This week after seven inches of snow on Monday, we were all reminded that snow this close to spring (and it is now officially spring) does not last. As I noted last year, the 10th and Barton Plot Against Hunger has a FABULOUS cadre of volunteers and they showed up again on a beautiful spring day to get one of our two plots in shape.

Turning the garden over! Yes, it would be good to get faces. Alyssa, Everett, Christopher (on the broad fork) and Kim dig in.
We put the garden to bed well in the fall, mulching heavily. Still, we had a hard winter, at least for northern Virginia, so not much wintered over except for the Brussels sprouts. They didn’t look great, but they did have sprouts on them, so Everett and Filmona gave them a bit of a clean-up.
There were turnips and carrots galore. Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of the carrots, which were huge (and tasty; I sampled one with Puwen Lee when I dropped them at her home for delivery to AFAC). That’s the beauty of fall planting; you have something when you get into the garden in the spring.
We went at the work like seasoned gardeners, catching up with each other and digging hard. In two hours, we turned the ground, fertilized, mulched, and planted 12 cabbage and 12 collard seedlings. Then we put in two rows of onions and watered in the following half hour. Soon, we’ll get back in with some seeds for early crops.