JulyAs usual, our gardening suffers from "Farming First." It's a testimony to the plants themselves that they fruit for us anyway. We enjoy snowpeas and kale, garlic and shallots. We look forward to more harvest days and the great food we can make with squash, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans, beets and potatoes. The stakes in the hoop house below are 6' bamboo cane tomato trellis.  |
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JuneWhile it may look like the short hoop house is full of tasty food, that wouldn't be the case. Most of the green is buckwheat being used as a green manure. The top photo shows the beds with an alfalfa mulch. The lower photo is 3 weeks later, self-sewn buckwheat from last summer's cover crop surrounds the transplanted vegetable starts. The next technique we are applying is sometimes called "mow and throw." Cut the cover crop, buckwheat in this case, and put it around the crop that's to be harvested, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Buckwheat will add potassium to the soil and squelch weeds. We also are replacing the bamboo stakes with 6' stakes for trellising. Our Garden Manager, Sophia, has been directing our efforts this year and doing a good job of planting. We have a corn circle, melons, potatoes, and many other vegetables growing for our farm table. |
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May
Trevor and Lindsay were our first helpers and they started with the toughest spring job on the farm — removing thistles from the asparagus! Unfortunately our asparagus harvest was spoiled by spring freezes, but permaculture crops must be tended every year no matter the variations in yield.
Max enlisted the help of Mark Waltermire of Thistle Whistle Farm to begin tomatoes, peppers, and other heat loving vegetables. His propagation greenhouse gets things going early enough to mature in our shorter season. Some locals have still not planted gardens due to our unseasonably cold spring.
We have the help of an experienced Young Farmer, Sophia, who is directing the planning and planting of our new garden and hoop house. Now if only the weather starts cooperating!
We experienced the joy of a layflat hose that carries water to a gun that revolves and sprinkles via water pressure.
Unzipped greenhouse last summer.
April
The most exciting events this month were the visit from Miro Kummel's capstone agro-ecology class which camped in our barn, followed by a visit from CC students on block break. The weather was blustery and cold but enthusiasm warm. With their help we completed dismantling of the hoop house, carried it in three sections to the new location and reassembled it.
Why did we do that? We deposited too many weed seeds in our garden and greenhouse seed bank. Plus, our greenhouse plastic cover was destroyed by wind. The new location below our new barn had a buckwheat cover crop last summer to increase organic matter in the soil, feed our bees, and suppress the plants we didn't want. It's now ready for good growing!
Other spring preparations are underway for a successful gardening season. Max is propagating flowers and vegetables at Thistle Whistle Farm and learning how to do a better job of vegetable starts from Mark Waltermire.
Our asparagus is producing more this year, and we are selling quite a bit locally. Max plans to freeze and preserve some for the farm as well.