Notes from the farm: Building, digging, and growing before the season starts

The ground is softening up, but still has a ways to go before it dries out from our wild winter’s snowmelt. So, while the farmers at Wally discuss when they might begin to start opening up their fields for spring planting, they’re knocking some building projects off collective to-do lists.

Farm dog, Archie, jumping for joy because Spring is here!

Aidan’s laying hens arrive this weekend and when they do, they’ll be moving into this sleek egg-mobile, based off of Swedish farmer Richard Perkins’ design.

From Below Farm’s first egg-mobile!

Our greenhouse doubled as a woodworking shop as Aidan and friends measured and cut lumber for nesting boxes.

Speaking of woodworking, Ryan, Nathan, and Matt poured the footings for our new sawmill shed. They had to dig down four feet to find anything close to dry earth, but eventually, they got there!

(foreground) The most problematic footing on site!

One of our most exciting projects in 2026 is the Wally Farms Food Forest. A food forest is multi-tiered planting of edibles (for people and wildlife), encompassing fruit and nut trees, berries, shrubs, and herbs. We’re working with Propagate Ag to bring this dream to life. This week, we trenched for irrigation. Planting begins in three weeks!

A beautiful day for digging!

While all this is going on outside, the veggie starts for our upcoming plant sales (at Basilica Farm + Flea and onsite at Wally Farms), are soaking up the sunshine in our greenhouse.

Grow babies, grow!

All these projects mean we’re weeks away from the season really starting, and we can’t wait to share it all with you!