Well, I guess there’s nothing like the weather to keep you humble as a farmer. This time last year we had already had almost two months of warm, dry weather. We were leisurely working the fields, planting whenever we wanted and the soil was warm. This spring is another story completely! As I write this, I’m watching the rain fall for the umpteenth time, still wearing my winter jacket and forcing a smile to cover up a growing anxiety – when are we ever going to be able to plant?!?!
Luckily, we had one day this week where we were able to get on the field and we used it to manically spread compost, work the early crop ground and actually seed some crops – carrots, beets, peas and herbs. But the forecast calls for rain, rain, rain so who knows when we will get in next. The greenhouse is full and beautiful though and as soon as we can, we’ll be out there planting. Cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi and bok choy, onions, chard and lots of greens can all go in whenever the soil is dry enough and hopefully the weather will warm up some so that these crops will actually grow! This wet weather not only can put off planting (and therefore harvesting) but it also creates more favourable conditions for disease – especially in the greenhouse. The cool, overcast weather means the greenhouse doors and sides have to stay closed more of the time to conserve heat – this means less air flow inside and means the soil in the transplant plugs never dries off – conditions that fungi and disease love!
But! So far, so good. The plants in the greenhouse look great and there’s plenty of them! One of these days, they’ll go in the ground….
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