We Finish Preparing the "Field"

Since our wheat field is so small, calling it a "field" seems a bit silly. Measuring only 4x8 feet (32s.f.) it really is a little patch of wheat, or maybe even a test plot. So...we might have got a bit too much topsoil to finish the field:

Two yards of topsoil, please!

Not to worry though. The extra topsoil will go into our veggie garden and flowerbeds. The wheat field took about seven wheelbarrows full to fill up the wood frame (made from the old swing set posts).

The next step was to fill it up, and then to level it out. We used an old board as a screed to smooth the top.

We thought we'd better pack the soil down a bit. Some people use a lawn roller for this step, but since our field is so small we tamped down our soil with a couple of 2x6 "shoes" held on with a bicycle inner tube as laces. It was a bit odd, but we all had fun wearing the funny shoes.

So getting the field ready took about two hours, including cutting up the frame and staking it into position. At the end of May 15th, the field looked like this:

We are still not exactly sure how many rows we will put in, but the day has come to an end, and that will give us time to figure out what comes next. The weather forecast calls for rain soon, so getting the wheat planted before the rain would be really good.

That is all we know so far.