Tumbledown Farm .9 Acres (give or take an acre or two)

Well it is hardly time yet, but I just had to try out the new soil probe from Forestry Suppliers Inc. (Their contact info is on our page of "Sustainable Farming Links" above.) The soil probe is stainless steel (for sturdiness and ease of sterilization) and slotted (for ease of soil core removal). I used it on partially frozen ground today and was able to punch through fairly easily to take a sample.

Now I am off to mail the sample to A&L Great Lakes Laboratories for my triennial soil sample (for the process in detail, see our Soil Testing page under "How To" Garden Tips above). I'll share the test results on our soil testing page and explain how I plan to amend the soil in coming years to replace nutrients that may have been lost in the growing of my strawberries and tomatoes.

If you want to schedule a soil test in Indy, give me a call. Soil probe is ready and I'll be happy to walk you through it.Call me premature, but I also planted some Cos White Lettuce (Romain type) and Spinach in the cold frame today. I know it is February, I know it is supposed to snow tonight, but the soil under the afternoon sun in the cold frame was so crumbly and warm and perfectly inviting that I couldn't stand to wait! We'll see how that turns out. With any luck, I'll show you some lettuce and spinach in March!

With the threat of another 2-inch snow overnight, I thought I should share this photo taken through the sliding glass door of a hawk resting on our "hay barn." You may think he looks hungry, but we saw him pulling the meat off something large for quite a while before he decided to come into the sun to rest. (We looked for the remains to try to identify the prey, but nothing remained that we could find.)