St. Olaf Garden Research and Organic Works

Squash, beans, and corn, OH MY!

Today was our first official work day of the season. It's a little late in the game for some of the veggies we're planting, but one of the harder parts of being a student farmer is that when your garden needs you outside planting, your GPA needs you inside studying for finals!

Dan, Moe, and Heidi and I put a good, full, HOT day in and finished planting all of our squash, beans, corn, and salad greens. We pushed the garden borders a bit this spring and expanded the garden by about 60%, so we have much more space to work with this season. Once we measured the field and worked out the rotations for the garden plan, we planted the most southern part of our L-shaped field in the "Three Sisters Method," with mounds sprouting corn and beans in between squash. If all goes as planned, the squash will protect the corn and beans, the beans provide nitrogen for the corn, and the corn is the trellis for the beans! We'll keep you posted on this experiment.

Right after I had finished tilling up the western section of the field and was putting the tiller into storage, big fat raindrops started splashing down, letting us know it was time to quit for the day and let nature take over. An excellent first day.

Up next: tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, herbs!! Pictures coming soon.