Blessing Falls Family Farm

As the weather warms in April and May, the seedlings and transplants really take off.  To the left are potatoes.  We grew these under plastic, as you can see.  This made it difficult to hill the soil around the growing potatoes.  We got a good crop of smaller ones, but next year we’ll keep the plastic off of these.  The weed may get a foothold, but the potatoes should grow bigger.

The photos below are of chinese (napa) cabbage, traditional cabbage and broccoli all growing toward an expected harvest in early May.  You see the cucumbers are just getting started while the onions and lettuces in the background are thriving.

Planting for the spring/summer season lasts about 3 months.  Cooler weather crops such as cabbage, lettuce, carrots, and broccoli are seeded and transplanted starting in mid February.  We plant in stages in order to spread out the harvest so we’re still planting some warm weather crops in mid May.   The first photo shows leeks being transplanted, the second shows seeding of cucumber.

Here’s a view back over the recently planted rows – with the cattle grazing in the distance.  The final photo is of more seedlings in the ‘hardening off’ stage where they are exposed to wind and some sun for about a week so there is less transplant shock.

The first few rows of the garden were amended for mineral deficiencies last year.  So the next step is preparing and spreading organic fertilizer.  We measured and marked off the rows and planted the first rows before our order of plastic mulch arrived.

On all the other rows, plastic mulch is placed on top of the drip tape.  The plastic is an excellent weed barrier and also limits evaporation so we don’t have to irrigate very much.

We track everything on spreadsheets showing dates for seeding, transplanting, and expected harvest as well as row locations for each variety planted.

Late January, work began on the new garden expansion.  Our family garden of the past has great fertile soil but is too small for the vision of growing a surplus to sell.  The expansion is in a bermudagrass pasture so we begin with discing and then raking out the grass runners.