Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has lettuce, summer cabbage, carrots, kale, green beans, radishes, potatoes, bok choy, Walla Walla Sweet onions, and parsley Field Notes.  Mulching the garden continues.  Ken is cultivating, wheel hoeing and mulching.  He also planted six flats of fall crops one evening last week.  He transplants in the evening so the plants experience less shock and recover to grow more quickly. Ken is tying up tomatoes weekly as …

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To Mulch or Not to Mulch?

Each season Ken makes a decision whether to mulch or not. If he decides not to mulch he plants a green manure crop.  When it is hot or dry and the green manure won’t sprout, it’s a good time to mulch.     Both mulch and green manures cover bare areas.  They retain moisture in times of drought.  They moderate the soil temperature to promote microbial life in the soil.  The weed germination and pressure on …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has lettuce, spinach, bok choy, green onions, radishes, beans, cabbage, zucchini, broccoli, anise hyssop and thyme. Field Notes Temperature fluctuations are extreme this week; we had a sweltering day Saturday and a cool easy to work day Sunday.  The temperature spread was about thirty degrees. This is stressful on the plants and animals (and farmers).  We are hoping for more moderate temperature swings. Ken has been wheel …

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Fall Plantings

Ken plants all season.  This week he has been transplanting fall greens.  Here are some in the garden         He has been clearing space, and preparing other beds for late season crops as well.  He pulled the sunflowers and gave the seed heads to the chickens to enjoy before the rodents ate them! Ken likes to wait a bit before planting so he can rake or cultivate.  This gives the plants a …

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Preparing Beds for Fall

Ken is constantly planting from February through November.  This week he pulled out the determinate tomatoes in the garden and some summer squash  plants.       Then he started mulching and preparing the beds for fall crops –         Then Ken ran the wheel hoe through the beds           and added compost           Finally Ken spread out the compost, and now he will …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, carrots, onions, garlic, eggplant, cabbage, greens, basil, parsley, and cilantro Field Notes.  Ken has been harvesting!  And he is planting fall crops as well.  He has been mulching and composting and preparing the soil where the mobile tunnel will move for late fall and winter. From the Kitchen.  I am moving into preserving mode.    Last week I made jams and froze ripe …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini,  eggplant, garlic, cabbage. greens, parsley, and basil           Field Notes Ken has been cultivating adding compost and mulch to the area next to the mobile high tunnel.  This will add organic matter and fertility when the tunnel is moved to that location.  He has also been planting, weeding, and of course, picking.  either of us need …

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Harvest Newsletter

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 …

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Mulching Continues – Nearly Done

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 …

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Harvest Newsletter

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 …

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