Most years we have lettuce available in plentiful quantities from April through October or Thanksgiving. This year has been different. Ken has planted lettuce as he usually does – each week or ten days. There have been several mishaps this year. The deer got past Oscar one night and ate the hearts out of most of one crop. Another bolted and melted down in the …
Ken harvested the garlic and potato onions around the rain – he lets them dry in the field for a day or two and then loads them and brings them to the racks. Potato onions are an interesting onion that is planted from the onions themselves rather than seed, As they grow they form clumps. Potato onions are larger than shallots and taste halfway between onions and shallots. They are our best keepers …
As part of the perennial project Ken prepared the soil to plant green manures We planted several seeds – wheat, oats, beans, peas, flowers, and buckwheat. The buckwheat really came up quickly and is nearly ready to bloom
Ken and I tackled moving the perennial flowers from the weedy bed this spring. First Ken pastured the hens, then we moved flowers, then the pigs dug out the bulk or the weeds. After moving the pigs, Ken ran the tractor and a cultivator through and we planted green manures. Right now the buckwheat is taking hold with the other seeds coming up – peas, oats, beans, wheat, and other old seed. The day lilies …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad and braising greens, beets, bok choy, green onions, celery, cukes and zucchini, snap peas, and green beans. Field Notes. The hot weather crops are starting to produce! People are asking for them, but with the beautiful cool nights we have had they are a bit slower to ripen than most years. We usually have a couple red tomatoes by July 4th, but they are just …
The day lilies are blooming. Ken, with some help from me, tackled the perennial flower bed that had gone to weeds. He dug, I split and he planted flowers across the drive in an area he had prepared last year. Then the chickens and pigs were fenced in the former flower garden. Chickens worked on weed seeds and pigs dug up grass and other noxious weeds Then Ken cultivated and planted green manures. The …
Farm Tour! Less than a week away. Sunday July 24th, 2 – 4 p.m. Rain or Shine Tour the growing spaces – garden fields, greenhouses and we wrap it all up with a garden lunch. Tips – from asparagus to zucchini – compost, tomatoes, etc. See ideas grown over the decades like a cuke fence to tying up tomatoes Planning on attending? Let us know so Judith knows how much food to prepare …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad and braising greens, Carrots, snap peas, herbs, green onions, the first of the potatoes, beans, and green top Walla Walla onions Field Notes. The key words for the week are green manures and mulch! Ken is nearly done mulching. And he has green manures coming up all over – field to the former flower garden! Last weekend Ken traveled to the Mother Earth News …
Ken has been mulching! Why? Mulch has many advantages over open soil – lowers weed pressure, moderates soil temperatures to promote microbial life, adds organic matter and fertility to the soil. We have used several different mulches. When we first met we would let the area around the yard grow, Ken would mow with a sickle mower, I would rake and we’d pile the trailers and unload onto the field. For several years we got …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has salad and braising greens, garlic scapes, green onions, snap peas, beets or carrots, European turnips, herbs, the last of the asparagus Field Notes. Green manures and mulch. Ken is juggling the usual sequential plantings of greens, tying up tomatoes, irrigating the greenhouses, cultivating with a push to get areas either planted with green manures or mulched. Green manures are like living mulch – they lessen …
