Off to market we go, maybe

Although we are not planning on being regular market vendors this season we are planning on attending the Summerside Farmers Market for a few weeks in June and possible into July. I just checked under the row cover and it looks like radish, arugula, mizuna and tatsoi might be be ready for Saturday's market along with lots of tomato and herb plants. I am really looking forward to being back at the market even if its only for a few weeks, might I see you there???

Strawberries are in

I was promised by local weather man "Boomer" last evening on Compass that the rain would not start until this afternoon, so to my disappointment when I awoke at 5:30am my window was streaked with big wet drops. We had prepared the strawberry beds last night and market them off to their 18" spacing and I almost got started last night but thought, no might as well wait till the morning.

So after I put the boys down for their morning nap I donned on the rain gear and headed out for my 2010 rainy strawberry planting adventure. Knowing I would only have 1.5 hours of planting time I hustled to get them all in, and with 5 minutes to spare all 500 plants were snugly planted in the ground. It was actually quite lovely, a soft warm rain, birdies chirping, no wind and no bugs.

Grow well my little friends. I look forward to your ripe red berries next summer

Progress and new Pictures

Just a few pictures from around the farm. Its been busy busy busy but we're having fun trying to keep up. Strawberries are next on the planting list followed by tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, herbs, etc.................. the list goes on. Oh and did I mention the weeds have loved the rain, so in between planting we're trying our best to keep on top of the weeds. Now that is a never ending battle, but I secretly love weeding so I really don't mind. We've yet to try out our new Eco Weeder on actual weeds, right now we're still using old methods including the wheel & stirrup hoe as we had planted quite a few things before the Eco arrived so we did not have the spacing set up as required by the Eco.


Updated Family Photo


Young baby lettuce mix, almost ready


Freshly weeded onions and leeks


New plantings


Roots section including carrots, beets, parsnip - more to be planted later


Middle garden section including beans, leeks, onions, lettuce, broccoli, turnip, cabbage - more to be transplanted soon



Raspberry canes in the back, also the odd weed

It's Raining, finally

I was able to get one more bed planted today before the rain started. I planted tatsoi, radish and arugula and just got the bed covered with a row cover before the thunder started and the rain started to fall. It has been so dry here this spring and the rain is a welcome blessing!!! I'm sure the veggies and the weeds will be exploding later on this week.

Yea for rain.

Garden Update

Partial Garden View


Garlic Forest

For the most part things are looking pretty good so far this year. Since we have decided to scale things back a bit we're feeling a lot less stressed than other years. Focusing only on the CSA has given us more focus and we are enjoying a bit less craziness than other years.

My really early plantings are a bit of a write off due to intense weed pressure but that was kinda expected as we worked the ground probably when it was a bit too wet and didn't give the first flush of weeds a chance to germinate and cultivate before planting. I think I can save the lettuce mix and spinach but its going to mean intense hand weeding which is very time consuming, so we'll see. I think the 3 small beds of early carrots might be a no go but only time will tell. The main weed in that area of the garden is corn spurry and it looks an awful lot like a carrot which makes for difficult weeding.

So far in the garden we have:
early carrots, early beets, beet greens, swiss chard, snow and snap peas, lettuce mix, spinach, radish, Chinese cabbage, bok choy, red and green lettuce, tatsoi, garlic, kale, komatsuna, mizuna, potatoes, bunching onions, bulb onions from sets and transplants and leeks.

I did a walk about tonight after the babies went to bed and was very excited to see newly germinated carrots, superior potatoes and the peas look like they are very close to rooting.


Tiny carrot seedlings (the black specs are leftover marine compost from last season)

Most of the other veggies mentioned above are up and looking great. My transplants under the row cover are looking good and hopefully the forcasted frost will not be too hard on them.


Lettuce under cover


Chinese cabbage under cover

Something I did not expect to see was tonight was strawberry blossoms. It seems way too early and still a good chance or several chances of heavy frosts. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the next month or so until the frost season is over!!!





Potato Sprout


Newly germinated lettuce mix

It's Here!!!

The Eco Weeder

Our new eco weeder arrived first thing this morning. Derek stayed home from work this morning to test drive the new machine. I must say it its pretty nifty. We tried it out on a few empty beds and I think with a little adjustment on the tractor this is going to be an awesome piece of machinery.


Checking out the "Eco"


These discs are pto driven, it should do a really good job


The boys enjoying the sunny warm weather, too bad the black flies are out already. They checked out the weeder and give their stamp of approval

The Boys

Just a few shots of the boys in action. They turned 10 months last week.