We had started irrigating the garden before the rains. It was dry as a bone and tilling was out of the question as it was like concrete out there. Our soil contains a great deal of silt. It makes things a little difficult some times and rather slick. We've found tire chains to be extremely useful. The road into our property is unimproved. Little more than a rutted dirt track. It's not uncommon to be mudded or snowed in. Though with the chains we are able to get in and out if needed.
Anyway, back to irrigation! We, happily, have a pond. It didn't go dry in the awful drought last year so we're thinking it has some ground water feeding into it. So a friend gave us a sauna pump. I was humored too. It pumps something like 81 gallons per minute. It seems to be slower than that though. We used garden hoses last year and wasted a lot of gas last year until we gave up using it. This year, we bought 400' of 3/4" irrigation hose from Tractor Supply.
We found that pumping straight up to the height of the highest part of the garden then straight across was easier on the pump. Otherwise, we're looking at a new pump sooner rather than later. A well would be preferred before that so we can quit hauling water from town.
Aside from all that, I've started digging my potatoes from the mid-March planting. They're looking pretty good! Now we need to get our root cellar dug for aging cheese and storing food. It's in the works and going to have ground broke soon for it... I'm pretty excited!
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