Berry Planting

Today we planted some additional small berries. This area has been mulched with 6" of wood chips since last summer, and I planted the berries down in the soil, and then drew the wood chips back around the plants for a mulch.:

South Row: Saskatoon: Martin x4,
Middle Row: Saskatoon: Smoky x4, and Northline x4
North Row: Triple Crown Blackberry x4, Viking Aronia x4, and Goji Berry x1

Earlier we mowed to the ground every other row of our raspberries. They were growing into a solid mat, and the walkway was completely obscured. This will allow these rows to regenerate, and make a healthier early crop. (And it will be much easier to reach them!)

Spring is finally on its way. The trillium wildflowers opened today, and the tree buds are swelling. Glorious time.

Today was also our first microgreen sales day. We had two separate customers purchase some.

Last Sunday we planted 8 rows of Purple Majesty potatoes, 3 rows of Yukon Gold, and 1 row of Red potatoes. It will be fun to see these come up. The potatoes are planted down in the newest plot, so I hope they do as well as in the previous plot. We have some black plastic row cover that will help control weeds. I will wait to put that down till the potatoes are out of the ground, and we have the watering lines in.

How is your garden coming?

Cool Dry Summer

The weather in our neck of the woods has been quite a puzzle this year. We had a cooler and very wet spring, then a few weeks of really hot weather (90's) and Indian summer (pleasant days, cool nights) since then. It has felt like fall for weeks now. The really important factor for gardening has been the lack of rain for the past month. The weather has been so cool that warm living plants have not grown as well we are used to seeing.

Watermelons are a month behind last year. We have planted the melons amid the fruit trees which is wood chip mulched. Perhaps the wood chips are cooler for the vines to grow over, and we wonder if this is a part of their slow growth.


Harvests through August 6th

• Strawberries, raspberries provided a great harvest.
• Blue Berries provided a sample crop, which was tasty.
• Tomatoes are in good supply, though we have not canned any as of yet.
• We are getting plenty of green beans for fresh eating, but not enough yet for preserving.
• Peppers seem slow, though there are some that have matured.
• Beets have been good, but seem a bit small and have been drought stressed on occasion.
• Potatoes are ready to dig.
• Okra has been on for a few weeks, an d the supply is increasing as the plants enlarge.
• Onions and Garlic provided a nice crop. We are not sure how well the onions will store over winter. Some may have been sun burned during curing.
• Zuchinni squash plants have survived perfectly this year in the green house. No die off from squash vine borers! Pollination is by hand, which is a consistent task. Un-pollinated squash just shrivel on the vine like blossom end rot.
• We also put our cucumbers in the green house, and they are climbing up a net on the back wall (see pic above). This is working well, but pollination (or lack of it) may be decreasing the volume of harvest. No cucumber wilt seen yet!

Lettuce

Lettuce plants grow in cool weather, and with a little protection may overwinter. Most dark greens are good sources of Vitamin C and other nutrients. The rule of thumb is, usually, the darker the greens, the more nutritious the leaf.

For a market garden, you will get more income for leaf and lettuce crops per square foot of garden space.


Planting

Early spring is a great time to plant your lettuce seeds. Lettuce likes the cooler temps, generally 40 to 60 degrees F. In warmer climates, you can likely grow lettuce until it reaches about 80 degrees F. If you plant seeds in the spring, you should try to get started at least a month before the hot weather hits your area. You can also plant in the late summer for a fall harvest.

Something new that we are trying this year is the planting of lettuce in a shaded garden under a part of our forest canopy. The trees are large, and tree trunks are spread far apart. This area that is significantly cooler than our open field gardens in the heat of the day. A friend has reported good success with this type of forest planting. We will see how it goes for us this year! (UPDATE, this did not work for us in 2012. I think you have to get the plants started in the early spring. There just was not enough light in this plot to get the lettuce going.)

We make a shallow furrow, and sprinkle in the seeds. Then we cover with the slightest dusting of potting soil to help hold moisture. Some seeds need light to germinate, so don't bury those kind of seeds.

You should see seedlings sprouting in 7 to 10 days. When your lettuce is about 1 to 2 inches high, you should thin the plants a bit so that there is about eight inches of space between each other. If you want to have lettuce growing throughout the season, you can plant different types every few weeks (about 10 to 14 days apart). This is called successive planting. (web)


Planting Record 2012

This late winter, we noticed some small lettuce volunteer plants coming up from the Black Seed Simpson leaf lettuce patch. Last year we allowed the patch to go to seed, and new plants were growing even though there was snow outside. When we could work the soil, we transplanted these into a lettuce bed, and they filled the bed of 4' by 60'. We have been eating this lettuce all spring, and it is just now starting to rise up getting ready to bolt. For the past week or so, we have noticed this lettuce becoming a bit bitter as our temperatures have been rising.

From this experience, we can see that lettuce can really grow early in the season!

On May 21 we planted 5 rows in the woods consisting of:

1. Lettuce Sangria MTO
2. Lettuce Beleah Rose
3. Lettuce Cimmaron
4. Romaine Lettuce Red Amish Deer Tongue
5. Romaine Lettuce Parris Island

As of June 10, we can conclude that we waited too long to plant in the woods, or that our woods are too dark. There are some small weeds growing, but the lettuce planted does not seem to be doing well.


Pests

Lettuce can be attacked by a variety of insects and animals. I have seen small lettuce plants in a green house covered by aphids. Insecticidal soap can be effective deterrent for aphids.

Rabbits and deer could also be attracted to your offering of salad. Fencing is suggested if animal pressure is high.

Harvest

We suggest you harvest in the early part of the day. I think lettuce plants are crisper and a bit sweeter in the early morning as compared to afternoon harvests. Cool lettuce quickly and store them in a cool location. The crop should be cleaned, and then dried to prevent spoilage.


Resources

• Pests of Lettuce (web)

Improving Your Soil

Soils become depleted with pounds of produce being grown from your ground. It is logical that removal of produce needs to be balanced with replenishment of nutrients that have been required by the plant and produce. As we initiate sustainable farming, we want to replenish the soil to an ideal mineral content. Minerals are finite, physical substances. When these minerals are depleted, the soil will not produce as well. The idea of can be expressed as the law of the minimums. If one critical mineral is deficient, it will limit the entire production of all mineral inputs to that minimum level available. God has given plants the marvelous ability to extract what they need from the soil. But low nutrient levels make the plants work harder, and yield along with disease resistance declines.

Now is the time to build and replenish our soils through amendments, mulches and cover crops.

1) Amendments are nutrients added to the soil and blended to depth for a uniform mixture. Minerals are from rock sources, raw or refined. Traditional farming amendments have been calculated to a depth of 8 or 9 inches, perhaps based on the depth of their plow. I suggest amendments down to 12 inches depth. There is no need to amend for more soil than you will be able to adequately till, so keep this in mind when calculating your amendment values.

Some nutrients are more soluble than others, and some will drift down, especially in sandy soils. In this situation, nutrients could be drawn out of the reach of vegetable root zone. Some nutrients do not have much mobility in the soil. I will go into great detail on mineral testing of your soil and amending it in future posts.

2) Mulches are materials not blended into the soil, but set atop soil. The advantages include moisture retention, sunlight shielding which in turn keeps weed pressure down, softer rain incorporation into the soil, less soil compaction, encouraging earthworm activity, prevents soil saturation, percolation of mulch nutrients into the soil below. Some mulches like wood chips should not be mixed into the soil, as it would decrease the available nitrogen in the soil, it being tied up in the bacterial breakdown process. Let the mulch decompose on top, and share their goodness to the soil through gentle seepage. Heavy mulching lends itself to a no-till methodology.

Planting of seeds is best done in the soil, so if you have mulched your field, pull away the mulch in the furrow for planting. When the crop comes up, dress the plants again with the mulch to cover the ground.

Mulching may encourage mice and other vermin, so take care that this does not cause problems in your farm.

3) Cover crops are a way to increase nutrients to your garden area, and can be done on your garden plots as an over winter crop or as a rest period where you leave a plot fallow. Alfalfa is a perennial crop that can stay strong for 6 or 7 years. Regular cuttings of alfalfa can provide mulch and amendment material for your fields. Alfalfa has deep roots, and pulls nutrients from deep below. Alfalfa can be cut before it goes to seed, and as such it makes wonderful mulch.

It may be well to compost cover crops to retain nitrogen from being lost in the atmosphere. A covering of soil with its bacteria could capture the released nitrogen, binding it for later use.

Coverings are God's natural plan of nature. Only where man has disturbed the soil will you find bare soil. The Bible records that after sin, man began to till the soil. (Gen 4:2). God is very specific about covering the human form, and looking at nature we see plants actively covering the earth, wherever possible.

Improving soils involves more than just chemical nutrient balancing, but also physical and biological characteristics.

No matter what soils we have to work with, we have promises from the Lord for His blessing to grow food. Following are quotes of encouragement.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chron. 7:14 

"Human beings were to cooperate with God in restoring the diseased land to health, that it might be a praise and a glory to His name. And as the land they possessed would, if managed with skill and earnestness, produce its treasures, so their hearts, if controlled by God, would reflect His character." BLT 253.3

"You are not working alone. When you are tempted to become discouraged remember this. Angels of God are right around you. They will minister to the very earth, causing it to give forth its treasures." SpM 447.2

With this encouragement - let us join our angels in working our land for His glory. If you do not have land available to feed your family fruits and vegetables, now is the time to procure, even at a sacrifice, such land. God's plan for us is to work the soil, and perfect our characters in the process.

Kneel in your garden, and ask God for wisdom on what to do next. Ask for His leading on what amendments, mulches and cover crops to use. Ask how to best lay out the garden plot. Ask for His blessing that you can learn how to produce more food that ever thought possible, that you might offer the "5 loaves and 2 fishes" to be miraculously multiplied for the blessing of others around us.

I have prayed these prayers on my land, and while there, I have prayed for you. May God strengthen you to sacrifice to follow his leading. May your focus be on how God will use your land to be a blessing to others.