Keeping Up

Is it really August already?! The summer is flying by and we are still working hard in the garden. There is a lot of work that goes into the farm on a daily basis besides weeding and watering. I thought I'd share a few things that we do on a regularly to keep things moving along!

Winter Rye: We seeded winter rye where our garlic crop was. This is a cover crop which means that we will let it grow so that it completely covers the area. Winter rye is a maintenance free way to put nutrients back into the soil. We will till it under before we plant our next fall crop and next year we will move our garlic elsewhere in the garden to keep up the rotation of crops.

Winter Rye

Deadheading Basil: A lot of people grow basil in pots or in their backyard and something that is very easy to do that will greatly encourage growth is to snip off the flowers regularly. This will put the energy of the plant into the leaves and not into the flowers and also keep the plants from getting too leggy.

Basil

Bolting Lettuce: Sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done. You can see here our spring mix that did so wonderfully earlier this summer has bolted and we haven't had time to till it under. It is very bitter by now and too hot for lettuce to be growing. We plan on tilling it soon and hopefully planting another crop of it later in the summer when it cools down.

Bolted Spring Mix

Beetles: These guys have always been a problem for us in the garden. The only thing we have ever found to work as a solution (without spraying) is to hand pick them off of the plants and put them in mild soapy water. Japanese beetles are all over the zinnias and rhubarb and flea beetles have taken a liking to our eggplant and although the leaves have holes in them, the fruit looks great!

Eggplant

Japanese Beetles

Tying Up Tomatoes: This is another thing that lots of people have their own systems for in their backyards. It is always hard to remember how big tomato plants get when you start with little seedlings in the early summer but it is important to stake them early and keep them maintained. I worked on a farm in Massachusetts last year and we found these tomato clips to be very helpful. You just run lengths of twine or string from the top of the stake and clip the tomato plant in several places along the string to keep the plant off the ground. They are cheap and can be used year after year. We try to tie up the tomatoes once a week or so to limit the amount of breakage on the plants and to keep tomatoes off the ground where they will rot.

Tomatoes