Ohhhhh, they’re so cute! 
I love all the different colors. It looks like you have a good amount of genetic diversity in the mix!
Got the tarp down! Wanted to do it immediately but it is what it is. May 15th is our historic last frost date. So I’m planning to pull back a corner and look on the 15th to see how it’s looking.
This leaves enough space for people to park on the grass along the road if we have people over. And there is space behind it to place the tarp again. For a full garden space of 30 x 100 ft. Once this area is done I’ll mow that down low and tarp it. Plant it in cover crop.
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Exciting! Congratulations on getting the tarp in!
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Tarp the day we put it down. It’s been raining a fair bit and the birds are enjoying the unintentional bird baths in the low dips. I peeked under a corner today and the grass is looking sad.
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I’m building a little rectangle of patio blocks. On top of it will sit a hardware cloth top to keep out critters. There was a few glass doors left in the shed and I plan to turn them into cold frame tops to use next year. It’s not been as cold at night but I will be able to use one as a top on the temporary frame if we are threatened with frosts.
Not sure yet how bad the pressure will be. Mostly robins foraging. There was a squirrel in one of the trees one move in day but I haven’t seen a squirrel in the trees or yard here since. There is one block between our place and a fairly large preserve with a stream. Hoping that means they have a nice ecosystem to live in rather than to harass my garden 
This groundhog however lives in the area and visits all the surrounding yards and ours. I dubbed it Fat Boy because every time I catch it out I go chase it off. It is getting plenty to eat.
And you can see our compost pile. I plan to make a nice frame for turning it but this is for now. Lots of grass from mowing and bedding from the rabbits cages.
Soon to be less bedding. I bought wood to build the hutch to hold the cages. I’m going to build a little catch spot for the manure so I’ll just shovel under it into the compost when it build up.
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I signed up on chipdrop to get wood chips. There is a good amount of drop offs in the area based on their activity map.
I’m trying to find someone to haul a large amount of manure compost for me from dad’s to here. Like a dump truck or something.
Make sure you get it from a farmer who can be totally certain the animals didn’t eat hay contaminated with persistent herbicides!
It’s my compost lol so I’m sure. It’s the sheep bedding heap.
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The temporary frame. Got four more blocks to set on the corners to hold the top down. The top will basically be a screen door with hardware cloth. It’s 63in x 24in inside the blocks.
It wasn’t til making this post that I realized I don’t need the solid trays under the 2.5in starter pots. It’s bigger than 5 (1020) trays which hold 160 pots. So lots of starting space.
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Oh, good! 
I was thinking you meant you were getting it from somebody else. That’ll be excellent!
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I am way behind but whatever. This year is all about doing what I can.
The top is finished for the seed protection. I kept considering starting them anyways and just hoping nothing would mess with them… But I really didn’t want to waste all the seed if something did mess with them. Or the feral cats use it as a bathroom.
Now I’m filling the 2.5" pots! 
The plants are ones I’ve bought. Marigolds and celosia for in front of the house so I look like I’ve somewhat got my sh!t together. 
And some tomatoes and peppers as back ups.
The bucket with the sticks is some cuttings I took of a willow branch from by my dad’s house. Getting them to root. See how fast it grows.
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It’s a little sparse now but they’ll fill out. Marigolds with the celosia alternated in. And 3 wee clumps of decorative grass I was given. It only gets like knee high and will spread very slowly. So I don’t have to worry about it taking over or anything.
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I got the flats of pots filled with soil. I got 158 pots (2.5") filled from 3 bags (12qt) of starting soil. So tomorrow I’ll plant them.
I bought some cheap solo cups to cut down to plant markers. For some reason I thought I had some already but apparently not 
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I had Moringa seed from EFN (2023) and Moringa seed from the swap box (2022). The EFN seed is smaller and some of the shells were brittle. Looking at the little seed meat I decided I have enough to experiment. So half the EFN seed I broke the shell off carefully and planted (12) and half left in shell (12). The swap box seed I only had 8 so I left those in shell.
I even thought ahead and marked them as “Moringa”… “Moringa shelled”… and “Moringa FL” as the swap box seed is from Florida. We’ll see how my luck goes with them, hopefully get some for starting with 32 seed!
Forgot to take a pic of the shelled seed but they were little shriveled seed meats… I’ll just say they reminded me of something farm kids would be familiar with but not most people.
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Have enough pots and seed so I’m taking a stab at starting corn seed in pots. The garden isn’t tilled yet and I’m not sure how bad the predation of direct seeding will be. So giving it a try. Did 4 per 2.5" pot. Mixed them up so each pot is a mix such as… red, orange, blue, white… or purpley, red, blue, yellow… So I can plant them as hills and the corn stalks will have immediate neighbors that are not the same kernel color as them for cross pollinating. And if I cull some stragglers there should be plenty still.
I sort of tried to mix seed shapes too. Tall squared one, fat round one, wide flour one,…
This is the colored grex. I also have a white/yellow/high carotene grex that I want to grow separately for cornmeal.
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Are you planting the Moringa in ground or pots?
Starting them in 2.5in pots. My rough plan is to get them started in the little pots. Plant them in the ground with some kind of protection. Decide which ones are the best and try to get cuttings or dig up and pot to keep over winter. I would try to keep them pruned down almost bonsai like to keep them indoors.
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Pulled the tarp back and mowed it down closer. Looks pretty good.
Before mowing
After mowing
I wasn’t able to get it mowed down tight before putting the tarp down because it didn’t stop raining. And we have been getting regular rain since. Only just managed to get it cut today. Hoping it helps.
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