Ken encourages indigenous, native pollinators. About a third of our produce requires pollination – the nightshade family of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and the cucurbit family of summer and winter squash and cucumbers, and legumes like peas and beans. All these crops flower and once pollinated they set fruit, and we eat the fruit. Two things Ken does – well, actually the first is what he doesn’t do . He doesn’t use any chemicals. Chemicals that …
Asparagus is a perennial, and each spring the plants send us shoots that Ken harvests. Along about July Ken stops harvesting, weeds again and either mulches or plants a green manure crop in the asparagus, and allows it to rest, grow and build energy for next spring. This year he decided to mulch rather than plant buckwheat or some other green manure. First he weeds – a “hands and knees …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, salad mix, braising greens, beets or carrots, asparagus, radishes, herbs, snap peas and strawberries Field Notes. Ken has been vigilant about keeping the growing spaces cultivated. After the rain, once it is dry enough he is out with either the wheel hoe or hand cultivator. He has also been planting – cabbage for fall is now in the garden. And he is weeding and mulching …
