Vegetables 2006

Vegetables 2007 >>

Where tomatoes were is cover crop of winter peas and rye. This photo was taken day before Thanksgiving. White is lightweight frost cover used on coldest nights.

What's not resting in November besides us?

The surprise of the season is the high tunnel hoop house wihch just keeps producing greens. We don't know what to expect. After the outside night temperature turned minus 10, we were hesitant to look inside. The inside minimum read 10 above and we don't heat.

We have frost cover, light and medium weight, and that appears to have saved the greens. The varieties we grow are holding up under the cold. Either this is easy (probably not) or our beginner's luck is still with us. More luck – the snow slid down the sides of the hoop house and provided great insulation. - M

The hoophouse has been cleared of middle rows of tomatoes in preparation for cover crop of Austrian winter peas and rye.

A few tomatoes, onions, nasturteums and peppers remain on the left. Everything else is food for winter.

Winter garden

In mid-September we direct seeded parsnips, carrots, beets, radishes, spinach, mache, mesclun, brocoli and lettuce.

To fill in the spots where sow bugs had eaten the sprouting plants, we did starts for transplanting. I didn't realize until recently that those roly-polies were harmful! I captured some in hollowed out potatoes turned upside down and containers filled with sugar water. That's also when I realized the tomatoes had to go sooner than later.

We were very fortunate to have a professional gardener visit our farm in mid-October. Catherine, who now lives on a sail boat most of the year with her husband Mac (Indigo blog) is a landscape gardener and artist. She transplanted the starts and prepared the soil for cover cropping as well as offering valuable advice and insights about all aspects of growing things.

Also in mid-September we planted cover crops around the hoop house to prepare the ground for a summer growing. Austrian winter peas and red clover will provide nitrogen to the soil, oats and rye will do as green manure. We planted in blocks, mostly because we kept running out of seeds, and anyway that's the best way to experiment, right? - M

Summer harvest report (October 20)

The photos below were taken August 9th but post-harvest activities on the farm didn't finish until mid-October (see vineyards and orchards), hence tardy update. - M

Dwarf sugar peas: Tendrils good for salads, small sugar pods used in stir fry, finished by late August. Current status: Freezer, new seeds planted mid-October.	Walla Walla Onions: Mid-October, bulbs still hardening off, these onions have not reach maturity yet (maybe never) are still very pungent. Current status: Hanging in there.
Nasturtiums: The only annual flowers planted on the farm this year. Current status: Nosedived October 19 (low 22°) after surviving 3-4 frosts that left hoop house unscathed.	Steddom red peppers: Slow start, sporadic germination. Current status: Must pick soon although not all red. Grower didn't anticipate the faint shadow caused by hoop house southern closure.
Tomatoes: Endless canning, roasting and recipes. Current status: one row still producing although frosted on edges.	Pole beans: Lots of delicious beans until beginning of September. Grower left beans in pod for seeds. Current status: Freezer, still on the vine maturing as seeds.

August

Temperatures begin to drop slowly, more highs in the 80s, less in the 90s and 100s. The hoop house vegetables kick in. Nearing the end of August, beans and peas are mostly finished. The tomatoes are prolific and passionate. The cukes were planted too deep, so only 4 "leftover" seeds I threw on top of mounds germinated. There are still more than enough!

Anno and Amanda picked tomatoes and cucumbers, then set up a table at the Paonia Farmers Market.

Not everything comes up roses – or tomatoes, Stephanie examines scary hornworm.

Buckwheat makes a good summer cover crop and bees love it. It's growing next to the greenhouse.

Pole beans, dwarf sugar peas, and 3 kinds of tomatoes are lush and green but nothing to pick yet. The greenhouse is vented by opening the sides and ends during the day.

Mid-July

According to the Old Timers, late and early freezes are becoming more common along with hotter weather in May and June.

It's so hot now, that the main purpose for a greenhouse isn't heat retention, but protection from strong dry winds. It's quite possible that 90° plus is slowing down vegetable setting and ripening.

We are still learning the weather patterns in our microclimate and specific sites on the farm. The advantage of having the hoop house close to our living quarters is inestimable, as irrigation and ventilation have to be monitored several times a day!

We had several days of soaking rain last week which helped the buckwheat and yellow clover planted next to the greenhouse. Both are annual summer crops that can be turned under for green manure or left for seed next spring.

There are many questions left to answer. Will tilling the cover crop increase or reduce soil temps and affect ripening crops? Are these plants too tall? Too competitive? In the fall, we'll plant red clover, rye and vetch to see how they do.

Hopes are high for bumper crop of tomatoes in the meantime, and seeds are on the way for cooler weather gardening! - M

Max watering inside hoop house prior to irrigation.

June 1

At the end of May after helping us with the vineyard planting, Maggie, Derek, and a couple of their friends measured and marked the beds so now there was no excuse!

It was incredibly dry and the clay loam turns to rock hard clumps without moisture. No way could we transplant without working water into the soil first. Unfortunately our plastic sheeting didn't completely bake out the bind weeds either!

The starts had winnowed down to survival of the strongest through heat and wind, carrying trays inside/outside — maybe we started them too soon at the end of March because they certainly needed a home sooner than provided.

Mix in organic nitrogen fertilizer, complete the irrigation (T-tape) structure — thanks be to Wink, who was great at figuring out the how-to — and we're ready to plant! - M

These plants are open pollinated. The tomatoes three varieties, cherry, plum, and all-purpose.	Kristin prepares the beds.
Wink's irrigation setup.	The trellis on the right is for peas and pole beans.

April 4-14, Hoop House

A couple of interns seeking post-college practical life experiences helped us greatly assemble the steel and plastic hoop house. After the rocks were removed and Wink stirred up the ground a bit with a rotatiller, we asked VOGA prez and vegetable grower extraordinaire, John Cooley, to apply his fabulous Italian spader to the ground. The area we chose was once was an apple orchard, deep with irrigation furrows and rock removal pits. John and his spader made short work of it without leaving hardpan or turning under the topsoil.

NOTE: We are constantly evaluating farm equipment and on the look out for "used." Labor-saving machinery sounds smarter all the time even though we're getting stronger. Wish list: spader, offset mower, and harrow. Weed-badger is on the way. - M

Foundation
Chris and Wink drive the pipes and attach planks.	"It's a bird, it's a plane..."
Raising the ribs
After assembling the individual steel archs, we raised them to slip into the foundation pipes.	That left lots of bolting.
Becca pulls in a wayward rib for Chris to attach to horizontal support.	John helps secure the ends which are zippered for access and air.
Stretching the plastic
Chris attaches the strip for anchoring the side rollups.	On a windless morning, all hands work to pull the plastic over the ribs and secure it to the ends. Max's canvas stretching experience helped.
Becca pulls it slightly north, we trimmed excess.	Great job you guys!
Weed kill oven
We added horse manure and sulfur to the soil after construction, watered, then spread plastic over the inside to germinate and bake the weed seeds.	The hoop house stayed sealed for weeks while we started tomatoes, onions and peppers in germination trays.

Spring Equinox, March 20

You gotta pick some rocks before you pick the produce — before even planting seeds. We are preparing the site for the greenhouse which is arriving next week. First Wink has to pry out the big rocks, then cultivate and remove all the smaller rocks that emerge. - M

Here's Wink chaining up a buried rock after shoveling and prying it free. Wink says, "We believe in freedom - yep, we should all be free just like all the other Texans."	Johnnie (as in Deere) is lifting the rock so Wink can move it into the bucket, or not, and carry it with a chain to a hole that is waiting.
Now that the bucket is full, Wink is moving West. Note (to Wink's sisters especially): Wink put the rollbar up for this procedure.	One of these day, we will fill up this defunct cistern and be able to remove the caution tape!