We Have to Plant Hundreds of Plants in One Week (Or Lose the Season)
Happy day on the homestead: this week’s mission is to transplant “every single one” of the hundreds of starts crowding our greenhouse—brassicas under bug net, pumpkins on silage tarp edges, tomatoes and peppers in the high tunnel, plus cucumbers, green beans, squash, and watermelon. We show how our favorite system works: weed fabric for low weeding, drip irrigation underneath, bug net over the brassicas, and then basically “walk away until harvest,” while the boys help plant, measure spacing, and cover rows.
At the same time, the season of life is shifting. Henry is suddenly choosing to start nights in the boys’ room instead of our bed—our last kid to “move out”—and Rebecca and I talk honestly about the bittersweet mix of grief and sweetness as we get our side of the bed, and each other, back. To keep kids involved, I bribe shamelessly with a promised you‑pick strawberry trip and “fun drinks,” pull Henry and Gideon along to help mark pumpkin holes and run pigs, and keep teaching: first you want your kids with you, then you give real responsibility, even if it slows you down.
The high tunnel fight is real: choosing which tarp rows to uncover in rising heat, debating drip tape under vs on top of plastic, discovering overnight floods when I forget to shut water off, and fixing leaks with limited adapters. We lose a cool morning to soggy beds, confess the mistake, then regroup with weed fabric, new drip runs, and a “morning‑only” work rule so we don’t kill ourselves for the sake of a good vlog ending.
Day two brings a push to finish: tomatoes, peppers, green beans, cucumbers, squash, watermelons, plus bush beans that will sit perfectly on plastic instead of rotting in dirt. New Country Organics delivers bulk totes of non‑GMO organic feed for our five poultry systems and two pig systems (turkey starter, swine feed, chick starter, whole grains, alfalfa treats), we get the last drip line tested without leaks, wrap rows in fabric, and finally earn that strawberry patch visit, funky sodas, and sore nearly‑50‑year‑old backs.
If you like seeing the real math of spring—tight mornings, heat, kid motivation, mistakes, and adjustments—this episode shows how we actually get big plantings done while protecting future selves from July weeding and still carving out a sweet family payoff at the end.
Links Mentioned:
Farmers Friends: https://www.farmersfriend.com/c/justi...
New Country Organics: https://www.newcountryorganics.com