It seems as if spring has had a hard time getting here this year. The soil had a hard time drying out due to the cool weather. We were lucky to have out potatoes in by the end of March, and over half of the garden is planted.
In the ground so far:
beets, carrots, peas, potatoes, spinach, onions, leeks, bok choi, pac choi, kale, chard, lettuce, arugula, and raab.
The greenhouse is full of plants, many ready to go out. We set out 350 cabbage plants last night. My dad also had the big tractor out to plant the sweetcorn, it is early but we decided to gamble it. We could have some of the earliest SC in the county, or it could rot in the ground with cool cold weather. I am hoping for the first. I have a good feeling and it plants better with the larger equipment, 8 rows at a time.
Many of our warm weather crop are seedlings and will be ready to go out in a couple weeks. Everything looks so good so far!
We got some exciting news, NRCS is funding us a hoop house, 20' x 50' and I will be purchasing it this week. This hoop house will extend our season, primarily for growing greens into the winter. Last year we purchased 2 low tunnel systems and overwintered mustard, kale, broccoli, cabbage and napa cabbage. It overwintered and is ready to pick right now. If I can do that with 2 - 4' x 50' hoops, imaging what we can do with a big one. We also purchased a used greenhouse, 20' x 50' a few weeks ago from a retiring farm in Casey. It was the coldest day ever for my dad and Ken and I to load that up. We have almost outgrown our greenhouse, so this big one is my dream come true 10 times over. Very exciting.
All the chicks arrived from the hatchery, and we have a really cool assortment of pullets - egg layers. We also have 14 turkeys, bronze breasted. And they have been hatching out of our incubator non-stop for several weeks. We are overrun with birds right now, and they are smelly, stinking up my sunroom.
We are filling up fast, and have a few spots open, then it will be to wait and see what the weather brings!
See ya all soon!
