The fever is upon me; a month out from spring, with nights of luminescent moonlight, everything seems possible. Morning tea and breakfast time is now punctuated by list making, rather than leisurely reading. I’ll try this sort of bean, that kale, companion planting . . . more fruit! I always want more fruit . . .

It’s a heady time of day to make such lists, stimulated by the caffeine of a good black tea. But I always like getting lots of ideas out there, and then sifting through them for the gems. To be sure, I am joining a farming couple with over a decade of successful, productive experience. I do not, as of yet, have a complete detailed understanding of how and what we will plant. But I do know that experimentation will be welcomed, particularly in a 1-acre plot that will be free of its usual boarded horses.

Some notions being tossed around include: planting ten or so fruit trees, probably apples (the 100-year old orchard on the farm is still producing, but we’d probably want more eating apples in the future, in addition to the existing cider-making sorts); flowers (for cut-flower sales to boost farm income, and to provide more delicious nutrition for insect life); and bees (with all the equipment at hand on the farm already, it feels like an obvious step towards boosting overall ecology). Notice how in large part, these ideas represent time input on our part that can be largely hands-off.

Further, I have some small-scale experiments in mind, such as intercropping. By planting vegetables such as radish and carrot together, one can supposedly maximize soil space and nutrient depth (as the different root depths will not compete with each other), while also potentially shading out most weed competition. I’m also thinking about a corn, bush bean and beet companion planting, although I’ll consider decorative corn varieties because we would be very lucky to see a mature cob during our short season. Using it as a shade and soil breaker-upper/enricher tool for the beans and beets will be the main purpose (perhaps less time intensive to plant than to weed all summer?).

Now, envisioning this all despite the two-foot cover of snow on the ground . . .