Well, it’s a start. I’ve got loads of room (~1300 sq. ft.) to fill with vegetable plants. Then I’m going to go crazy with mulch!

So far, I’ve sown two 50′ rows of Glass Gem corn, which is a flint corn I purchased from Native Seeds/SEARCH. We love popcorn, grits, and cornmeal. It is my first time growing corn here in Kansas. Normally, I leave the corn-growing up to the locals.

We typically get our sweet corn from a couple of teenagers a few miles down the road – they sell it out of the back of their pickup truck mid-summer. They have their own plot on the family land and whatever profit they make they are saving up. Happy to help them out!

I’ve also planted starts that I grew from seeds. Two types of heirloom tomatoes that I tried and liked last summer, bellpeppers, and poblanos. I’ve been trying to purchase only heirloom seeds, if I can help it.

The silage tarp worked well to block light, cure the raw soiled horse bedding, and killed all the weeds and grass. However, we decided to till the compost into the top few inches of soil. We used our BCS 749 with a tiller and roller. I got to learn how to drive this time. Now I’ve learned how to use the machine, I can handle it when it takes a little leap forward and not fall face first into the soil!

I’m excited to try the Earthway seeder my younger brother gifted me a couple of Christmases ago to plant a few rows of beans. I’m waiting until after the rain passes. We are on day two of all-day rain (1.5″ so far), which will help tamp the compost and soil down so I can get a more accurate seed depth. I’m a bit worried I didn’t get the corn planted at the right depth as everything was so fluffy when I hastily sowed those seeds!