It’s not the planting

It’s not the actual planting, it’s all the work beforehand and after, that takes so much time.  Making compost, seeding, tending, irrigation planning, and soil preparation.  This list could go on in more detail, but, it’s a long time and a lot of work from the idea of growing your own food, to get that food to the table.  I ate my last parsnip last week, a full year after I had planted that seed.  Here on our farm we have an intimate and long relationship with our food.  A calf that was born last week, may be on my table in 2 years, we will enjoy him most of that time, and after he is no longer “with” us.

Cleaning out cattle feeding shed, more compost.  This was about 4 feet deep.

One of the signs in the greenhouse that the soil has significantly warmed, is when volunteers start to germinate.  Plants that appeared overnight with the latest heat wave:  tomatoes, golden purslane,  and basil.  This volunteer parade starts a little earlier with calendula, cilantro, bachelor buttons, marigolds and chard.  Around June 1st in the outside garden, calendula, amaranth, and cilantro will signal me to get busy!

 

 

Tomatoes just sprouting.

Succession planting – bok choy for dinner, put a tomato in its place.

Greenhouse space is at a premium, because we have to irrigate, so we try to cram as many crops in the space as possible.  A few more 90* days, and this bok choy will start to bolt.  So we’ve been eating lots of stir frys and just snacking on the succulent stalks.  Radishes and turnips under the row cover are almost done, basil will take their place.  Please note, my favorite new garden tools – latex gloves.  With these on, I don’t need a trowel.  I can just dig in the dirt and plant tranplants fast!

 

I’m probably over planting, but I planted 43 tomato plants.  I have the space, and I’m feeling a little nervous about the food supply in the coming winter.  I can easily grow these out and if I have extra after preserving what we need, I can sell the surplus.  On the far left and right are indeterminates, planted on 4 foot spacing, the short row in the middle are determinates on 2 foot spacing.

It looks empty right now,  but I plant 6 rows in here of tomatoes, peppers, melons and basil, and by late summer, it is quite jungle-like, without much room between rows.  I dug holes for the tomato plants, added compost, ag lime, and dolomite, and mixed in some of the soil and planted.  It is supposed to rain by Tuesday, so I need to concentrate on getting some outside garden planted.  We learned a lot from the neighbors who grow tomatoes hydroponically.  Their operation uses a lot of fossil fuel and electricity, not our cup of tea but they are skilled  farmers. Even though we follow “beyond organic” principles, we have found you can learn a lot from fellow farmers, no matter the method of farming.  We follow some of their steadfast tomato rules: 

♥  No shade cloth, the plants need light, they can take the heat.  (They gave us all their shade cloth – enough to cover two greenhouses.  This was after they discovered shade wasn’t the answer.  We used it as shade for our egg laying flock, while they were still housed in the greenhouse for winter.  By doubling it up and putting it over the nest box area it provided a dark place for egg laying.)

♥  Build your hoophouse tall enough not to cook the plants inside.  At the peak the greenhouse is 12′, with vents at the top to relieve the heat.

♥  Allow no fruit to set after August 1st.  Following this rule, we are done with tomatoes by October 1st. We top our plants in the first week of August and stop watering at this time too.  (The watering rule is ours, since the neighbors grow hydroponically.)  Once the days start getting shorter, and cooler in September, the flavor starts to diminish. 

 

Getting ready for her plant sale.

 

 

The dog days of May – too hot for doggies!  He was out like a light.