by Tara Laidlaw, Burgess Farm Director

This was a big week on the farm. Between an all-hands-on-deck work day, the first frost of the season, and a half day’s worth of work with the Bobcat, the farm is looking pretty different! 

During our work day, we cleared up a whole bunch of beds that had been home to frost-sensitive plants like tomatoes and beans. In each bed, we added lime (to help neutralize the acidic Cape Cod soil), we turned in composted goat bedding (to boost nutrients), and we mulched with straw (to keep the soil and nutrients from washing away during big storms over the winter). We placed protective fabric over a few rows to squeeze one more harvest out of the plants before the cold set in, and we built a mini-greenhouse over one row as an experiment in season extension.

The biggest news, though, was that we pulled off the old plastic cover on the greenhouse, which was damaged a year ago this weekend during Hurricane Sandy, and we replaced it with a fresh roll.