April Showers…..bring the weeds!

The old saying:”Be careful what you ask for, for you may get it!”  is very true. We did get the rain we asked for…a good soaking rain and everything is a great shade of green again.  All plants have sprung back to life and are growing in leaps and bounds.  Especially the weeds, which are doing their best to expand their domain…

The back and forth between warmer than normal weather and cooler than normal weather has confused some of the plants. The Fall crops are trying to go to seed already, while we had spotty germination of the Spring crops. But we have re-seeded and the rain should put everything back on track.

Re-seeded spinach sprouting

As you can see below, the potatoes are coming in nicely. As soon as it dries out a bit we will “hill” them.  We are still reserving judgment about whether the “in the ground” potatoes or the “in the hay” potatoes are doing better.

The sign-up period for spring season is now closed; however, we still have openings available for summer and fall. We are planning to start spring deliveries the week of May 6^th.  The delivery schedule is as follows:

Charlottesville area:

Tuesday afternoons.  Delivered to Michie Hamlett work site between 2 and 3pm. 

South Richmond / Midlothian areas:

Thursday afternoons. Delivery to BRS workplace and other local locations starting after 2pm.

Manakin-Sabot area:

Saturday morning delivery.  Time to be confirmed this week via email.

VCU area:

Exact delivery time /day will be confirmed this week via email.

 

We’ll leave you with a few images of things to come……

Front to back: Mizuna, romaine lettuce, Chinese cabbage

Swiss chard

Over 1600 onions

Beet greens

The next succession of beets and lettuce-they will be ready after the early spring planted crops have been picked

Until next week…

Jeff and Sandra

Feast or famine…..

They say that a farmer isn’t really happy unless he or she is complaining about the weather.  Here at the MiniFarm, we are complaining about the drought.  It has been 16 days since the last rain here and with temperatures feeling like mid-July, we can only hope that we can keep up with the water needs of the crops.

The morning view out the back door

Like most farms, the work day starts when it is light enough to see. All the planting, transplanting and watering is done mostly by mid-day.  After that, working the plants could do more damage that good in the heat.  The spring crops are confused by the weather, is it hot? Is it cold? Is it hot again? What’s with these desert winds? But everything is finally deciding to grow as we approach the start of the season….would be even better if Mother Nature supplied some rain.

Bok Choi

Radishes

Here tax day means the hummingbirds will be showing up any time.  Like clock work, our “hummers” show up on the 15^th of the month.  They are a pleasant distraction to watch and listen to while taking a break from the chores.  We usually have between five and seven birds that fight over our two feeders.  The back feeder is close to the grill, so preparing dinner is an adventure as we get “buzzed” as a warning to stay clear of their food.  Hummingbirds are very territorial and do dynamic aerial swoops to scare off the others. Once the hummers have discovered a feeding site, they will return to the same feeding site for most of their adult lives.  So, in the middle of summer heat, how do we know when the hummer nectar goes bad? Well, that is easy. When you go outside and the hummers come and hover in your face, chirping to let you know that it is time for new food. We make new hummer food about every 10 days. You can buy the pre-made nectar packages, but we usually just make our own with sugar and water using the following recipe:

                4 cups tap water

                1 cup sugar

Bring water to boil.  Stir in sugar until totally dissolved. Remove from heat.  Let cool for approximately two hours. Place in feeders.  Note: Red color is not necessary for food.  The feeders have the color to draw the birds.

I usually make it in the evening. By first light it is cool enough to set out so it is ready when the hummers show up for breakfast.

Ok… your right….this is not a hummingbird….this is our local Downy Woodpecker who is sneaking in a drink on this hot afternoon!

Well, that is all for now...time to check the weather to see if there is any chance or rain.

Till next time,

Jeff & Sandra

As I put these thoughts together on this cool morning I am finding that time is just flying by…just not enough hours in a day to get that “to-do” list completed on a daily basis.  The weather is finally cooling down and getting back to a somewhat normal spring-like range. Many of our overwintered fall planted crops like spinach and Swiss chard are already trying to set seed heads. Hopefully they will slow down now. The spring planted spinach (which won’t sprout above 70^o F) had spotty growth; we are reseeding today.

The warm weather crops have been transplanted to larger pots to allow more growth under the lights.

Eggplant and peppers

However, with spring and life emerging everywhere we have found that plants were succumbing to a terribly oppressive force that was killing selected groups of our seedlings…by squashing them.

Squashed romaine lettuce seedling

There were only tell tales signs left behind that only the most skilled tracker could read.  Morning after morning we woke to find additional plants falling to this nemesis…in the garden and in the seedling trays. Finally we got a clue.  If you look closely at the photo below you might see some of the signs that this destroyer of plants left behind….



This was an entire tray of Cimmaron romaine lettuce seedlings

This led us to the guilty party …..



The Great Squasher of Plants

Sadly, only harsh thoughts could be given…for this is Forrest….the great defender of the barn from field mice… an adopted member of the family…and aptly named after Forrest Gump. He’s not too bright. A story on its own, but for another time.

Well the to-do list calls and more seeding needs to be done…

Until the next time,

Jeff & Sandra