Getting a Little "Leggy"

John tells me that "leggy" is a technical term referring to plants that grow taller looking for light.  The tomato plats we started were doing just that..."gettin' leggy"!  We had been doing our best to rotate them under the grow lights that we already had; but everything was growing so quickly it was hard to keep up.  You can see in the picture on the right how the plants are getting really tall but not leafing out. 
The simple fix is get the plants more light, so we did.  John built some lights boxes that we could set right on top of the tables. 

Full Steam Ahead

Just four short weeks ago we planted the hoop house. I still can't believe how much has grown, I just don't get sick of watching stuff come up...

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

The very first tulip of the year...How exciting that we will have some for Easter this year.
The Forsythia is also blooming and that is six weeks earlier than it did last year.

I spent the other day weeding the second hoop house; yesterday, John tilled it and laid the drip tape. It will be another week or two before we start putting the tomatoes in the house but I did plant some carrots.  This year we are going to grow Cosmic Purple, Scarlet Nantes, Astro Red, and Lunar White carrots; this will give us an excellent and delicious variety...and our CSA members can look forward to snacking on all these pretty colors.

The Hoop House is Making Vegetables

We planted the hoop house last week and there is already a ton of stuff coming up.  Radishes are coming up with a vengeance; the peas, kale and chard are just peaking through.  With some more sunny days on the way it should give everything a nice boost.  The mixed greens that we planted are also coming up and it won't be long before we are eating baby greens.

Mixed greens

Look at all those radishes

Spinach is just starting

Peas!

Green stuff! 

This is a tarragon plant that has spent the winter in the hoop house.  Tarragon as well as a few other herbs like mint and sage are perennials.

Lissa and I also started to get the gardens ready, did some weeding and getting some of the dead stuff out form last year.  In the next couple of weeks we will be able to do some planting and then not long after that we will enjoy Lissa's beautiful gardens once again.

Chickens!

In a yard about 4 miles from the farm, my boyfriend and I have decided to raise chickens.  He has a nice big yard and some serious skills when it comes to building things.  I have always wanted chickens and was surprised when I found out that he also has always wanted chickens.  The only reasonable thing to do was get some chickens.  We have been collecting little pieces of advice for the last couple of weeks and turning to the internet when we get confused.

cozy little nesting boxes

We started out deliberating over size and shape of the coop.  I wanted a picture perfect, cute and cozy coop; my boyfriend wanted it very functional. We finally came up with a design that we both loved;  Cute and cozy for me and easy to clean for him.  My boyfriend had a lot of lumber and random materials laying around so we did not have to invest very much into the coop; it was pretty much a gallon of paint, chicken wire and some hinges. It was really fun watching our vision come to life. 
We placed it in a semi shady area of the yard, chickens have a body temperature of 107 degrees so they like to stay cool.
A friends dad has been raising chickens for the last 6 years and was willing to sell us a few; since we don't really know anything about having chickens, we started with 6 established layers.  After we picked up the chickens and saw the operation they had...we realized we had a few more things to do before the chickens could get in the coop.  We needed a door, a light and radio in the coop, we needed to erect something they could roost on outside and most importantly some hay for the boxes.

Almost done.

Good looking birds!

 And then we got our first egg!!!

Awesome!

The tomatoes we started on Monday are up and growing quickly! We also have some broccoli and cabbage coming up. It is great to start seeing some green stuff again; I was really getting sick of white and brown. It will still be a little while til we plant the tomatoes in the hoop house; they need to be at least 6-10 inches tall.

Tomatoes

Asian Cabbage

Broccoli

John and I spent the morning building a few more troughs for the mixed greens.  I always like when something needs to be built because John always lets me use the power tools.  We needed three more to fill the rest of the row; we now have 140 feet of mixed greens/lettuces planted! 

 Just need to fill them up with soil and plant some seeds!

Planting

Drip tape is laid in all the hoop house rows

John made the rows and laid down drip tape, we will not be able to turn on the irrigation for a few weeks yet but we will be ready as soon as the ground is totally thawed.  We rigged up a temporary watering system with some hoses and sprinklers, it isn't ideal but the plants don't really care where the water is coming from as long as they are getting water.  Next, Lissa and I went in and planted peas, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage, mixed greens, chard, kale, and lots and lots of radishes. The entire first hoop house is planted...and it is only March 14th!  It is amazing to think that this time last year I hadn't even arrived at the farm yet.

DONE!

Here We Go Again!

We have officially started the growing season!  I remember last spring it was cold and rainy and gross for the first month and a half I was working on the farm.  Not this year; I think it got up to 90 degrees yesterday in the hoop house.  John, Lissa, Grant, Christy and I spent the day starting tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.  Since Minnesota has such a short growing season it is nice that we can start some crops early.  Starting these crops also allows us to give them an ideal environment for germination.  John set up a staging area for us inside the hoop house.  We purchased bags of really good/nutrient dense dirt.  Using this dirt will give the seeds the best shot for germinating and there are no weeds in this dirt...which is awesome!  

Dirt!

Flats ready to be seeded

Cherry Tomatoes

We started almost 1300 tomato plants!  We start this many to have plenty of plants for both of the farms as well as plants to sell at the farmers market.  We also factor in some loss; some seeds wont germinate or the plant will die before we can get it in the ground.  We will be keeping them in the sun room of the farmhouse so we can regulate temperature and airflow. We laid down plastic and set up tables, I will keep an eye on them until we can plant them in the hoop house

After all the seeds were snug and warm in there temporary home we head back to the hoop house to prepare it for planting; we did a little weeding and John tilled.  Tomorrow we will plant radishes, chard, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas.  It is so exciting!

The tools of the trade!

 I bet the tools are just as excited to get dirty, they have been laying unused in the garage for too long!

Tulips are growing quickly

This year we will grow all of our lettuce in these raised beds.  We filled the beds with the dirt we bought, this will ensure there will be no weeds.  It will be nice to have the beds raised; it will keep the slugs out and it will be much easier to harvest. I can't wait for a salad!

John also found the first two rocks of the season; I am sure there will be many more to come.