A Little Surprise…

Frosts last week dominated most conversations.  Fortunately the frosts were light and only lasted a couple of hours.  I did not lose any strawberry blossoms, from what I could see.  Work around the Micro Farm has been shifting from cleaning and preparation to planting.

The final preparation steps are laying soaker hoses, black plastic mulch, and straw mulch.

Two soaker hoses and one row of black plastic.

Straw is then laid on top of the black plastic.  The straw helps hold the plastic down and helps slow evaporation.

Straw covering soaker hoses and black plastic.

Already the soil is dry. Additional help holding on to water is important.

I stopped by our local vocational high school’s annual plant sale.  I purchased five packs of marigolds.  Saturday I planted them along the edges of the beds.  They look really nice.  What do you think?

A few of the new marigolds.

I also transplanted several tomatillos plants and a few beets.

The beet transplants.

I also prepared the cucumber bed.  Currently, there are several green onions still waiting to be harvested.  I will pull them before they get in the way of the cucumbers.

One of the cucumber mounds and the green onions

While investigating the strawberry plants for frost damage I was surprised.

One of the first strawberries.

Now all I need to protect the berries from critters.

I hope you are preparing to put warm weather plants into the ground.  I know the upcoming weekends will be busy for gardeners and micro-farmers alike.  I hope you are able to spend some time in the soil and with your family.

Enjoy this season, learn from last season, and look forward to next season.

 

Don’t Freeze In Place

I returned after a week of traveling to incredible growth around the Micro Farm.  Doing a quick tour I almost could not believe how everything had grown in just one week.  While that was great for the plants I want, the weeds definitely took advantage of my absence.

A few weeds that I need to pull.

I do not usually discriminate about what plants I put into the compost.  I knew that could create some challenges.  This year it has.  The compost piles did not get hot enough to kill them.  Once the seeds get water and sunlight they begin to grow.  I have two methods of eliminating the weeds, (1) pull them (2) cover open soil with black plastic.  Another method I have read about is the “ten-day rule” if you hoe or cultivate your soil once every ten days the seeds grow but never take root and create more seeds.  I will be using black plastic to cover most of my open soil to eliminate weeds and to help slow soil evaporation.

On my return tour I was really excited to see the rhubarb flourishing.

A healthy rhubarb plant

This poor rhubarb plant has been re-located twice.  Finally in its second home and a mild spring it is doing really well.  I am happy to see it flourishing.

Onions coming up.

The onion sets I planted have begun to come up.  I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded of a couple of locations I had forgotten I planted onions.

Radishes needing to be thinned.

The few radishes I planted are doing well.  I do need to thin them out a little so when they “bulb out” they do not grow together.

My first crop of peas

I am trying something new with my peas this year.  So far everything is working well.  I hope they continue to grow nice and tall. I would love to have peas climbing the entire trellis.

While the frost-free percentages are good that this area would still have a freeze it has been several years since we have had one. Last year I planted my tomatoes and peppers this weekend.

This year as the frost is coming so I covered the strawberries.

Strawberry flowers

The strawberry plants are as strong as I remember them.  I really do not want to lose them to a frost.

Strawberries under my home-made low tunnel hoops

I made these hoops last year.  I had planned to use them with some type of fencing to keep the animals away from the berries.  They went into use just a bit earlier than planned.  Hopefully this will keep the frost off the plants.  I had to use scraps of plastic, I do not a large enough clear plastic piece.  I will pull the black off when the temperatures are warm enough, and put it back on late in the afternoon so the sun warms up the black plastic.

I hope you avoid any frosts, and all your seedlings are doing well.

Enjoy this season, learn from last season, and look forward to next season.