinda like pitchforks), adding amendments (remember that crazy recipe of bone, blood, feather, alfalfa and kelp?) and planting little flower seedlings. The garden is getting ready to bloom with the next flowers. Delphinium (see it on the right in the arrangement I made!), Columbine, irises, cosmos, and more! Stay tuned!

I took my first class today as part of the apprenticeship. It was a class on soil and only scratched the surface, pun intended. I learned a lot, so much I can’t even remember much...yet. I am only beginning to really appreciate the universe that goes on underneath our feet. The balance that nature seeks to find between its plants, animals and other elements. Perennials and their longstanding relationship with funghi, annuals (new each year) and their more short term relationship with bacteria. And all of this happens in the almost artificial world of agriculture. Agriculture, where we try to mimic and control natural cycles so we can eat. The farm manager sharing her knowledge with us about farming has a deep and core appreciation of what she is doing here. So deep that to her there is no difference between eating plants and animals. It’s all life. It’s all death. It can all be abused or tended to with the love that a mother shows to her baby. And today was only the first day. Check out AJ's description of day 1!