Friday, April 16, 2010

I may be slacking, but the seedlings aren't

Exciting times here around the farm! Unfortunately, the Farm Dog is too exhausted from being tricked by squirrels to blog, and now we're behind over here. So without further ado, a brief update of how things are growing by area...


The back garden, called the triangle
Garlic is up and tall! So are the shallots, green onions, and garlic chives. Peas, chard, and spinach were experimentally direct seeded REALLY early because of the early spring, but they just came up and are looking great!
These photos were taken about a week apart. In the last one, from 4/22, you can see the cauliflower, broccoli, and beet seedlings in trays in the foreground. Radish, lettuce, and onions (below ground) planted out next to the garlic. Plus, the richer dirt where compost was added.

The seedlings! Of course, this has been the most exciting part. I was a little slow in getting heat to the summer seeds, so the sprouting was not ideal. As you can see early on, things progressed evenly. But very quickly, an overachiever emerged... Luckily, by the time that zucchini lost its mind, the cold weather seedlings were ready to check out life outside the house, so the zucchini has ventured out as well. Otherwise, the grow lights are just too far away from the tomatoes...


More room for the tomatoes now that the cold weather seedlings live outside 24/7...

Speaking of grow lights, WOW are they great! The last couple of years I have started my seeds in a sunny window, and the difference in growth is just amazing. Hopefully this will also avoid the two week halt in growth that has typically happened while the plants figure out what exactly they were thinking growing so tall once the wind arrives...

So that about sums it up.

More to come on a few riveting topics including:
1) How I listened to the wrong hay/straw guy and am now forced to hang all my hopes on a weird little bag of corn gluten meal.
2) Massive Flea Beetle Infestation, and how [I hope] the farm gets saved by insecticidal soap
3) The Very Exciting reused lumber effort to make the raised beds. And...the hilarity that ensued once we made what we drew up on the plans. [Teaser: Veggies do not require bathtub-sized raised beds to grow.]