Gardening with Dad

My parents moved several hours south a few years back. They used to live in Portland, so we could get togther quite frequently. Now that they are living in Pennsylvania, I just don't see them as often. Now, while my Dad and I respectively commute home, we have great chats about our gardens.

I've heard about his garden from start to finish and start again over the years. This year, he's had rich soil trucked in from a local mushroom farm (they sell it cheap after growing a batch of mushrooms) to amend his stony clay. He's told me about his garden spacing, how things are too close together, because he doesn't have the heart to thin the baby plants. (I'm not sure if that's learned or genetic, but I have the same soft heart.) He describes how the Scarecrow(R) I got him for Christmas squirts the mourning doves, but isn't set off by the little birds, and how its keeping the pesky but cute cottontail rabbits out of his garden. (Most of the gifts I've given to my folks since they moved south have been from Johnny's; we're lucky to have a generous employee discount.) I get to hear scary stories about the day he almost fainted while cultivating (didn't drink enough water in the heat). I also get to hear about things that make me jealous, like the fact that his tomato plants are already blossoming, or how he had a bumper crop of cucumbers, when I had only a couple of plants survive a rodent invasion on the seeds, which were then weakened by excess rain and little heat.

When I was a kid, my parents had a huge garden. They grew 100 tomato plants, along with cucumbers, peppers, squash, corn (which never survived the relentless Portland raccoons), and other veggies, and my mom spent most of her autumn time canning. It slowly tapered off - from about 1000 square feet, to 750, to 500, to 4 raised beds, to patio tomatoes. In Pennsylvania, my dad has created a fairly large garden (to my mother's chagrin; she thought she was done canning when they moved south, and I had to return a bunch of the stuff she gave me). Gardening keeps my Dad "out of trouble" and very busy. He loves working outdoors and watching things grow and change, as I do, and probably most of you readers, too.

I'm lucky to have my Dad a phone call away. I wish I could see him this weekend, but it's just not in the cards. So I'll give him a call and we'll talk gardening.

Here are some pictures of my own garden this summer. I've been busy the past few weeks, as I'm sure most of you have. I hope you like them!



My garden after tilling in April, photo taken 5/03/09. We spread compost last fall and tilled in even more this spring. Garlic planted last November was left undisturbed in the far left corner. Further back, rhubarb grows and bulbs bloom in the perennial bed.




Irri-Gator irrigation system laid out, tested, and ready to go!




View of garden covered in fabric (from kitchen window, 6/02/09). This was the second go-round of garden fabric; the biodegradable stuff was put down mid-May, and, in some windy, wet weather that followed, pulled up its stakes and blew all over the yard, torn up and inextricably tangled. It went into the compost bin, and I ended up buying rolls of non-biodegradable stuff at Agway, since the biodegradable type was so frustrating to work with.




Garden on June 18th. All seedlings have been put in, and I just need to plant a few other things, some sooner (lettuce, carrots, beets), and some later for fall crops (peas, spinach).




The potatoes seem to be doing quite well in their cans, so far. The cool weather and plentiful rain are helping them grow. Drilling holes for drainage in the cans was a must. I lined them with garden fabric, and added compost, potatoes, more compost, and let them grow. This picture is after they grew about 6-7", and I piled on more bagged Vermont compost. As the plants grow, I'll pile on the compost until it reaches the top of the cans, and the plants will grow out of them. These were planted on Memorial Day (5/25/09), picture taken 6/18/09.




From left to right - the edge of the tomato trellis (a few tiny tomatoes seen next to it; eggplant in that row in the foreground), a row with sweet potatoes in the back (those will be trained to vine toward the onions, rather than the tomatoes; I might even set up a trellis for them), tomatillos in the front, then rows of onions planted in slices in the garden fabric about 8" apart, 6" within each little row, shallots behind the onions, tiny baby leeks behind the shallots. The onions and shallots were planted 5/25/09. Garlic is in the back of the rightmost row, behind more onions. It looks great this year because of the compost we put in last fall - some of the plants are almost 3 feet tall. Scapes will be coming soon! Asparagus flowers in the background, behind the short stone wall. 6/18/09




Bamboo tomato trellis with "ringer" storebought tomato seedlings as well as the small ones I grew myself. Well, the ringers were free or very cheap, and we'll have tomatoes earlier as a result. And, with any luck, the Brandywine one (right side of the trellis) will actually bear fruit before October. Hopefully some July heat will give the smaller plants the boost they'll need - at least we know they're getting plenty of moisture this June! And yes, they probably are planted a little too close together, but I'm crazy for the different heirloom varieties. 6/18/09




Trellises for cucumbers, beans, and squash. Cukes and a couple of melons in the row on the left, beans in the two middle rows (I love my dilly beans!), vining squash in the trellis row on the right, and bush squash in the row to the right of that. Again, they are close together, but some will die. I actually thinned the beans, so, after I determine which cucurbits will actually survive being planted outdoors, I'll thin some of them out. I planted the cukes and squash inside this year, because, in the past, a variety of critters have stolen my seeds. Peppers are planted behind the trellises, closer to the house. The compost bin my husband built from free pallets is on the right in this picture (which is reversed from the rest). In the right foreground is a baby sweet cherry tree. I bought 3 peach trees, 3 cherry trees, and a plum tree (all dwarf trees) from the Arbor Day Society last year, and they all survived the winter; definitely a surprise after a stretch of -20 to -30 degree weather. I'm hoping for fruit within a couple of years, but I'll be patient. Taken 6/18/09.



Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!!

What's New At The Farm? 6/17/09

The rain has stopped and the sun is out and all is well. After over three inches of rain in the past week, we're all set with irrigation for a while. Now we can concentrate on some other things; like taking care of everything we've planted. We've about finished planting, at least the bulk of it. Here on the farm we don't really get done with planting until October then start again in January so we're usually planting something somewhere at any given time.

Last week we planted squash and pumpkins; trails, workshop and some stockseed increases. This week we'll finish transplanting some of the smaller crops like some growout cucumbers, one small increase and the globe artichokes. We transplanted leeks on Monday this week and boy was it wet!

Jeff's readying the cultivating equipment for as soon as it's dry enough we'll hammer those weeds. Weeds don't stop growing when it's raining. We need a warm dry day with some wind to have the most killing success on weeds. Weeding in the rain is about pointless; the weeds reroot as soon as they're hoed but it does set them back a day or two.

The first hatchlings of robins and killdeer are gone so if they chose to have a second clutch this will be the time. One robin pair made a nest in the Reigi weeder so we couldn't use that when we wanted to. Another one nested in a pile of pallets; when the pallets were moved the nest fell out. Someone moved the nest to the snow plow and she's trying to sit on it. I think I'll move it to someplace she won't feel quite so threatened.

It's always been here at the farm, that we find and flag killdeer nests so no one runs over them. When I first started here I found it very hard if not impossible to find a nest. Now, after much searching throughout the years, they are relatively easy to find. If I watch the bird and see where she's trying to lead me away from I can usually spot the nest. If she's really upset and lets me know it, I know I'm really close. A little hard searching and I usually can find the nest in question. The hatchlings leave the nest immediately after hatching so working around the nest is a minor inconvenience.

Lots of turtles around now; big female snappers looking to lay their eggs. Janika and Rob saw one over the weekend, someone had run it over, that "its shell must have been two feet long". I've seen several large ones on the side of the road but very few that were dead. They looked pretty ugly though.

Along with lots of turtles comes lots of snakes. I went fishing last week and there are always snakes under the boat. We counted five under the boat; four garter snakes and one milk adder. We got them all out, or at least we thought. Once we had launched a small adder came out from underneath the seat. We couldn't coax him out where we could get a hold of him so he went fishing with us; staying up under the seat the whole time. What a story he must have had for his buddies!

Until next week, enjoy the weather.

Brian

What's New At The Farm? 6/10/09

We're still planting and transplanting. Last week we transplanted tomatoes; both trials and the workshop along with peppers, eggplant, melons and flowers and herbs. Over 40 thousand transplants went in last week and now they're taking root; they're much happier in the field than in the flats.

This week is the final push to get all the crops in the ground including winter squash, summer squash and pumpkins. Big week! All these crops also need to have row covers installed directly after planting so it looks like we'll be busy.

We have a full crew now; myself and ten people that love farming. You have to love farming and be dedicated to do this type of work. Many people think working on a farm consists of "riding around on a tractor" and "tending the garden whilst getting a suntan". "Riding around on a tractor" is harder than you might think. First you have to pay close attention as to the operation and upkeep of the tractor and the equipment you're using; is everything operating the way it should? Then you really have to pay attention to details and make sure the beds are straight, the plants correctly set and the majority of the weeds killed in the first pass. Weeding is primarily mechanical now so much time is spent cultivating on our assortment of specialty tractors and weed control equipment and finesse is critical.

"Tending the gardens" consists of long days working in often less than ideal conditions planting, thinning, weeding and trellising. Trellising tomatoes takes days and I mean days- many days each season. First there are 1400 steel posts to put in; then a top wire to run; all 23,000 feet of it, then there's the first pruning, the first string, the second pruning, the second string and so on through July and into August. Along with the weekly spraying of fungicides there's constant weed control, critter control and then harvesting, pulling out plants and posts, pulling plastic and seeding down the field before winter. Phew! Tomatoes are a big crop for us but there are many other crops that are at least as labor intensive as them just on a smaller scale.

Ground prep is nearly done; we have one small field left to do. What fields, or parts thereof, that don't get planted to row crops will get cover crops planted. We have ~ 35 acres to go into cover crops this year; lots of oats and red clover along with a fair amount of annual alfalfa and some buckwheat. I've also got some other crops to seed like sweet orange cane, Berseem clover and some pasture mixes I am anxious to see growing.

We rented a new field this year which looks really good. The soil is deep and rich and rock free. It should be fairly early ground as it's on a hill. It's right on my way home so I can keep an eye on it and keep watch for deer and other pests. We rented five acres but there's more available so in the future we could expend the field by up to ten acres or so. We're going to plant some winter squash over there this year so we'll see how this field performs.

We irrigated last Friday as it was getting dry in some areas of the farm, especially in the main trial field where we have many small seeded crops. As we cultivate and weed we lose valuable moisture which needs to be replaced. The crops enjoyed the shower and rain over the weekend only supplemented it.

Until next week, I'll be in the field.

Brian

What's New At The Farm 6/03/09

Transplanting, planting and more transplanting!

This week, so far, we've transplanted over ten thousand peppers, twelve thousand tomatoes and tons of flowers and herbs. Next week will see the remainder of the transplanting with squash, pumpkins and melons to name a few. Then all we'll have to do is take care of it; piece of cake.

We got out new tractor Monday this week. Well, new to us but not new. It's a Ford 1710 cultivating tractor with all the bells and whistles like: power steering, 3 point hitch, a canopy and a full set of cultivators. It probably even has brakes! It's a three cylinder diesel and purrs like a kitten. I'm anxious to try it out but haven't had a chance to do more than look at it in passing this week. It's hard to find good cultivating tractors in the northeast as people just don't seem to want to part with them. This one came from a friend in New Brunswick but originally was sold by a dealer in New Hampshire. Long way around I'd say.

The weather continues to be cold and wet. The plants don't like it. The crew doesn't like it and neither do I. It seems like we had May weather in April and April weather in May this spring. A couple of weeks ago it was 31 degrees one morning and in the nineties the next day. I hope it evens out after a while.

The fields are filling up fast with greenery and it looks pretty nice after a long and white winter. The leaves are fully out and all the birds have returned and are raising families now. The geese have hatched and are grazing heavily now. Although with the new deer fence at work we haven't seen the usual goose family. I saw a pair of geese and five goslings at the pond in our front yard last week. I assume they walked up from the beaver bog for some fresh grass on the lawn.

Short article this week; I'm headed back out into the field.

Until next week, Brian

Helping our friends at Wentworth School

The Wentworth School in Scarborough, ME has shared their newsletter and some photos of their garden with us. We were able to help them out with some seeds through our giving program. Enjoy this fun update!



The Wentworth School
Garden Newsletter

Happy spring! The Wentworth School Garden has been taking shape with work inside and outside. The winter months were spent on lessons about the parts of plants and their functions, experiments with different seeds and research on the history of different vegetables and fruits. Amy Witt from the UME Extension Office did a presentation and introduced the students to many uncommon foods in our supermarkets.



Spring finally begins!

Spring was welcomed by the bulbs that were replanted by the work team in October. Tulips, daffodils, crocuses and grape hyacinths gave us needed inspiration through the rainy beginning of the season. We wanted to start the garden seeds in the middle of April, but the kids wouldn't have seen the beginning growth over vacation. So we set up the lights and seed-starting stands (donated by Lowe's) in the classroom at the end of April. The students planted a variety of seeds, including zucchini, cucumbers, zinnia and sunflowers donated by Johnny's Selected Seeds. We have had fabulous results! The kids have learned to separate and choose the strongest seedlings for the garden. We have also planted lettuce, Swiss chard, beets, and radishes in two of our cold frames. Griffin Greenhouse Supply donated the polycarbonate for the covers, and Robbie Alden volunteered his time to construct them. We planted peas and added branch teepees as their supports. Now we are preparing the plants for the outdoors. We will be ready to plant outside next week!

We are also hoping to plant potatoes in whiskey barrels. If you know of any that are reasonably priced or not being used, please email Joanne.



We are now thinking ahead to the summer. The most exciting time in the garden will be during July, August and September. As requested in an earlier email and in Wolftracks, need your help in a variety of roles. We would like for families to volunteer to be in charge of the site for a week. So far, we have three families that have offered- thank you! If you are interested or would like to find out more information, email Joanne @ jmlstuart AT myfairpoint DOT net.



We also are looking for volunteers to teach lessons from the Master Apprentice Gardener curriculum this fall and winter and help with fundraising. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Enjoy the photos! Please come and visit!

Jen Winger and Joanne Stuart

The Horror!

It's under the tree, looking out at you. Ready to destroy anything in his path, and make your life miserable.

Anything green, that is. Anything tender, growing in your garden, whether it be a prized perennial or a delicious lettuce. From alfalfa to zucchini, it will eat it all.

Hide the green beans and put the kids to bed! It's coming!!


Yes, it's a groundhog. And it's ready to make every gardener's life a living you-know-what. But isn't he cute?


Quite a prime specimen, this Marmota monax (aka whistle pig or woodchuck).


And it's safe, here at Johnny's. It lives outside our office building, far from the farm, and nibbles on grass and leaves. It is generally entertaining, and not a pest at all. We've come to enjoy its company, in fact.



And it's clearly eating well.

What's new at the farm? 5/20/09

This week, after some much appreciated rain, sees lots of activity in the fields once again. The plastic is being laid for the tomatoes (lots of tomatoes) and ground is being prepared for pepper transplanting which takes place next week as well. Lots of transplanting next week; around 35,765 transplants give or take a few. We should easily be able to do 10 thousand a day and still perform ground prep and plastic laying at the same time.

Seed production crops transplant pretty easily, especially tomatoes. The transplanter makes a hole and pours in a cup or so of water with a transplant solution mixed into it. Two people riding on the back of the transplanter grab a transplant and push it down into the hole. As the plant is pushed into the hole the fertilized water sucks down around the plant, pulling the surrounding soil around the root ball. A couple of days to get over the shock of being plucked from the tray they grew up in to being crammed into a hole in the field, and they'll be off and running, eager to make seed before the season gets over.

Some crops transplant a whole lot better than others. Tomatoes are easy; you pretty much can't kill them. They like to be buried deeply so you can't plant them too deep. Even if you inadvertently break off some growth they will regrow although not as well as if they hadn't been damaged in the first place. Melons on the other hand really don't like to have their roots disturbed, at all. We have to be really careful with melons as they break easily and will die if broken. Squash and pumpkins are somewhere in between. While you can't handle them roughly like tomatoes, you can plant them quickly; quicker than melons anyways.

"Dropping" plants is the act of pulling the correct plants from the trays and placing them near the hole they belong in so the farm crew can transplant them. Dropping is kind of a particular job as the right plant must go in the right hole. You have to focus on what you're doing while keeping an eye on what's going on around you. One slip and the wrong plant is pulled; sometimes a easy fix but other times not. In trials and breeding you usually know how many plants you have per variety so you can keep count as you move along. Speed, paired with accuracy, is essential. You want to drop plants fast enough so that people aren't standing around waiting, but you also want not to get too far ahead as the holes will dry out. This can be a challenging job, especially when you have six or seven hundred varieties.

In seed production you only have to make sure the plants are all the same kind; plant until you either run out of plants or run out of space in the field and you're done with that variety, then on to the next one.

When transplanting we usually have one person dropping plants, two people planting them, one tractor driver and one person putting stakes in and getting flats for the puller. Then there's another person hauling plants from the greenhouse to the field; that's usually me. The transplanter holds 100 gallons transplant solution which will transplant around 1500 plants so they must return to the pond fairly frequently to fill up with water. This gives the field crew a few minutes to walk through the field and check on the plants they just planted. Every once in a while they'll be a plant lying on the plastic that got missed by the planters. That's the one I usually find and have a comment like "What, you didn't like this one"?

All in all transplanting is a fast paced activity that demands a certain amount of finesse. It's also done once the weather has warmed up so, unless it's raining, is a pretty pleasant job here at the farm. By the way, rainy days are the best days for transplanting, as the plants enjoy it and there isn't much else to do here when it's wet.

Until next week, I'll be in the field.

Brian

What's new at the farm? 5/13/09

The farm is abuzz with activity this week. We have an almost full farm crew (one more next week) and plenty of work ahead of us. The fields have taken a whole new look as plastic is being laid; transplanting and direct seeded crops are in and up. The weather, although wet last week, has cooperated this spring. We have more ground prepared earlier than I can remember. The lettuce and endive have been transplanted into the field, the carrots and onions are up as are the peas and some flowers. Plenty of direct seeding next week as corn goes in along with greens and just lots of small trials.

We did a few things different this spring and it's really made quite a difference. The first thing I did was to develop a spreadsheet detailing the field location of each crop and details like whether it needed plastic or not, drip tape requirements and placement, and the number of beds needed. When a field has been prepped there's a map detailing where everything goes and ground prep instructions for each crop. We now have plastic laid for the melons and watermelons, which by the way, have just come up in the greenhouse - we're a ways away from transplanting these. The plastic is now being laid for the tomatoes which are two weeks away from transplanting.

A second thing we did this year was to bed all beds in a field at one time. Like for instance in field 1, which we call the main trial field, we bedded all 43 beds at once. As the beds were planted down the field more were already made up so we didn't have to stop what we were doing just to make a couple of beds. If we get some rain all the better. We can than stale bed the remaining beds are be that much ahead of the game. Stale bedding is preparing the soil for planting, waiting for weeds to germinate, kill them then plant. It takes out the first and usually most densely populated flush of weeds for the season.

Third we have several new people to the farm doing all kinds of tasks. Matt's been making beds until he's nearly cross eyed and Mike Bowman is laying countless miles of plastic. Jeff and Nick have been spreading fertilizer and doing the initial ground prep along with rotovating and fixing things. Jeff keeps very bust fixing all the things that get broke in the normal course of farming. I get out in the field now and then, mostly adjusting things.

We got our new harrows delivered Wednesday this week. They are a brand new set of Land Pride harrows from Union Farm Equipment. The old ones were at least forty years old and have definitely seen better days. The new ones do a lot of things the old one couldn't anymore, like stay up when going down the road. Nothing quite like having a fourteen foot set of harrows drop onto the pavement coming back from a remote field; wakes you right up! And the new ones don't sway either. The old ones would start to sway at around 15 miles per hour so you had two choices: slow down and take forever to get somewhere or let them sway. Must have been quite a sight if you were in a car meeting a wildly swaying set of harrows that greatly outweigh you along with what you're driving. Imagine how big those eyes might have been.

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 5/06/09

As the field work continues the greenhouses are rapidly filling with seedling awaiting their mass exodus into the fields. Thousands of tomatoes and peppers fill the benches to near capacity; makes me wonder if we have room for everything. Planting this week will be onions and carrots in the field and melons in the greenhouse. And lots of "bumping" up. Bumping up is taking tiny seedlings and transplanting them into larger containers, usually planting flats. By picking out the best seedlings, we know we'll have a good stand -sort of like seeding heavy then thinning.

The field work continues thanks to cooperative weather. The plastic from last season has been pulled and now we are working on getting the ground ready for this year's crops. Compost and organic fertilizer has been applied to most fields and worked in. This year we're using some pelletized chicken manure on some of our outlying fields. It's relatively easy to apply and work in. The supply and price of compost makes me lean towards supplying at least some of our fields with other nutrient sources.

The new bird houses I installed a couple of weeks back have stirred much interest in the swallows' community. Most of them have attracted occupants as they get underway raising their young ones. I found that by staining the houses with a solid gray stain they readily move into them; otherwise it would often take a year for their interest to peak. I also face the houses either north or east to keep the hot rays of the summer sun from overheating them. I've got twelve new ones at work and a couple for my garden. We should have lots of swallows near the garden as there is a beaver bog close by. At Johnny's we have an irrigation pond to attract them.

I have yet to venture into my garden, other than dumping lots of piles of manure from my henhouses. Normally I'd be half done planting once the blackflies come out but I seem to be a little behind this year. I'd like to get it plowed before it gets much later in the season and at least get peas, onions and potatoes in. We've still got onions, carrots, potatoes and beets in storage from last year. I'm going to start some seedlings here at work this week for my home garden and transfer them to my greenhouse as soon as they're up. I think I'll start some summer squash and transplant them into large pots in the greenhouse so I can get a jump on the season

Although summer is definitely on its way, we still get nights cold enough to warrant starting a fire in the wood stove. On these nights we get together a pot of soft veggies from the root cellar and cook them down for the hens. They love them; potatoes are their favorite! We'll spend about a week feeding them out and they certainly love their "treats".

The fiddleheads are but a memory now. With the hot temps we had last week they are all a foot tall now. Let's see; we picked on Sunday last week, picked again on Thursday and by Sunday this week they've had it. Short season this year! I've still got half a five gallon bucket in the fridge I'm saving for pickling.

I'm headed out to the field, have a good week.

Brian

What's New At The Farm? 4/29/09

Fiddleheads and blackflies; sure signs of spring's arrival! The arrival of the blackflies seems to coincide with when the fiddleheads are ready. We checked our favorite patch last Sunday and, sure enough, the fiddlies were ready and the blackflies were just coming out. We thought we could get enough for a supper or two and wound up with a five gallon pail full. Lugging a pail brimming with fiddlies for half a mile uphill wasn't as much fun as we thought it would be. The streams are low now, and with the warmer temps on their way, I don't think the fiddlehead season will be long. Most of the ferns we saw on Sunday were just coming up, but some were a foot tall already. If we go down Thursday or Friday we should be able to get a goodly amount before they go by.

As for preserving them we tried blanching and freezing them one year without a tremendous amount of success. They were alright, a little slimy, but nothing I'd write home about. My neighbor Bill told us how his mother preserves them: she washes and packs them in quart mason jars, then covers them with Italian dressing and stores them in the fridge. They're surprisingly good this way and they'll keep until the fresh ones are back again. I have other friends that can them but I'm not found of canned anything; if I can't freeze or pickle it I'm not going to be eating it out of season.

On our way to harvest fiddleheads last weekend we were privileged to watch the display four bald eagles were putting on. I assume they were looking for nesting sites but perhaps they were just enjoying the windy day. Two adults and two immature were in the area for the two hours we were there. Saw one of the adults on Monday morning as I was checking out one of our fields nearby.

On the farm we're busy starting tomatoes in the greenhouses; lots of them. The greenhouses will be brimming full within a couple of weeks with seedlings of all different species and varieties. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins and lots of other crops will be started early in the greenhouses so they'll be ready once warm weather arrives to stay. Direct seedings in the field will start this week with potatoes, peas, onions and salad greens. Next week will bring carrots and some other crops along with more greenhouse plantings.

We've lots of crops this year and it looks like nearly every field at the farm will be full this year. And most of the fields we rent/own will be full too. I think tomatoes take up the most space of any crop. After a couple of years using a modified basket weave trellising system we're going back to the wire and string system. That's where we drive steel fence stakes in every 20 feet, run a wire across the tops of the stakes and run strings from the wire to the base of the tomato plant. From there we train the vine to follow the strings. By using a combination of tomato clips and Ty'Mups we can train the tomatoes in short order. Of course the drawback is that uses well over a thousand steel fence stakes.

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 4/22/09

With the extraordinarily dry and warm weather we've had in the past two weeks we've been able to complete much field work ahead of schedule. We've pulled all the poly at the Albion farm and about half of the Benton field; a field we had several acres in to start with. Several fields are still too wet to get into so we'll wait on those. We've spread compost and plowed fields 1, 5, 7, 8,9,11, and the field across from the farm all in Albion. We've chisel plowed 11 and 14 North along with the Higgins field; an isolation field we have nearby. Field planting starts in a couple of weeks; we'll be ready barring and weeks of rain.

It's hard to believe we've completed so much ground prep so early in the season. Many years it would be now before we could get into the highest and driest fields, and this year we're able to get on some of the not so high and dry fields. I'm not saying it's dry everywhere; some fields still have standing water on them or in the road that leads to them - not a good place to drive a tractor, but many fields are workable now.

The greenhouses are filling up fast. We moved the breeding peppers into greenhouse # 2 last Friday: they will get bumped up into bigger containers this week. Lots of seedlings to be bumped up and lots of seeding to do. Crops we have growing are broccoli, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, endive and lots of flowers. The swallows are back in force, checking out the bird houses. The poly tunnel will get greens and lettuces planted this week. Tomatoes will be the next big crop to seed.

On Monday I had a pair of Blue birds (yes, bluebirds) outside my office window. They were checking out a bird house near my office but the swallows were harassing them so I don't know if they'll hang around or not. I think most of the migratory birds must be back by now. I saw two Great Blue Herons over the weekend and I think they round out my list of birds coming back. I've heard loons on the pond behind the house and seen lots of hawks and a few turkey vultures. Tom turkeys are strutting their stuff to a few interested hens.

Since last week, I've spotted more than a few woodchucks; one living in the stone wall on the north end of field 11. We'll have to live trap him and give him a new home before we plant that field. I like to transport them to a place of relative safety; one like the abandoned field near my house. They'll have plenty of friends there as I've released many chucks there over the past few years.

And I saw the first snake on Monday this week; an eight inch long Milk Adder in the workshop. They've been hanging around there ever since I've worked here but this is the earliest I've ever seen them. I put him down next to the greenhouse; he'll be fine. We found a snake skin a couple of years ago from what I assume is his mother; nearly four feet long; a big one she is. We've seen her a couple of times, coming in the shop where it's cool on a hot day must surely feel good to her.

Blackflies will be here shortly as will the fiddle heads. We checked at one of our "secret" spots on Saturday but there's no sign of fiddlies, give ‘em a couple of weeks they'll be up. The water is really low in the stream next to our spot; much lower than it normally is, so whether or not that has any bearing on the ferns is anyone's guess. Nothing like a good mess of fiddlies to herald in spring.

Until next week, Brian

Getting the Gardens Ready!

I know our webmaster thinks she's a bit behind, but not as behind as I am! I am, though, perhaps less behind now.

Today, in the 76-degree blazing sunshine, I de-mossed and de-weeded my two 4' by 20' raised beds, aerated the soil, added half an inch on compost to completely cover each bed, and this evening I will start my tomato, pepper, squash, cucumber, and eggplant seeds. When they get big enough, I'll transplant them into the new cow pots that we're offering in our catalog and on our website. For the last 3 years, I didn't know that cucumber roots should NOT be disturbed upon transplanting. I'll plant my cucumber seeds directly into the 3" cowpots I have, and I'll just toss the whole thing into the garden in 5 weeks. I have learned over the last 3 years, though, that it's a good idea to grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and squashes in single, separate containers before transplanting into the garden. These plants quickly outgrow the space of the 72-cell seedling trays I use (in about 3 weeks) and squashes and cucumbers get tangled up if you don't separate them early.

Tomorrow I will lay down some solar mulch and I will direct seed "Sunny Smile" dwarf sunflower, "Hector" smooth-leaf spinach, "Red Mustard", and "Arugula".

So this year, my two beds look like this:

Bed #1:
2 rows of peas - 'Fiesty' (43 plants in a 4' row with a trellis in between the rows)
10 pickling cucumber plants - 'Diamant' (2 rows of 5 plants with a trellis in between)
8 Jalapeno pepper plants - 'Dulce' (2 rows of 4 plants)
8 Eggplants - 'Nadia' (2 rows of 4 plants)
4 'Ladybug' Hot cherry pepper plants (1 row of 4 plants)
8 'Striped German' heirloom tomato plants (2 rows of 4 plants)
8 'Brandywine' heirloom tomato plants (2 rows of 4 plants)
8 'Valleygirl' red round tomatoes (2 rows of 4 plants)
8 'Bellstar' sauce tomatoes (2 rows of 4 plants)
4 'Sapho' red salad tomatoes (1 row of 4 plants)
8 'Sungold' cherry tomatoes (2 rows of 4 plants)
8 'General Lee' slicing cucumbers (2 rows of 4 plants with a trellis in between)
4 'Plato' green zucchini squash (2 half rows of 2 plants)
4 'Sunray' yellow summer squash (2 half rows of 2 plants)

Bed #2:
2 rows of green beans - 'Provider' (23 plants in a 4' row with a trellis in between)
32 'Red Ace' beets
16 'Touchstone Gold' beets
16 'Chioggia' heirloom beets
4 'Ladybug' hot cherry pepper plants (1 row of 4 plants)
8 'Carmen' sweet Italian pepper plants (2 rows of 4 plants)
8 'Tendersweet' green cabbage plants (2 rows of 4 plants)
8 'Hungarian Spice' Paprika peppers (2 rows of 4 plants)
66 'Golden Coin" mini yellow onion
42 'Olympic' yellow storage onion
46 'Napoli' storage carrots
46 'Purple Haze' specialty carrots
10 'Black Seeded Simpson' green leaf lettuce plants (2 rows of 5 plants)
10 'Natacha' escarole plants (2 rows of 5 plants)
18 'Sunny Smile' dwarf sunflowers (3 rows of 6 plants)
4 'Dulce' Jalapeno pepper plants (1 row of 4 plants)
18 'Red Mustard' greens (3 rows of 6 plants)
18 'Arugula' greens (3 rows of 6 plants)
30 'Hector' smooth-leaf spinach plants (1 row of 30 plants)

I will sprinkle in some 'French Marigold' among the tomatoes and peppers to help with natural insect repellent for these crops. And my husband and I have learned that if you plant rows of hot peppers throughout your garden it serves as excellent insect control - bugs just DON'T like the pepper oil. The sunflowers are being placed mid-bed to help with bees, butterflies, and other beneficial pollinators.

So that's the mad plan for this year! I'll also plant some extra seedlings and bring them in for folks at work.

What an exciting time of year - the weather is finally warming up, my kitchen windows are open and the curtains are fluttering, the Red Sox are playing (and they beat the Yankees last night!) and it's seed-planting time!!!

Alisa - Marketing Manager @ Johnny's

Garden-cationing

It is definitely that time of year! I got my pepper and eggplant seeds started two weeks ago (probably late, but poorly timed illnesses threw off my schedule), and I'll get the tomatoes started this weekend. They should be big enough just in time for planting at the end of May, as my gardening zone (5B) safely dictates. I am on vacation this week, and, if this gorgeous weather holds, I am going to get my garden set up and ready to go. I will even be able to plant some hardy seeds - lettuce, spinach, peas, etc.

I have seed potatoes ready to go, too. I'm going to try the "trash can" method of growing potatoes this year. You put drainage holes in a tall container, add growing mix and your potatoes, and keep covering the plants with the mix as they grow, watering and fertilizing as necessary of course. (Google for more info). I'll keep you posted! Last year I grew some fine potatoes in my compost pile, so I'm hoping these potatoes will grow well in composted manure (with some acid components, yet undecided upon, added to prevent scab).

You have probably seen or heard ads from the big box stores advertising their plants. I've grown plenty of big box veggies and flowers in my day, and I'm sure that they are quality plants, and will grow fine. However, hearing the ads in my area makes me worry. It is way too early to plant tomatoes and other tender plants in my zone, and we're still getting frost at night, which will kill tender plants. The money they claim you'll save on produce goes right out the window if your little plant dies!

If you are a new gardener, I recommend that you read up on your growing zone - Google again is a great tool, just type in "growing zone" and you'll come up with plenty of sites where you can enter your zip code and find out what that is if you don't know. Gardenweb.com has tons of great ideas for new gardeners, and excellent forums where you can chat with lots of folks at various expericence levels. Of course you can always give us a call at 877-JOHNNYS and speak to one of our friendly customer service representatives, who are always happy to help!

I hope you all have a great week. I'll enjoy my garden-cation (and throw a little fishing-cation in, to boot!)

Daria, the webmaster

What's New At The Farm? 4/15/09

Hard to believe April is half over. Spring seems to creep up faster every year. Seems like just yesterday I was fussing about the ponds still locked in ice and today I could take my boat out. The birds are pretty much all back; swallows should be here this week and I saw my first turkey vulture last week; looking for a winter killed lunch. Raptors, ducks, geese, killdeer, robins and blackbirds are showing up in droves now. About the only thing I haven't seen yet are woodchucks but I expect they'll be out this week. Lots of deer moving around now; I see them most mornings on my drive into work.

The planting continues in the greenhouses. Monday we ground up what was left in the polytunnel and will replant shortly. We've time to get some greens growing before tomatoes go out there. Last week we planted lettuce, leeks and lots of flowers in greenhouse number 3 and this week will see more peppers, lettuce and still more flowers.

For field work we start those projects we didn't get done last fall like pulling plastic. We also are starting compost application and ground prep on some of our earlier fields. The fields have dried out really nice this spring and field work starts as I write this. Last years' crops are still in the field but they are dead, drying and generally look bad. Once called surface trash; now referred to as crop residue or surface residue these spent crops will be turned under to start the process all over again.

The cover crops that we planted last year, the ones that died, become organic matter turned under to feed our soils. The covers that we planted, that are now regrowing in anticipation of warmer temps and adequate rainfall, do not perceive the ever looming plow and will give their lives to further enrich ours soils and feed our crops.

Probably the saddest looking crops are last year's cabbages. Not only did they freeze and die, they smell like it; I'll be glad to turn them under. The onions don't small very good either. The best smell will be the newly turned soil; that's the best thing about spring.

The fields are filling up fast here this year. Fields 9 (where the peppers were last season) and field 13 (pumpkins in '08) will be all tomatoes this year. Field 11 (tomatoes in '08) will be the pumpkins and melons will go up across the road, along with some of the flowers. The field that is outside my office window will not get sweet corn; too high, I can't see out from mid-summer on. Although I'm sure the farm crew appreciates that.

The sweet corn can go in field 5 which is right in Rob and Janika's back yard. It will be interesting to see if the new deer fence alters the behavior of the sweet corn predators. Probably not but it might anyways.

Until next week, enjoy the spring. Brian

What's New At The Farm? 4/08/09

Spring has sprung! The birds are back and the ice is on its way out. A couple more days and the ice will be gone. New signs of spring are popping up daily and it’s great to see. Peepers are out. The tulips and daffodils are pushing their way up as is the rhubarb and the buds are swelling on the trees. Another week will bring more rakers out as the ground dries up even more.

We have six geese at the farm pond this year; I don’t know if they’ll nest here this year or not. They usually have a nest on the neighbors then graze on us but with the new deer fence coming between I don’t know what they’ll do. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Doesn’t hurt my feelings one way or the other.

We planted peppers on Monday this week, in greenhouse # 3. Also on tap to be planted this week is lettuce, Chinese cabbage, eggplant and radicchio. It’s nice to get some stuff planted and growing; it’s been such a long winter. The spinach in the poly tunnel is just about gone by as is some lettuce out there. We’ll grind it up this week and replant some salad greens.

The fields are greening up slowly; the winter rye has some color in it now and with the rain scheduled for this week it’ll green up even more. Everything else looks pretty dead. Oh, yeah, there’s some other things greening up like the red clover we planted in the sweet corn last July and the chickweed: a true harbinger of spring and some lawn grass on the sheltered side of the buildings. We’ve got to get the lawn raking done before the grass gets very tall or it won’t be any fun at all; not that it’s a whole lot of fun anyways, but one job that is better with short grass and without blackflies.

The ice is getting thin on our irrigation pond. It’s gone around the edges and getting pretty thin in the middle. I saw a bass lurking in the shallows last week trying to get some warmth going, I imagine. They’ll be spawning soon, or at least start the building of their nests. Spawning usually takes place in May here; once the water warms up. Of course that’s when we’re the busiest; trying to get everything into the ground. There’s some controversy about fishing for bass on their spawning beds, but I doubt in a farm pond it makes much difference, and their definitely easy to catch.

We’ve plenty of seed production here at the Johnny’s farm this year. We didn’t have any last year but have at least ten tomatoes this year; that’ll keep us busy. Usually we harvest tomatoes for seed in September but as we didn’t have any last year, we had some time on our hands. If it doesn’t move paint it and if it does move put it somewhere. Everything that wasn’t nailed down got a coat of paint. Some things, just little projects that we never seem to get to do got done: the greenhouses and their matching fuel tanks got stenciled with numbers. Now we can track how much fuel each one uses. The fuel tank got a new coat of white paint; we can actually see it now. The fuel tank also got its own roof to keep out the weather. Glad we did most of those projects last fall; we won’t have extra time this year.

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 4/01/09

The snow is leaving Foss Hill in a hurry with the only remnants of winter being a few snowbanks and some snow where the sun doesn't hit it; like the south ends of fields 11 and 13. Field 13 is where we had the pumpkin workshop last year. With the new deer fencing, there were no deer to eat the pumpkins last winter, so now there are hundreds of very flat fruit in the field. The turkeys and squirrels have been busy eating the seeds but there are only so many they can eat. The blue jays have also been in the pumpkin field as are what I'm sure are tons of little critters enjoying the seed feast.

More signs of spring appear daily; flocks of geese and ducks, blackbirds, and lots of movement by non- migratory animals and birds. I've seen lots of deer moving around; with the grass peeking up they should be able to regain some weight they lost this winter. The coyotes have been howling up a storm most every night; perhaps they're celebrating the coming of warmer weather. They sound like they're right out behind the henhouse; although I'm sure they're not quite that close.

Here on the farm we fire up greenhouse number three this week. Greenhouse three is our newest greenhouse and by far the more efficient for heating. It's also our smallest greenhouse so it's the easiest to heat. We'll start some flowers this week and veggies next week. On a sunny day temps will reach 90 degrees in the morning in the greenhouses - what a great place to work!

The snow is mostly gone from the fields; exposing what we didn't get dome last year; lots of plastic out there to pull. I don't think I'd classify pulling plastic as a great job; not even a good one but in the spring it's not a bad job either. In the fall once the crops are done with, pulling plastic entails lifting wet and nasty plastic from "frozen soil in the morning to mud in the afternoon" fields. Rotting fruit covers the plastic; it's a cold, wet and miserable job anyway you cut it in the fall. In the spring however the weather is usually cooperative. A warm day with a light breeze makes all the difference in the world. The plastic pills easier and dries almost instantly. The fruits is gone or at least dried and flattened and the vines are pretty rotten so they break apart easily. Just do it before the blackflies come out.

Two or three weeks should see us into the field getting ready for spring planting. I don't think there's any frost in the ground; the snow seems to be melting and draining nicely this spring. April will be a good time to plant really early cool weather cover crops for the 2009 growing season. I've got some new peas to try and a possible new clover. I've also got some mixes in the back of my mind I'd like to do this year; mixes are very popular. I rarely plant one cover crop but usually use mixes; oats and clover, oats, peas and clover, soybeans and buckwheat and you get the picture.

I think I'll plant some peas for the local deer again this year. I planted about a quarter acre last year and they never got more than a few inches tall before the deer mowed them off; they like peas. I'll plant early this spring and then till under what's still there in early August and plant some turnips. I think I'll plant the turnips two to three weeks earlier to see if we can get more bulb size before cold weather strikes. Planting turnips for deer is not quite as refined as planting them to eat. Deer turnips seldom get weed or insect control, never get irrigation water and are at the mercy of the elements and we still expect them to grow and make bulbs that are going to freeze and die over the winter. Doesn't sound like much fun to me, but then again I'm not a turnip.

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 3/25/09

I'm back.................. Hopefully for the duration.

What a difference two weeks makes! The snow is melting slowly so we should have no flooding this spring. I don't think there's much frost in the ground so we should be able to get on the ground at least as early as we did last spring.

Signs of spring abound; I saw two killdeer on Monday and some ducks on Saturday. The next five or six weeks are my favorite time of year. The birds are returning, buds are swelling and no black flies yet. As March winds down the threat of snow showers diminishes considerably as does the chances of a killing frost. Seems like only a short time ago I was harvesting in the garden and now it's time to start planning for this season.

Not quite so many potatoes this year; two people don't need four hundred pounds to get through the winter. More peas though. I dislike growing peas; too much work, but I must say I enjoyed them all winter, so, yes; I'll plant more this year. Not quite so many beets; beet greens don't freeze up very well and to tell you the truth I'm getting a little tired of them right about now and we still have 20 quarts left. Harvesting the Brussels sprouts this year should be a priority; more salad mixes and perhaps some staggered plantings of summer squash and zucchini.

More plastic mulch and more row covers this year. I think I'd like to plant some peppers and freeze them for winter time use. Not a lot; just enough though.

I think I'll build a new raised bed for a new patch of rhubarb. The old raised bed has rotted away and the chickens have taken over the rhubarb patch. Raised beds are nice for rhubarb because it comes up and thrives with the warmer temps more so than being on the ground. I've got to replace the raised beds around the house; the old ones are the better part of twenty five years old. The original ones were cedar but I think I'll use railroad ties this time around: use what you have you know.

Things here on the farm are gearing up for planting season. Lots of prep work in the greenhouses as planting is right around the corner. The warehouse is soon to be loaded with all kinds of planting goodies: potting mixes, fertilizers, row covers and plastic mulches. I need to do some ordering: planting stakes, tomato trellis supplies, irrigation needs and planting flats and the cover crop seed, at least the bulk of it will be ordered shortly as well. The field planning needs to happen soon; where all the crops are going to be planted this year. And finally, I've got to finish hiring crew for the 2009 growing season.

Lots to do; well, that's spring.

Until next week, enjoy the spring, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 3/04/09

The first of March brings promise that the unwavering changing of the seasons is upon us once more. Whilst we got belted with snow earlier this week, we know winters' back has been broken and spring is right around the corner. Oh sure; we'll have some spring storms; but that's just what they are - spring storms. No matter how hard they hit us we know they're here only for a short time. And speaking of time, I don't wish away time in anticipation of warmer temps and the sunny days of summer, but rather enjoy watching and being a part of the changing season. It's not so much about the temps and the long dry days of summer, but more about the changing that occurs around us. Winter can be a bit long, what with the endless storms and the short days (by far the worst thing about winter in Maine) but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Well, not at least for now.

The subtle signs of late winter are evident around but you may have to look a little harder than in mid-spring. Some of the things that I notice this time of year include ice fishing shacks being removed from the lakes and ponds, the channels and rivers opening up with a few hardy ducks occupying them and last year's wood piles are severely shrunken. The skunks are out and I've seen a few robins. Late last week I saw a woodchuck sitting on a snow bank looking somewhat bewildered. I look forward to a "normal" spring after somewhat of a "normal" winter.

As you might remember from last spring, we didn't have any frost in the ground so once the snow starting melting it was immediately absorbed. I don't see that happening this spring but I don't think there's much frost in the ground this year either. That's not my prediction for an early spring. Last year we plowed one particular field weeks before we could ever plow it; I'm not that optimistic this year, but Spring: It'll come and we'll be ready.

On another note, I went grocery shopping over the past weekend. Not a big deal, I know, but we seldom go. Between what we raise and store/freeze for winter we don't need to spend much time in a grocery store. There are however things we needed, so once in a while we make a trip of it, albeit a quick trip. Was I in for a surprise: prices have changed since I was last there! 200 bucks and the cart wasn't even full. Time to rethink my strategy for the garden this year and maybe make some changes around the ole homestead.

While searching for some frozen tofu (don't ask) that was on sale, I was amazed (perhaps shocked is more accurate) how much of the frozen food is already prepared; freezer to microwave to table; easy as that. The "need to cook" section was pretty small, mostly vegetables. Is everyone out there so busy they can't cook anymore? We enjoy cooking: using fresh or fresh frozen veggies, home grown chickens and eggs, and local wild-caught seafood.

I grew up on a dairy farm in central Maine and was blessed with large meals of meat and potatoes and plenty of home cooking. We didn't have a microwave, but we did have an electric stove, modern fridge and even a dishwasher. At one time there were my folks and three of their sons working the farm so we ate plenty. Often people would stop in at lunchtime as it was a good time to catch my father before we went back out into the fields; lunchtime was often a social event. Extra hands helping out in haying season also shared our table. Did I mention the home cooking? Lots of beef; we had our own supply, fresh veggies from the garden and homemade desserts like old fashioned apple pie - yes, all homemade.

The word "homemade" has been seriously overused and abused. I bought a chicken pie last year that was "homemade". I never had a homemade chicken pie like that. You could make a hundred pies out of one chicken. I'd say the first ingredient was water and the second was a thickener to thicken the water into something that resembled gravy. Chicken is relatively inexpensive so why skimp on it? And don't call it homemade unless it is - call it something like "about as far away from homemade as you can get". My next chicken pie came from a combination of the garden and the henhouse. That's homemade.

So, anyways, the trip to the grocery store got me thinking about raising an assortment of veggies this year and not relying on the sheer volume of certain crops. We don't need 50 quarts of green beans or 40 packages of beet greens. We need a diverse group of crops in which to pick from. We have carrots, beets, potatoes and onions in the root cellar; I think I'll add some cabbage and rutabagas. In the freezer we have Swiss chard and beet greens, green beans and shell and snap peas. There aren't a whole lot more veggies I can think of to put in the freezer that we like.

Next week: What about fresh greens in the winter and what to plant in the garden in 2009.

Brian

Johnny's on the Martha Stewart Show

Martha Stewart invited us to appear on her show to talk about the benefits and techniques of seed-starting and some of the tools we sell to help gardeners get an early start.

Watch seed-starting episode.

TV show: NECN visits Johnny's Winslow facility for spring gardening story

That time of year... almost.

It is almost that time again! The temperature is starting to be almost tolerable, I see drip-drip-drip from the roof for a good part of each day, and the sun is still pretty darned bright at 4:30pm. So what if we have 6 foot snowbanks and a good couple of feet still on the ground?

I've ordered my seed starting and transplanting mixes, in giant bags which my husband lugged downstairs; oops, guess that will be a multi-year supply. I've also got a big box in my office containing the smallest size of the new Dot Pots we carry, and plastic trays and lids (plus seeds, of course). I've been saving the industrial-size cardboard toilet paper tubes we use here at work (hooray for recycling!) and will use those for transplants - I figure that the thick cardboard , while bottomless, will be a fair bulwark to the cutworms, and I know it will rot away pretty quickly, so my plants roots have plenty of time to grow. I've got my grow lights set up down cellar in a permanent location on my potters bench (apparently it was once a woodworking bench), and the heat mats in the same place, ready to go. I have a zillion seed packets to organize, some of last year's dirt to sweep up (it's an unfinished cellar, largely ignored unless we need to check the oil burner, and we don't have cats, so that's no big deal), and a bunch of labels to write out, and I'll be ready to go!

I always plant WAY too many seedlings. This year I'm going to try to keep it constrained. I'll plant a couple of tomatillos (green salsa is SO delicious!), and a couple of husk cherries (they didn't ripen before frost last year, and I am excited to try them), and some peppers and eggplants first - it seems that they need just a bit more time than tomatoes - a two week headstart on the tomatoes gives me good luck with the other members of the family Solanaceae. Last year I think I ended up with 90 tomato plants. This year I'm going to try to plant only the 40+/- heirloom tomatoes that I'll use in my garden, and just a few to share, because some of those poor little plants went to waste. I usually plant 2 seeds per cell, but I think I might try 1, and see if I waste less. I just can't kill a seedling, I know I should, but I just can't.

This year I'm planting my cucumber and squash seeds indoors a couple of weeks before they can go out, as well as some sunflowers and morning glories for the flower bed. We have a chipmunk problem in my yard - they live under our compost heap, and they LOVE those pumpkin seeds. So, rather than set up the bucket trap this year (because apparently I don't like to kill seedlings, but have no problem dispatching chipmunks), I am going to start with plants. I think they'll do better this way, and so will the chipmunks.

I sure hope the weather works out this summer. Last July and August it was so rainy that I had very poor yields on most things, and many of my interesting heirloom tomatoes just didn't get ripe. Ah, but that's beyond my control, and I'm very lucky to work here at Johnny's, since we test many seeds and employees can reap the fruits of those tests.

Yes, this is the time of year to start getting ready, but also to practice patience and constraint. I know that if I plant my seedlings too early, they'll get leggy, which can weaken the adult plants. Plus, I'll be tempted to plant them early, which can be dangerous up here in Central Maine where Jack Frost likes to wear out his welcome, kind of like those relatives who show up out of nowhere around the Fourth of July. So, a few more weeks, and I can get planting.

What's New At The Farm? 2/25/09

WHAT'S NEW AT THE FARM?
2/25/09 BLM

Another snowstorm! Well, that's one step closer to spring. At least the temps have warmed up and some melting is occurring. The banks are getting a bit high but it'll go fast once the weather pattern changes a bit.

Looking back on then past five years of writing this column; I see this time of year is when I get low on things to write about. You can only say so much when the snow's deep and it's still cold. There isn't much wildlife out and about – other than the occasional skunk and a few birds; mostly turkeys and ravens. The turkeys are wandering a lot in search of food; I have seen many at the base of bird feeders picking up wasted bird seed.

I also saw a mature Bald Eagle on Saturday picking up fish the ice fishermen left on the ice. He wasn't wasting any time either; as soon as the group would leave he would swoop down and pick up any leftovers. The deer must be yarded up what with all the snow as I haven't seen much sign lately.

The snow is getting rather high up on the sides of the greenhouses. Most of our greenhouses are Gothic styles and the snow slides off readily – that is if it has a place to slide off to. We left room enough for the bucket loader to go between the houses and keep the snow cleaned out. Snow removal is much better now that we have a tractor with a cab and heat. No one wanted to plow snow with the old loader but now that we have a tractor with a cab and heat and a radio I can't seem to get near it. I purposely came in an hour early a couple of weeks ago to plow, but it was all done when I arrived.

I plowed snow here at Johnny's Research Farm in Albion for approximately 20 years. Most of the time was with a nearly antique John Deere 401C with a snow bucket. Yep, that's the height of luxuries that old tractor had. Two wheel drive, chains, no cab, heater or radio; yeah them were the good old days. We bought our first truck with a plow on it three or four years ago and that was some change. Of course I didn't get to use that either. I think driving a tractor in the winter is just about the coldest job I can think of; not much heat coming off the engine but on the other hand there's plenty of fresh air.

The days are getting longer; I can do my chores before it gets dark. The hens appreciate that. As the days get longer I feel more like doing something other than sitting in front of the TV. I've watched everything at least once and now am working on watching shows the second time around. I have managed to clean a path through my workshop so I can work out there a few nights a week. I've got about half the parts cut out for thirty new bird houses and should be able to finish them within a week or two at the most. A couple more projects and I'll be ready to start working more outside. New window boxes and some new chicken nests and I'll be already for spring.

Until next week - I'm going out and snowblow a spot to put my lawn chairs.

What's New At The Farm? 2/18/09

WHAT'S NEW AT THE FARM?
2/18/09 BLM

With the warmer weather and longer days the skunks are coming out. Seems like February and March are prime mating times for skunks although I doubt he was looking for a mate next to my henhouse. He did however find one of our dogs, Maisy, and now she can't figure out why no one wants to be near her. A trip to the dog groomer will take care of this small but very obvious problem. At least it wasn't a porcupine; looking for a vet at eleven o'clock on Sunday evening would not only have been nearly impossible but expensive as well. Seems all these incidents happen at odd times of the day. We had a pony once that came too close to a porcupine and required a vet – of course it was Sunday morning.

For the time being we are having seasonable temperatures. Thirties during the day and teens and twenties at night. Seems warm after those -25 degrees mornings. Looks like we might see some snow before the week's out. OK, just as long as it doesn't last long. Even though we're still in the throes of winter, I can see spring coming – a month from now ice fishing will be all but over and the birds will be coming back once again.

I am in the process of building new birdhouses. Quite a few years back I built around 20 or 25 houses for Johnny's farm. Several of these get replaced this year and I'll put some new ones up too. We have loads of barn and tree swallows of which the tree swallows readily nest in the bird houses we put out. I think we have around thirty houses out and we'll install another ten or fifteen and replace some of the older ones. I'd say 98% of all the houses are filled every year with swallows and the occasional bluebird, although they're a rarity.

Lots of deer sign this winter, as the deer move in search of food. I saw two deer last week in a neighboring town – one was watching me and all you could see of the other one was his hind-end as he dug in two feet of snow looking for food. This is a good reminder to plant some deer forage for them next fall. The turnips I planted last fall have fed the deer locally and naturally in at least three different locations this winter. Next year I plan on seeding turnips closer to midsummer than early fall. I was thinking I would create a mix of brassicas that deer like and plant them in a few selected spots to determine if they preferred a mix over straight turnips.

This has been more of a typical Maine winter than what I remember over the past few years: An adequate amount of snow, cold temps but not extended cold spells, and relatively dry. No precipitation in the past two weeks – but I hear that may change. The rain last week certainly dropped the level of snow we had. I actually saw bare ground in a few places. There seems to be lots of cloudy days now but at least it's not cold. The wood piles' taken a beating this year but it pretty much does so every year. For next year, my wood has been cut and split and is now waiting to be stacked. No more splitting wood in July for me!

What's New At The Farm? 2/11/09

Hard to believe but next Sunday February will be half over; the colder half too. In little more than a month the days will be longer, lots more heat in the sun and little signs of spring will be evident for those who look. Seemed like a short winter. I know it's not quite over yet but it's closer than it was.

I'm spending some time looking through catalogs seeing what new cover crops I'm going to plant this year. So far I'm looking at Austrian Winter Peas, sorghum you can make syrup from, forage kale and a couple of small grains. For legumes I'm looking at Berseem clover, Crown Vetch and perennial alfalfa. And a few crops just for fun; to see what they‘ll do: dry-land rice, safflowers and sunflowers, sugar beets and perhaps a couple of mixes I have going around in my head. We'll see. I'll keep you updated on what I plant and how it turns out.

The seed catalogs are piling up on my desk; each offering the best garden you'll ever have. I've got probably twenty or so catalogs to look through; most will only get a quick look see before I relegate them to the "Save until next year" pile. I've trimmed down where I order from to a couple of seed houses; Johnny's of course being one. In the past I've ordered from Jung's (got a great pear tree there a few years back), Fruit trees from FEDCO (can't beat their selection of Maine hardy trees) and Western Maine Nurseries for my evergreen needs (really nice trees and great customer service).

And of course along with the seed catalogs are the poultry catalogs, although there's not so many of the latter. I suppose I'm a creature of habit when it comes to ordering chickens. Like garden seeds and plants I look for the company with the best reputation and the best customer service. I called a poultry company several years ago to order 50 hens and, after talking to the customer service rep, ordered another 75 or so. The poor old henhouse was bursting at the seams. I ordered from another company last year instead of my usual – got a double shipment plus some added ones for warmth –the seams were really busting then. Guess I'll go back to where I had the best luck; the company I've ordered from for 35 years plus.

And soon will come those catalogs with things that I can't live without in the garden; Garden gnomes, gazing balls and fountains. True, I'm not perfect: I do have a cement turtle, frog and a very realistic statue of ALF in the garden. And a sundial but that about covers it, actually these are all in the flower garden. For the vegetable garden I have a plywood cutout of a man hoeing which I have yet to put out. I think every time I saw it I'd think there's someone watching me from the garden; like hanging a jacket on a branch or a fence post. How many times have I done that and then think there's someone there? Maybe that would work around the farm. I've always threatened to make up card board cutouts of myself and place them strategically around the farm. Hmm......

What's New At The Farm 2/04/09

Welcome to February! Now is the time to start thinking seriously about spring. Hopefully the coldest weather is behind us now and with the days getting longer and with more heat in the sun, we'll be more apt to get some planning done as to what we're going to plant this year. I know I'm ready to get out in the garden.

I'm busy here on the farm ordering supplies for the upcoming season. The bigger items have been ordered: the 512 potting mix for the greenhouses, organic fertilizer for the fields and we already have the IRT mulch on hand. What I have left to order is lots of greenhouse supplies, field stakes, row covers and liquid fish fertilizers for transplanting. Then there are things like tomato stakes, trellising supplies, planting flats, more fertilizers for the greenhouses and cover crop seed for the upcoming season.

I've got to call the furnace people to have the furnaces cleaned, the electrician to do some much needed updating and our crop advisor to help plan this year's crop growing schedule. Along with these few things, I've got to hire some new farm crew; three full timers and two part timers, I think. Unfortunately we didn't get all our field work done last fall so we'll have to pick up where we left off this spring.

We also have some maintenance and up-keeping jobs in the greenhouses. Let's see; we've got two doors to installed, two exhaust fans along with automated louvers, one greenhouse to extend, one to convert from a shadehouse to a insect proof poly tunnel and new plastic to put on two houses.

I'm doing some research now in finding a good, steady supply of compost. When I first started here and up until about ten or twelve years ago, we made our own. We got to the point where we made five or six hundred yards a year. Raw materials became increasingly harder to get as time moved on, costs increased on everything and much of the farming disappeared drying up local sources of raw materials.

We used to use poultry manure as our nitrogen source exclusively. There were several cage layer facilities close by we could get raw materials from but now there are none. The only remaining source is fifty miles away and, because we are organic, cannot use as they use fly control products. Sawdust is extremely expensive, so much so that some local farmers are grinding bales of mulch hay for bedding. Of course we used straw some but that too is expensive. Seems like everything is.

When we first started buying compost we paid seven dollars a yard delivered. Last year we paid thirty five plus a fuel surcharge. I don't foresee getting it that cheap this year. I think fifty or sixty is more like it for this year. When you buy three or four hundred yards a year this turns into a big expense. Last summer's compost was made when fuel prices were high so the composter must recoup their increased costs. More and more people are turning to compost as fertilizer prices have risen dramatically. We have a new field we're thinking about putting into production and it would take about nine hundred yards a year for several years to bring up the organic matter to where we want it. Something to think about for sure!

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 1/28/09

As we near the end of January, the time to start thinking about plans for this year's garden is upon us. What changes will we make; what crop shall we grow more of and which crops shall we not plant at all? How much better will we do things this year? How will we keep up on the planting and weeding and watering and harvesting? How will we accomplish all we've set out to do and still have some time to do some other fun activities before summer slips away? Here are a few thoughts I'm going to implement this season.

I'm not going to plow my garden this year. I plowed it last year; the first year in forty it had been plowed and it looked like a kid plowed it. Better to till it before any farmer friends see it. I dragged up all kinds of roots and rocks; stuff that's been buried for quite some time. And the size: originally I had planned on planting half of it and cover cropping the other half. Well, I planted it all two years in a row. Now I don't mind growing some extras but this is getting a bit much! Last year's garden had 150 feet of green beans; I need 20 feet. The goat ate most of the balance. I did cut back on potatoes: from 400 feet to 300 feet. I like growing potatoes but I think 400 pounds of them is a bit much for two people.

Leeks! She had to have them. I like onions but am not particularly fond of leeks; I find them bland. OK, I'll grow some. I bought some plants, planted about fifty of them and the rest went sailing off into the fencerow. Planted, weeded, watered and they're still there. No leeks in 2009.

And, yes, I will cut the garden in half.

Put something over the popcorn to scare the birds away. We would have had plenty to eat this winter but the birds preferred to eat it last spring. Blackbirds I think, as the garden is near to several swamps with cattails. Bird scare tape and bird balloons work fine as do those CDs that seem to be everywhere. If I string them above the crop by a couple of feet perhaps I'll have some popcorn next winter.

Increase my use of plastic mulch. OK, OK I've heard the whole thing about plastic mulch. I've also seen what it will do: allow me to grow warm season crops here without weeds and worries about dry soils. I can grow melons here without too much concern. I can have oodles of cukes, summer and winter squash, tomatoes, peppers and some flowers with no weeds using plastic mulch. If I use row covers, which I usually do, I can grow all the above mentioned crops without insects bothering my plants or the occasional driving rain turning my crops into broken and useless plants. Last spring I put down 100 feet of poly, planted cukes, summer squash and tomatoes and still had 35 or so feet left. I direct seeded some castor beans. They grew much better than the ones we transplanted into the field at Johnny's. I grew so many summer squash, and most everyone grows way too many, the goat and the chickens feasted on them most of the summer.

Strawberries; take better care of them and not plant quite so many. 150 plants is more than adequate for the whole neighborhood. I'll plant 50 this year and take better care of them. I'll put them in my regular garden and not up on the hill. I dislike that garden up there anyways; I think I'll put that all into brambles. Plant a few more fruit trees; like some apples and get some mulch around them. The old mulch is getting pretty thin. And add a heavy layer of mulch around the blueberries. And start a new rhubarb patch; leave the old one for the chickens. And I've got to plant fall carrots and rutabagas in July!

And spend more time in my boat – yep, looks like another busy year.

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 1/21/09

Today we are exactly one month into winter; seems like more than that. We're also just two short months away from the first day of spring – works for me. It seems like a short amount of time since I was in the field last but by the looks of things I guess it's been a while. We'll be firing up the greenhouses before you know it so I need to get busy ordering supplies.

Last weeks cold temperatures were a reminder we are very much in the midst of winter. We had an official minus 23 here in Albion and I had minus 29 on Friday morning. The wood pile is taking a beating now; I was concerned we weren't going to use that much this year and what would I do with all that wood I ordered for next year. I don't foresee that as being a problem now.

We are using our antique wood cook stove frequently this winter mostly for baking and cooking on the stovetop. The stove is a Modern Clarion, made in Bangor, Maine around a hundred years ago the best we can figure. Things were made to last and be used back then and it's in remarkably good shape considering its age; I hope I'm in that good of shape when I hit a hundred. Last weekend we made jam from the strawberries we'd harvested from our garden last summer. We also baked beans from a local grower and made a big pot of pea soup with homemade biscuits. The biggest problem with the stove is that it takes "biscuit" wood, which is short and split fine. Furnace wood is 2 feet long and split coarsely so it doesn't take long to stack up a couple of cords. Biscuit wood on the other hand is 14-16 inches long and split into two to three inches pieces and takes forever to pile up. White maple, alders, ash and a little bit of oak is the best for the kitchen stove along with some small pieces of hardwood slabwood.

So, by now I suppose some of you are wondering what exactly this has to do with Johnny's farm. I know we're looking forward to using our woodstove to cook and process the vegetables we harvest next summer out of our garden. We harvest crops like strawberries and tomatoes, freeze them and the cook them down on the woodstove in the winter. There are a couple of reasons for this: we don't have to spend precious time in the summer processing certain crops, and we've got the woodstove running in the winter anyway, so the heat is free. I find it somewhat hypocritical that we would use propane in the summer to replace what the wood can do in the winter. I don't want to use any more energy than I have to so this methodology works for us. It also gives us something to do in the winter, besides cramming the stoves with wood and complaining about how cold it is.

Of course there are many crops we can't use this method on. Any crop that needs to be blanched cannot be frozen, blanched and refrozen, so we have to resort to the gas stove for these. In the old days many people had a "summer" kitchen. My grandmother had one in her house and as I remember it was well designed for preserving the harvest. It had a wood cookstove, a sink, lots of shelves for canned goods and nice big windows that could be opened to let out some heat. It was just off the kitchen so it was handy but wouldn't heat the house up using the kitchen would have. I think if we were going to do lots of preserving it might be a good investment, especially if I was using a wood cookstove!

Although I work at Johnny's where we often get to take veggies home, we have a big garden with lots of fruit trees and berry bushes. We raise our own chickens; both meat and egg birds. We wild harvest some plants, especially crops like fiddleheads that you can't raise in the garden. So summer evenings we are often involved with harvesting something, or getting it ready for freezing or another method of preserving. I get a few people tell me it's a waste of time to preserve my own vegetables and fruits when I could buy them so much cheaper and easier. Apples and oranges here folks. I try to explain that the green beans I have just harvested in my garden, the ones that will be snapped, blanched and frozen within a couple of hours are so much better than those ones you find in the supermarket, having been frozen for who knows how long. The varieties I grew were selected for taste and not for ease of mechanical harvesting. They were picked, snapped and processed quickly so as to retain their fresh taste and crunchy texture in the dead of winter. I know we have 20 quarts of green beans ready for winter and I also know what year they were grown and who processed them and how long they should last. I also know that I'm not so busy as I can't spend any time getting my own food – pretty basic concept here.

I also know "where our food comes from". This catch phrase is quite popular now. Our veggies comes from Johnny's or my own garden, our chickens come from our own flock, the beef we eat comes to us by way of a local beef farmer, and during the summer some of our produce comes from the local farmers market. The local Mom and Pop store and the natural foods store gets support from us, and yes, we do visit the grocery store on occasion; a couple of times a month in the winter and a couple of times during the summer.

The best way to know where your food comes from is to be more involved in the whole picture. CSA's are gaining in popularity and many are available. Farmers' Markets are in nearly every town and city and offer fresh, local produce and farm products in season. And there even a few open all winter now offering root vegetables and other crops fresh. Buying directly from the farmer pretty much insures it's local and fresh; at least you can ask them. Of course you can always have a garden; then you know exactly what's going into your food. I like to garden; good thing as being Farm Manager at Johnny's kind of requires an agricultural interest. My garden is big; not because I need all this food, but rather because I can have a big garden and can grow food for people less fortunate than I.

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 1/14/09

It's cold at the farm as well as everywhere else. As I sit and write this it's 2 above zero and calm. Good thing the wind isn't blowing or it would be a heck of a lot colder than it is now. There's plenty of cold weather forecasted so I guess we'll have plenty of snow and ice this year and perhaps, just perhaps, have a normal spring.

Last week I wrote about Indian meal moths; a pest of stored grain. Another pest of stored grains is the grain mite – today's subject. Last fall while feeding my chickens one day I noticed a patch of tiny insects on the side of the garbage can (where I store my feed). Always alert to insects in the henhouse I investigated the clusters to make sure they weren't bird lice. Upon close inspection one day as I was loading grain into the bins the patches were indeed masses of tiny insects about the size of chicken lice. There were thousands of them clustered near where the handles are attached to the cans. They crawl like bird lice but don't eat anything but seeds and grains so are harmless to humans. Evidently they don't bother the hens as they got dumped into the feeders whilst I was feeding the hens.

Grain mites infect all kinds of food and feed products, cereals, dried vegetable materials, cheese, corn and dried fruits. They thrive in humid conditions; high humidity and warm conditions. At 90% humidity and 75 degrees, their entire life cycle may only take nine to eleven days to complete whereas under lower humidity and cooler temps the same process may require up to a month.

Females lay up to 800 eggs in their lifetime at the rate of twenty to thirty per day. She may lay them in clusters or singly on the food surface. As the young mites grow they may change into a stage called hypopus. At this time their body walls may harden and they develop suckers on their legs with which they use for transporting themselves by attaching to other insects and mice to hitch a ride. This is how they migrate to other grains in storage. At this stage they are more resistant to insecticides than at other stages of their lives. Once they find a new home they simply drop off, lose their hardened shells and resume growing.

While I was researching this article I didn't see anything to point to their being a hazard to livestock but I was anxious to get rid of them anyways. They are quite resilient to pesticides in certain stages of their life cycle. Freezing (like for Indian meal moths) works marginally well, microwaving works well for small lots but I do not see most people microwaving their grain stocks. There are some insecticides labeled for their control but I'd rather not use them in the henhouse; insecticides only knock down their population but does nothing for longer term control.

The official answer to everyone's question is: "The best way to avoid an infestation is not to get them in the first place". You know, I've always hated an answer like that. Too condescending; if I didn't have them I probably wouldn't be reading and writing about them. I want a solution that is least toxic, easy and achieves the goal of eradication.

I found that simple steps in good sanitation eliminated the population. Eliminating grain dusts, using my older grain first, not buying more than I needed for a couple of weeks at a time, and giving the grain storages a good and thorough cleaning out between batches of grain, I haven't seen the mites since. Of course its winter and I wouldn't see them now anyways. I'll keep an eye open for them next season but I don't expect to see them again.

Until next week, stay warm.
Brian

What's New At The Farm? 1/7/09

Moths flying out of my pretzel bag can't be a good sign. This week's article will be on Indian Meal moths; their identification, life cycle and control.

Indian meal moths are the most common pest of stored grains, seeds and flour products. They may be brought into your home in birdseed, dog food, flours and grains destined for your pantry, or any product that includes seeds or nuts in its makeup. Craft projects that incorporate grain heads can be home for enough insects to begin an unwanted population in your home. Open boxes of crackers, cereals and not-often used baking supplies (rarely used flours) make ideal homes and highways to bring the moths in. Nuts and seeds brought in by squirrels and mice can also harbor them.

One of the first indications you may have an infestation on your hands is their webbing. Webbing is often found inside bags of birdseed, especially if the seed is leftover from the previous year or stored where it's warm. Adults flying around are a give-a-way as well.

Identification of the Indian meal moth is relatively easy as the moth is about 3/8ths of an inch long with a wingspan of about 5/8ths of an inch. The overall color is dirty gray with some rusty brown on the tip portion of the wings. The adults do not feed, but rather are an indicator of a problem brewing.

The larvae is a cream colored caterpillar with a brown head about 2/3 of an inch long. It is capable of chewing through thin plastic and cardboard so keep this in mind when storing dry products. It can often be seen crawling ever so slowly where the walls meet the ceiling. These caterpillars are looking for a place to pupate. When pupating they surround themselves with a loose cocoon, and after pupating emerge as winged adults looking to mate and lay their eggs to repeat the cycle again. Three to four generations per year are common.

Now that you've got them, how do you control them? Notice I said "control" and not eradicate them. They're nearly impossible to eradicate without constant vigilance. The moths are easy to spot and easier still to kill as they are relatively a slow flying insect. A flyswatter will easily kill them; you can usually catch them while in flight although it's not as dramatic as catching a housefly in mid-flight. The larvae can be vacuumed up along with their webs when spotted. A thorough cleaning and checking of pantry supplies will go a long way in cutting their numbers down. Be aggressive in cleaning out the pantry. If a package is open or loosely sealed it probably has some eggs or larvae inside. For most products a trip to the compost pile or henhouse is in order.

A few things that "we can't live without" may be repackaged in a strong plastic or metal container and placed in a freezer for at least two weeks. Freezing will kill the adults and the eggs. Be fore-warned though that as soon as the product comes out of the freezer and put back on the pantry shelves it can become reinfested all over again. This treatment will only kill the insects, not remove them so if you see webbing or larvae you might toss these as well. The freeze treatment works best for products that have no signs of moth infestation but may be in close proximity to foods that do.

And so what to do once the moths' population is down or pretty much eradicated? I store all small batches of flours and baking goods in glass mason jars with tight fitting lids. Nuts, large bags of flour and whole or coarsely ground grains (like rolled oats) get stored in the freezer, especially in the warmer months when we don't use them so often. If I buy birdseed in the summer, it gets the two week freezer treatment then gets stored outside in an unheated building. Bird seed bells also get stored outside and dried ornamental corn gets put out for the squirrels. When buying bird seed check the bags, especially around where it is stitched, for larvae and webbing; if you see any don't buy it or at least store it outside.

Pheromone traps are available for the moths, but since they only attract the male moths their effectiveness for control is somewhat questionable. Traps should be used to monitor populations and if a population is discovered then the above mentioned controls can then be implemented.

Until next week, Brian