Another Garden Update

The plants in the garden are just growing away (along with the weeds!). I thought I'd give a quick update on how things are coming along.

Little Bell Peppers

Green Beans (these are Early Contender)

Zucchini (a regular green variety). These seem to grow overnight!

Yellow Crook Neck Squash (these are just starting to form fruits)

And my sweet corn (Sugar Baby) is developing tassels. I can't wait for that first sweet corn on the cob!

FYI
For those of you wondering when the farmstand will open...I hope it will be in July, but we will have to wait and see. Our demand had exceeded our supply for the moment, but we are hoping to have extras to sell later this summer. We are already planning for a bigger garden next year! We will keep you posted.

WEEDS!

What’s Happening on the Farm?
One word: Weeding! Now that we have our summer varieties planted, we are really focusing on weeding. This is our first garden on the farm and the weeds are really bad. We have been told to keep at the weeding and in a couple years we will have a (nearly) weed free garden...the key is to pull the weeds before they go to seed. We recently purchased bales of straw to mulch around our plants. We are also going to use newspaper (with a layer of straw on top of that) to keep weeds down. The newspaper is a trick I read about in Organic Gardening Magazine. Most newsprint today is printed with soy based ink, so it is a better option for the environment (than say black plastic mulch). The newsprint allows the soil to breathe, plus it will break down over time and condition the soil (like compost). Cardboard, brown craft paper, and paper grocery sacks also work well. We have also used some black plastic mulch along our west fenceline. The weeds are growing like crazy all along the fence, so we pulled the weeds and layed the black plastic down, securing it with ground staples. So far it is working well. We need to do the east side of the fenceline still. It is a project that takes about two hours per side. We have also had to get out our push lawn mower to knock down some weeds! The weather has been very wet and rainy (with more storms tonight and possibly tomorrow) and it has been too muddy to hoe or till the ground. The weeds have gotten way out of control in certain areas of the garden, so we mowed them down...we still have more to mow if the rain would ever stop. On a positive note, my cucumbers, early cantalope, and green beans are blooming like crazy. We even have baby cucs and zucchinis forming, so it shouldn't be long before those are ready to harvest!

A New Recipe Blog

I just wanted to let you all know that I started a new recipe blog that will feature recipes using garden fresh produce. Check it out at http://picketfencefarmrecipes.blogspot.com.

How Does The Garden Grow?

I thought I would give a garden update. Things are growing well and we will soon have more to harvest than just greens and radishes!


These are the green beans, which are about to start blooming. You can also see the onions behind them.

Here is a picture of the cabbages. They are beginning to form heads.

Here are my beloved tomato plants, flowering and forming small tomatoes! I am longing for that first ripe garden tomato!

Here are my snow peas, blooming profusely...we should have some peas soon.

And this is a zucchini plant, about ready to bloom as well (it may be blooming already as this was taken on Sunday).

What We Have Planted Part 2

A few more things planted in the garden recently:

Pumpkins (Small World of Color Blend, Lumina, Prizewinner, Jack Be Little, Early Sweet Sugar Pie, and Jack O' lantern)

Winter Squash (Waltham Butternut, Early Acorn, Buttercup, Boston Marrow, Spaghetti)

Gourd (Small Fancy Mix, Large Bottle Mix)

Garden Bean (Cherokee Wax)

Radish (Salad Giant)

More planting to come in July and August for fall harvest...