Turkey Hill April 2009 Update

Turkey Hill April 2009 Update

Time to plant!

After a very warm Feb/early march, the last two weeks have been intermittently cold, snowy, windy or rainy. All the moisture is great, but the cold is delaying the melt that feeds our early water and keeping us out of the field from planting (which is probably good since its been extremely cold at night). 

This week the storms have finally broken and the first seeding and field planting are finally happening. I'll be seeding salad mix, spinach, peas, scallions & pearl onions, carrots, cilantro, radishes and more, plus we'll finally be transplanting out the greenhouse plants that have been waiting for weeks: kale, chard, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage and more.

Its still very early in the season to be planting: I usually don't start until the last week in April. I'm a little nervous about the lingering cold and the deer, which can take down a swath of crop pretty quickly. Much of or early plantings will get covered in floating row cover - the thin, breathable spun polyethylene fabric. This will add a few degrees of additional frost protection to these already hardy crops, and also insure they aren't chomped by the deer.  

Here are some recent photos: 

The fresh beds await an early planting of crops.
Soon to be sprouting or transplanted: peas, spinach, lettuce, chard,
kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and more...

The humidity of the greenhouse is hard to
communicate in a picture! This is just the early crops, at the peak
every square inch of space is crammed with plants.

The chickens are moving down to the farm this year, this is the new chicken coop!

The garlic is up and slowly coming to life.