Planting out transplants, raspberries are greening, grass is growing, the tiller is grumbling, planning for Farm Tots, monitoring our own weather, the 2005 report

On Wednesday we finally planted out the first seedlings of the year. We planted out broccoli (2 varieties), cauliflower (2 white, one purple, one orange), cabbage (2 green, 2 red), lettuce (Romaine, a green leaf and a red leaf and a green and a red summer crisp), spinach, and a rainbow mixture of Swiss chard. Enrique & I pulled the beds for the lettuce and other greens and for the onions while the rest of the crew were planting the Brassicas.

The crew planting Swiss chard. Jaime in red, Juan in light blue, and new employee Luis in dark blue. Luis finished his two week probationary period on Friday, and we are happy that he wants to stay with us.

Those of you who have been to the farm may recognize the field we are planting with lettuce and other greens this year. Last year we had garlic and peas in this small field next to the hoophouses.

The raspberries are leafing out rapidly now. It’s good to see something growing as fast as the grass is shooting up. UPS brought both the potatoes and the yacon this week. I’m planning to get their areas prepped and both planted by the week after next.

On Thursday the crew planted our three varieties of onions; Walla Walla, Cippolini, and a new variety for us this year, Red Burgermaster.

We have started preparing the hoophouses for the season. Luis pressure-washed the sidewalls to remove the algae that grew over the winter. Juan mowed down the winter rye we planted in the hoophouses last fall. We’ll spread limestone and some fertilizer and till them with the Kubota tiller as soon as the tiller is fixed.

Thursday Rob tells me that when Jaime was tilling one last P-Patch plot for a new gardener it started sounding like the gearbox was full of rocks. When Rob opened it up all the gears looked fine to us, so Rob took it off to the shop.

Friday was too wet for Enrique to till, so he worked on moving chip piles and repairing our chip roads. Jaime spread limestone on the corn maze field, Juan mowed the hoophouses and worked on hooking up the driplines in the new raised beds, and Luis mowed in the blueberries.

John finished seeding the flower flats on Thursday. Next week he will start the basils, cucumbers, gourds, winter squash and watermelons. I am particularly excited about some of our new cucumber and winter squash varieties.

I found and ordered a couple of extenders for the Ford 8-N 3-point hitch. They are designed to make implement hook-up and changeover quicker and easier, but the big attraction to me is that they extended the lower arms back 2 1/2 inches. This is just the extra distance we need to be able to mount the rototiller without modifying the PTO shaft (see my March 27 entry). Rob got the adapters on and attached the rototiller, which worked as expected. The slowest speed of the Ford is too fast for initial tilling, but we will be able to use the Ford to incorporate fertilizer or to till in weeds just before planting.

Cindi & I have started talking about our spring field trips and our Farm Tots programs at the farm. The spring farm tour program is the opportunity for preschools and K-2 classes to visit the farm in the spring and explore new life on the farm. You can learn more at our website or call Cindi at 425-753-0756 for details and reservations.

I ordered a Davis weather station to place at the farm. I want to keep track of rain, wind, & sun at the farm, rather than relying on the reports from the airport. I’ll be able to do other things like track the total heat accumulated, which is very useful in predicting when certain insect pests will hatch or to predict the likelihood of succeeding in growing some crops and varieties to maturity. I also purchased soil temperature and moisture probes, which will be useful in deciding my planting and irrigation schedules. If I can get certain computer-oriented folks interested, we could even display current conditions and the forecast on our website.

The boxes arrived Thursday afternoon, but haven’t had a chance to get started setting it up. Next week is pretty full too.

Next week I’m at OSU in Corvallis for the fruit & veggie processing course. There is lots of tilling to be done. It looks like the rain earlier forecast for Monday is no longer in the forecast. I’m hoping we can get some of the painting done also. If the rain does come there is plenty of grass to mow.

Chris just posted the 2005 annual report on our website. In addition to a review of the crops and activities, we try to list everyone who worked or volunteered at the farm. It’s quite a list.

What’s playing today in the Jeep CD player?  Muzsikas – Blues for Transylvania