Vegetables 2007
Long hoophouse (high tunnel) addition
July-August
 By mid-August we were eating tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, squash, corn, lettuces, and eggplants. Grasshopper Heaven Max spread Nolo Bait, an organically approved grasshopper fungus, around the garden, farm, and Pinot Noir vineyard which was heavily damaged by hoppers last year. Later instructions clarified that baited wheat bran also attracts the hoppers, who don't die immediately but keep chowing down. But The Pesto Bed became prime habitat for grasshoppers inspite of Nolo Bait and the so-called cilantro deterent. Max used lightweight frost cover to protect the basil but hoppers crawled underneath eventually. They could be scattered with a garden hose, but would hop back when the water dried. They especially loved sunning themselves on the garlic stalks. When we harvested the garlic as it matured (6 varieties not ready at the same time) their habitat grew smaller and smaller. Then a combination of Shop-Vac and garden hose early one morning did the trick. Max wet 'em down, Wink sucked 'em up. We corralled several hundred! Quite a feast. |
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 The Sisters grew fast in the summer heat. To see how tall they grew roll over the photo. The herb spiral required starts when the seeds didn't take. It was the 4th of July when we picked up a terrific assortment from Zephyros Farm: mints, savory, thyme, oregano, lemon basil, lemon verbena, sage, and parsleys. The heat delayed their growth - it was stifling! We watered and watered, daily. Everything. June and July were hot and dry, the heat didn't break as usual, but persisted week after week. |
 Our strawberries produced all through the summer until frost. Part of the reason was the canyon Max created with oats on either side of the berm. The shade protected the plants from the blazing sun. Berry size increased when we switched to regular irrigation water instead of our well water. That was too salty for many of our garden plants. |
T-tape and rows plotted and laid, strawberries planted on berm.
One rock project was the spiral herb garden which we built next to The Pesto Bed a haven where garlic and basil begin their comingling.
May-June
The garden begins to take shape when the well was hooked up and running. The well is disappointing in the amount it delivers (2 gallons a minute, but that improved the more our neighbor Marvin watered his hayfield) and it was salty enough that we had to switch to regular irrigation water in July.
With the delay in water delivery, we got a late start on the vegetable planting. This was our first outdoor garden on the farm and much of the ground had to be rotatilled and rocks removed. There's definitely more to plan with gravity irrigation and Aaron's landscaping experience was key.
We had the earliest peas around because we started them in October and they wintered over in the hoophouse.
Another consideration was late frost and ground temperature which has to be at least 55° F.
Max's pet garden projects were 4 kinds of peppers, 5 melon varieties, and the Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash.
Seems like every year we have opportunity to do stuff we've always wanted to do, but haven't been able. Now there's no stopping the whim with a "no way."
One goal was to produce enough vegetables to sell directly to customers in Colorado Springs. With a heatwave in June, Max's inexperience, and the fierce dynamic wheeling and dealing of summer produce - that couldn't get off the ground. Suddenly everyone wants local produce and will go out of their way to get it. The farmers with produce to kick into a mix going over the hill have too much demand closer to home. We began deliveries to the Springs in August, will we try to deliver more produce to Colorado Springs earlier in the season next year? One thing we learned this year: vegetables require lots of stoop labor and specialized knowledge, so we'll rethink it after consulting with some of our market garden friends.
Only a taste test revealed the truth!
The kale and mustard winter greens attracted hordes of aphids.
We had to remove the plants from the hoophouse and do the "rite" spring thing in the North Fork, burn it!
April-May, still hopeful
Spring vegetables
First were snow peas, very prolific: we froze two gallons for later use.
Then there was the cilantro that was intended to keep the grasshoppers
out of The Pesto Bed. Presumably the hoppers would not make it
to the most desirable aromatic greens — basil! Last year's predations
were very disheartening so Max determined to use every reputed weapon in
the organic arsenal, no matter how unfamiliar or weird sounding.
So what does cilantro look like when it first emerges? A pound of seed from a local seed store clearly labeled "cilantro" looked like something else. Perhaps the familiar grocery store part of cilantro revealed itself at a later stage of growth. Some people had the audacity to suggest it was actually spinach.
While the fruit trees and early peas flowered, the bees arrived. We installed four new hives (with one casualty) and were called to capture a nearby swarm from the hive we loaned to a neighboring farmer.
We are neophyte beekeepers and would be the first to admit that we know next to nothing about bees, but we observe, appreciate, and do the best we can to aid nature's helpers or at least not hinder them.
In late spring or early summer, a hive can become crowded and the colony reproduces itself by creating a new queen who will lead half the bees away to another location. Doesn't it make sense that they would happily move into a furnished condo with supermarket nearby? All we had to do was cut the branch with the clump of bees on it and drop it into the proper moving van (ie rubbermaid trashcan).
Tale of the Missing Bees |
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Bees seeking new
home, clustered like this they are docile while they send scouts to
check the classifieds. Everything looked like a go, and it was a go — as in gone. Wink and Max watched all day for the bees to march into their honey-combed frames, but the bees found a better deal elsewhere. Within a few short minutes, they disappeared — all but a couple dozen straggler drones who'd been out partying and returned late. We didn't see them go or ever learn where they went. They were not our bees to begin with, they were a different color.
March, preparations for a market garden
Max
tills austrian peas and rye to release nutrients back into the soil for spring
planting. 
First tillage
Berm building
This winter we rarely bought fresh vegetables because the high tunnel hoop house, unheated, provided us with greens and root vegetables.
When the days lengthened in January, stuff started perking up. By mid-March the spinach was raging, the beets and onions were starting their second "year" to flower and seed, and the bugs were warming up too.
We removed most of the food crops and have begun preparing the ground for seeding. The sugar peas we planted in October began blooming around the first day of spring, March 21.
Outside the hoop house the ground is warming and strawberries arrived by mail rather sooner than expected. Max used the tractor with duckfeet toolbar to loosen the sod and build a berm. For more info on organic strawberry growing check out this ATTRA publication.
We are planning a vegetable market enterprise this year based on successful experiments last year. We have a couple of other farms that we're working with to bring fresh organic produce to Colorado Springs every week. We are marketing direct! Stay tuned for more info as we develop this exciting plan!
