What a crazy spring with all of its highs and lows. Wednesday, while mulching with hay and soybean straw between the onion and pea rows, it was a gorgeous sunny - not too hot - and calm day. Perfect weather for tucking hay between our tight spaced rows to inhibit weed growth among the young onions. Today – what a contrast – cloudy and looking like rain that never came - warm but so windy. We keep checking all the rows of mulch we put down yesterday praying it doesn’t blow away. We could really use some rain but the 30% chance forecast has not managed to produce any drops much less the downpour we were hoping for. All the new seeds, seedlings and the new grape vines could really use a drink of natural rainwater to give them the boost they need to take off.
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| Black Plastic Mulch weed control |
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| Cutting very large holes to plant through. |
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| Frontenac Vines ready to plant |
As in past years, we will be growing quite a few veggies and our grape vines in black plastic mulch. When we first started the CSA we did the whole process by hand! Now we have a Ford 3000 tractor and mulch layer attachment which Robin uses to lay rows of mulch ready for planting with drip irrigation tape laid beneath it. We plant our tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and quite a few other transplants through the mulch for weed control. We also purchased a Hatfield transplanter – a nifty hand tool operated by one person that cuts a square hole in the plastic mulch, another person drops the plant plug down the shoot and another adds a dollop of water. We all cover each plan with a couple good handfuls of soil. This simple tool really speeds up our planting.
This year, we have converted our southeast most field (Abundance) to our new vineyard. The grape vines we are planting are: Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, Marquette, Sabrevois, Prairie Star and
La Crescent
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| Filling flats with potting mix to start seeds. |
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| Holes with room for a large root system. |
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| Marjoram, Sage and more growing in the greenhouse.
We hope to over the next few years to decrease our vegetable production and increase the size of our vineyard and other fruiting shrubs such as black currants and elderberries. We are hopeful that in a few years, we’ll be producing good quality organic grapes that will be salable to our local Wineries. Our friends from Stark Wines (check them out – they are great!) are enthusiastically encouraging our new endeavor.
Back to the veggies – it is that time of year that we have veggies in all stages of growth. In early April we only had seeds in flats in our seed house – an insulated building with multiple racks and grow-lights to help the seeds germinate and grow. By late April, many of those seedlings were already in the greenhouses where they grow until ready to transplant to the field. Just this week, we transplanted a whole greenhouse of Brassicas to the field. And the very next day we refilled those cleaned seed flats and seeded a variety of basils and other herbs and flowers which we put in the seedhouse.
Every year, Gigi finds this time of year with plants growing in multiple locations kind of crazy – even with the smaller number of veggies we are growing this year.
As of today, the Norland red potatoes are up, the Yukon Golds are just pushing through the soil, the onions (red, white and yellow) are mulched and growing. The sweet corn, radishes, carrots, beets, chard, cilantro, lettuce and greens have been seeded in the fields. Seed-flats of basils, herbs, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are growing in the greenhouses and seed house. We are planning for our first share the second week of June – however if the really warm weather continues – there could be a smaller share on
June 7th. Watch our blog for updates about exactly when and where and what time your veggies will be harvested, packed and delivered as we move forward.
Thank you for joining us for Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm’s eighth season. We still have approximately twelve spots left for any who are still thinking about joining but haven’t yet sent in your membership form.
Until next week…………….
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| Hand planting each vine. |
