Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Spring Planting

The first picture has nothing to do with spring planting but everything to do with what happens when hens sit on eggs where you can't find them for 20+ days. These little peeps are home grown!

The gardens have been tilled! CSA membership 1-2 higher than we anticipated but we just have a hard time saying no to such nice people. We'll be working to make the pickup area a fun place to hang out and see what's happening in the garden. The herb garden from last year is being transformed into an above ground herb garden box. It will be help yourself/pick your own herbs again this year as it was a huge hit last year. We'll also have pick your own cut flowers though I need to figure out where to plant them this weekend. We'll have the zinnias from last year along with 10-12 other cut flowers as well as edible flowers. No extra charge for the herbs and the cut flowers- they are still a work in process and will be there for you to enjoy!

You'll see rows of garlic below coming up and growing nicely through the straw.
Part of the onions have been planted-- still more to arrive via UPS in the next week.

Spinach and chard have also been planted along with a first pass of lettuce. I say first pass because we plant lettuce just about every week so that it makes it to the correct size for each CSA week- I found a few more summer varieties to try when it's really hot out as lettuce is not always tasty in the middle of the summer. The first round of snap peas were put in the ground 2 weeks ago so this week will be the second and final planting of snap peas.

We'll be sending out sign up schedules for the CSA work days soon. The first 2 weeks of May are big planting weeks for transplants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc) and we'll need help those 2 weeks.



3 comments:

Toni aka irishlas said...

Everything is looking great! Love the baby Barred Rocks!
Thanks for the comment about needing calcium for my hens. I was thinking this might be part of the problem. Picked up some oyster shell.
No other problems since Monday. Maybe I'll get lucky and it's a one off type of deal.

Michael@greenakeys.com said...

Do you have the right sized grit available for your girls? I need to get more oyster shell for my girls today. Im getting the same thing you are.

One thing that is helpful is getting a good feed ration for your hens. I have been feeding my hens a ration recommended by Fertrell that includes their Nutrabalancer mineral mix right in the feed. The grains are local and conventional, but the mineral supplement is certified organic.

I buy mine at Bowmans in Westminster. 9.50 a bag, I think.

Toni aka irishlas said...

I go to Bowman's for my feed and have followed their recommendations on what to feed. They are just beginning to carry an organic brand of feed but it's twice the price...
I really appreciate your and Annette's input. I am so a greenhorn!