L'il Helper

The moon was in the watery constellation of the Fishes yesterday...good time to sow leaf crops. Thanks, Violet, for being a great little helper!

Awake

After a winter of sleep, the garlic is awake.

June 25

Nice pleasant cloudy morning to harvest for CSA and tomorrow's farmer's market in PC. It might officially be summer but we've still had several decent frosts in the last couple of weeks. It's not atypical for us to freeze this time of the year but we most likely will be frost free now until sometime in late August to early September; a whopping 60+ days frost free...not a tomato grower's paradise. For the most part the temps have not been extreme one way or the other. The wind, however, has been wreaking havoc and thrashing the greens a bit. Speaking of thrashing the greens, we battle a soil dwelling insect called the flea beetle. Flea beetles love to dine on all the spicy greens we grow: arugula, mustard greens plus radish and turnips. We combat them by using "floating row-covers", a spun polyester fabric that acts as a barrier and covers the crop needing protection. Sometime the little buggers still find there way under the covers though! It is purely cosmetic damage to the greens in your box. There are a host of chemical insecticides we could use but who wants to eat poison?!?

Here are a few photos from this morning on the farm in Hoytsville (Dog Holler).

Spring In The Holler

Weeding Carrots

Oakley Pano

Summer

This has been one weather roller coaster of a spring. Cold front after cold front for the last twelve weeks or so. Generally speaking, we get more windows of opportunity to work with as far as getting garden work done but this year has been a bit different. Seeds germinate best in soils that are not cool and wet and this spring we have had just that, ideal conditions for poor germination and we have seen that on the farm this season. Crops we sowed seed for when we had plating opportunities in April and May germinated poorly and slowly putting us "behind" compared to an average year. I would say we are about two to three weeks behind where we normally are this time of year. With that said, the boxes will be on the light side the first few weeks.
Looking at the weather ahead, I think we will finally begin to see the garden really begin to grow starting this week. So, don't be too surprised with lean boxes the next few weeks.