hi I'm Erin today spring has sprung at least for now so it's time to get this
big garden cleaned up and ready for planting on our wyoming life
getting the outside gardens ready every spring is something that I look forward
to the Sun is warm and the dirt is anxiously awaiting new life but first we
have to clean off the remains of last year's crops I don't clean off the
outside gardens in the fall and there's a couple of reasons why mostly I'm over
it just like the gardens I'm ready for a
period of rest and I need a break from the soil also if you may have noticed
that the wind blows just a little bit around here by leaving whatever plant
matter is left in the gardens as well as the landscape fabric the soil has a
better chance of staying in the garden and not being deposited all over the
county I'm going to walk you through what it takes to get things cleaned up
and ready for planting if you haven't already please hit that subscribe button
and join me as we start the beginning of the summer garden season and we can
explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary with three videos per week the
biggest chore during cleanup is definitely the removal of the landscape
fabric it's stapled into the ground and although some of it has torn most of it
is still largely intact the soil under it has remained undisturbed throughout
the winter it's much easier to remove the fabric once the dead plants are also
removed we start in the Cabbage Patch it's pretty easy to pull everything out
the dead plants just get thrown to the side and will be dealt with later now
that we have the plants out the staples and the fabric can be removed just start
on one end pull out the staples and roll up the fabric of course some dirt and
plant matter does get rolled up in the fabric and that is just mostly blowen
that occurs during the winter it's not a huge loss to the gardens and it's easier
to roll it up rather than try and clean it all off wheelbarrow is a great tool
in the gardens and today it gets used basically like a garbage can once we
have the wheelbarrow full of landscape fabric it can get dumped into the bucket
of the tractor the tractor bucket also makes a handy garbage can in this
situation now plants like cabbage and broccoli can be tilled back into the
soil but the area that we grew the gourds in last year
needs to be cleaned up a little better see one year I didn't clean up all the
dead gourds because there were hundreds of them as there sometimes is with
gourds and I just figured hey it's organic matter it can go back into the
soil well that was a mistake I then had hundreds of tiny gourd plants
trying to grow along with my beet seed so lesson here is don't tell in gourds
our pumpkins either as they will grow and be a total disaster
once the gourds are picked up the fabric can be removed as well as the fabric
underneath the broccoli basil Brussels sprouts napa cabbage and Romanesco next
on the to-do list is hardware removal things like steaks that are used to mark
Rose when seeding need pulled out tools also need picked up tools usually are
removed in the fall but it didn't happen last year they need out of the garden
now so everything is gathered up and deposited outside of the gate this is
also a great time to pick up any trash there's landscape fabric that is blown
around some pieces a shredded high tunnel plastic as well as the occasional
gatorade bottle are just more trash that the lovely wind brought us now comes the
fun part while I was cleaning up Mike was busy getting equipment ready the
brush Peter is hooked up to the tractor and Mike decided that I'm qualified to
brush Pete the garden it's basically a giant lawn mower all the plant matter
that is still in the garden is great for the soil but in our climate it won't
break down super well or fast if it's left in big chunks brush beading also
makes tilling easier so around and around I go and getting all the big
chunks mostly broke up I didn't crash the tractor or go through the fence so
that was a win now we can bring the tiller in and work the soil we usually
use the international tractor with the tiller attachment but the tractor is
currently out of service with some pretty big tire issues it might show up
on the project list one of these days but for now we have another tiller that
goes on the John Deere 445 this is the one time of the entire year that we deep
the garden if we were a demon Irv we would have spread it on the garden
before tilling and then worked it in typically we add compost or composted
manure every other year and this is our off year it is important when tilling to
make sure your soil isn't too wet if you till when the soil is wet it will
actually compact the soil more and it'll damage your soil structure so it's best
to wait the little dampness is okay but if you make a ball and poke it with your
finger and it doesn't crumble the soil is too wet around and around back and
forth I go until the entire garden is tilled there's still a few chunks of
plant matter that you can see but we have created a nice fluffy bed for our
plants to grow the garden looks so pretty doesn't it I just hate to walk on
it and start putting stuff in the ground but it's time to get growing onions and
potatoes are always first on my list and they will get planted in the next
couple of days before we plant anything though we have to get the water working
we've already spotted quite a few breaks in the line and I'm sure there will be
more once we turn the water on but that's tomorrow's project and
probably another video make sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss any
of our videos also like us on Facebook or Instagram today we posted a picture
of our fourth set of twins born here on the ranch Mike is back on Sunday with a
video all about bottle calves thanks for joining me as we explore the ranch life
and escape the ordinary on our wyoming life