Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, cucumber, zucchini, kohlrabi, lettuce, basil and parsley. Field Notes. People often wonder what I mean when I say nearly every week that planting continues. Well this week I have a photo of several of the fall greens. Ken finds that in August it is often easier to start greens indoors where he can regulate temperature and moisture. Another advantage of transplanting …
Each year when I start picking blackberries I think of my maternal grandmother, Flora E. Patch. When I knew her she was a farm wife. She and my grandfather had a dairy farm in Vermont. She grew up in a farm family and as a young single woman she taught school. My grandfather was the older brother of one of her students. After they married they lived in a small town and had a coal …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, celery, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, onions. garlic. kale, corn, basil, and apples Field Notes. Ken is getting the short season fall crops in now. The long season fall crops are doing well. He got the year’s compost mixed for next season. And in his spare time it’s mowing, weeding, and harvesting. Weeds that aren’t mowed will drop seeds for a new crop …
Each season Ken makes compost. Each year he combines the winter chicken bedding with hay and straw and leaves and other organic matter that varies from year to year. In the past he shoveled chicken bedding and shook out all the baled hay. A few years back he purchased a manure spreader. The manure spreader breaks clods, shakes out hay and mixes the components beautifully. He loads the spreader, cuts the baling twine, and …
The inside circle on the drive has changed a great deal.. Ken just mowed the rye he had planted late last season. Last year during the spring Ken dug up the perennial flowers and I divided them and removed as many weeds as possible Then he ran chickens through the area to scratch Next he ran pigs through to dig it up …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, basil, beans, carrots, and parsley Field Notes. Planting, mulching, and harvesting continue. As the days shorten this becomes more of a juggling act! Ken picks several crops like tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, etc several times a week; that takes a chunk of time. He spent part of Sunday making next year’s compost. In the midst of all this I …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, beets, chard, zucchini, cucumbers, green peppers, beans, Walla Walla sweet onions, and parsley. Field Notes. Ken has been transplanting fall crops. We dug the garlic and it is curing on racks. Ken keeps up with weekly tasks like tying up tomatoes. Fun fact: Daylight shortens three minutes each day during August. Several cultures have a harvest holiday in August; In old Celtic …
Over the course of a season Ken will plant a crop, harvest it, and plant another crop. This sequence is repeated throughout the season. An example of this is one area of the garden where Ken prepared a space in the garden last fall. Then he planted garlic which grew from fall through this week. Once pulled, he had space to transplant fall greens.
The soil was dry. Ken has gotten hoses out to irrigate. This afternoon we had a lovely summer shower. Although it was brief, the dust settled, the steam rose from the ground and the rain barrel filled. All good.
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has cabbage, kohlrabi, potatoes, green peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, onions, and parsley Field Notes. Ken got a new area set up for the pigs, and we moved them Friday. Ken is also irrigating green houses, planting fall crops, and more. The soil is dry, but I am careful what I wish for – some friends just got six inches of rain! Ken checked his …
