Recently on the farm we’ve had extremely wet weather along with high winds. Some of our seeds were flooded and seedlings that were transplanted two weeks ago have water logged roots. We transplant seedlings into raised beds of compost and normally they drain well but with so much rainfall it is getting quite soggy! Our greenhouses are keeping the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and early spring transplants of broccoli, kohlrabi, scallions, and kale protected. We’ve seeded flats of borage, calendula, poppies, anise hyssop, and dill. All of our beneficials will be transplanted throughout the garden to keep pests at bay. Our earliest varieties of tomato seedlings were transplanted into the cold frame greenhouse and they seem to be doing well. Gardening tip: high winds dry out the soil, so remember to carefully hand water transplanted seedlings to prevent stress damage. It’s been so wet we haven’t even been able to plant the seed potatoes. Hopefully the weather will turn around soon and we can continue transplanting lettuces, mustards, and chard as well as direct seeding more peas, radishes, carrots, parsnips, nasturtiums, marigolds, turnips, beets, and pac choi to name a few!
Well the chicks are not pleased with the cold and rain but their heat lamps and orchard grass bedding seem to help. As soon as they have their full feathers and the weather cooperates we can put them out on the pasture in their new chicken tractor. Our Jersey cow, Mocha, seems unphased by the weather and she continues to enjoy the new pasture grasses growing in her field. Three weaner piglets arrived this week and they have been burrowing in their straw bedding to avoid the cold. We feed them certified organic feed plus extra vegetables and when they’re big enough to avoid coyotes they’ll be put on pasture to free range.
This weekend we’ll be attending a barley growing workshop so we can grow more of the chicken and pig feed right here on the farm. If we can stop importing feed from off the farm we can definitely shrink our carbon footprint.
Our new nucleus of honey bees arrived last week and they have been flying during brief sun breaks, but the cold weather is definitely a concern. We’ll make a sugar syrup for them to feed on from their bee boxes if they’re unable to fly out next week. Stay tuned!
