Dear All,
It is a rainy Friday morning and I am sitting in my office. I had hoped to plant the tomatoes today, but it is too wet to fork and rake the ground. So I renew my promise to them to get them planted very soon. I have promises out to the tomatoes, peppers, parsley, broccoli, cauliflower and winter squash. If I get a seeding done, they just wait dry, not awakened quietly in their seed packets. But once seeded, and transplanted into pots and ready to go outside, outgrowing their spaces, roots wanting freedom, fresh soil to roam in, I renew my promises daily, to give them something until the ground is dry enough to give me permission to work it and I do not wait long, may be not long enough. Working soil too wet is an unforgiven act that yields compaction and poor root growth, that can only be made up by even heavier machinery breaking it up or by a year of cover cropping with sweetclover or rye whose roots can find a way down,deep down. Since I can not covercrop half the garden ( I would have no room for veggies) I have to be patient and wait.
On the good side the peas are loving it. They are about 8" tall and we put fences up for them to climb on. The second pea planting is standing strong and we seeded clover in to grow along side and be there when the peas are done. I have learned from last year to plant it after the peas have come up to give the peas a head start.
We planted 150 kale and a bed of broccoli out and they all look good. The onions all took the transplanting out well and are growing. ( After transplanting the plants go into shock for a while, before they start growing again.)
The garlic is beaming. These are all cool weather crops doing good.
The last two weeks we planted more beets, Mixed Greens, transplanted celery and celeriac and flowers and first potatoes.
Mixed Greens and Spinach are growing slowly. Usually I can sell them by the middle of May, but this year it looks more like the middle of June. They will be ready for you when the CSA starts.
This Wednesday I gave a workshop on Excel (a computer program that makes charts) for farmers at an IT-conference at Clarkson University. It was the only sunny day this week and no farmers had come to the conference, they were all farming. There were a few home gardeners who appreciated the workshop and after I got home I rushed to the gardens and mowed the tall grassy fields to be planted into tomatoes until my sons school concert at night. Yesterday I plowed the field I hope to plant them tomorrow.
I am happy and I love to go out to the fields any time. Kira counted 70 black fly bites on my face, ears and neck. They want to feed their babies too.
We will keep you posted.
Peace, Dulli
It is a rainy Friday morning and I am sitting in my office. I had hoped to plant the tomatoes today, but it is too wet to fork and rake the ground. So I renew my promise to them to get them planted very soon. I have promises out to the tomatoes, peppers, parsley, broccoli, cauliflower and winter squash. If I get a seeding done, they just wait dry, not awakened quietly in their seed packets. But once seeded, and transplanted into pots and ready to go outside, outgrowing their spaces, roots wanting freedom, fresh soil to roam in, I renew my promises daily, to give them something until the ground is dry enough to give me permission to work it and I do not wait long, may be not long enough. Working soil too wet is an unforgiven act that yields compaction and poor root growth, that can only be made up by even heavier machinery breaking it up or by a year of cover cropping with sweetclover or rye whose roots can find a way down,deep down. Since I can not covercrop half the garden ( I would have no room for veggies) I have to be patient and wait.
On the good side the peas are loving it. They are about 8" tall and we put fences up for them to climb on. The second pea planting is standing strong and we seeded clover in to grow along side and be there when the peas are done. I have learned from last year to plant it after the peas have come up to give the peas a head start.
We planted 150 kale and a bed of broccoli out and they all look good. The onions all took the transplanting out well and are growing. ( After transplanting the plants go into shock for a while, before they start growing again.)
The garlic is beaming. These are all cool weather crops doing good.
The last two weeks we planted more beets, Mixed Greens, transplanted celery and celeriac and flowers and first potatoes.
Mixed Greens and Spinach are growing slowly. Usually I can sell them by the middle of May, but this year it looks more like the middle of June. They will be ready for you when the CSA starts.
This Wednesday I gave a workshop on Excel (a computer program that makes charts) for farmers at an IT-conference at Clarkson University. It was the only sunny day this week and no farmers had come to the conference, they were all farming. There were a few home gardeners who appreciated the workshop and after I got home I rushed to the gardens and mowed the tall grassy fields to be planted into tomatoes until my sons school concert at night. Yesterday I plowed the field I hope to plant them tomorrow.
I am happy and I love to go out to the fields any time. Kira counted 70 black fly bites on my face, ears and neck. They want to feed their babies too.
We will keep you posted.
Peace, Dulli
