In the month of June - how does our garden grow

June has been the time for growth around the garden. The weather is warming up and the heat loving plants like tomatoes and peppers and melons are loving it, while the cool crops are acting a little fussy.

In only a few short weeks, since mid May, we have seen a lot of plants take off.

Midgarden view looking southerly

The tomato plants are getting greener and bigger each day and they have begun to flower and have the first tiny fruits.

The bush bean plants are getting taller and the intermediate climbers are beginning to send out tendrils looking for something to climb. We have added some trellising around the bean beds so that the plants don't lay down in the pathways between the beds and also to give them something to grow on and against.

The Huatusco pepper plants have begun to flower and in no time I'm sure we'll see the emergence of tiny pepper fruits.

The seed potato plants in our potato boxes have grown up through the first layer of soil and we recently added another layer to cover up this growth. Eventually, we will add more boards to some of the boxes and add more soil around the leaves and stems so that the potato plants can produce more tubers.

Planted some unusual root crops in some half wine barrels. Mashua and Oca are sometimes called "Lost Crops of the Andes", but surely they are not lost to the people of the region as they are right behind the potato in production in those regions...
Check out this site cipotato.org for more info on these crops and others like them.

Oca is an Oxalis, which most people despise in their gardens.

Mashua looks sort of like Nasturtium and is somewhat related.

The lettuce plants are beginning to bolt, but we are planning to sow more lettuce seeds and then covering them with burlap or shade cloth to keep them cool from the midday sun. This will hopefully slow the bolting of these cool loving crops.

The brassicas are getting bigger and bigger each day. The cabbages are producing beautiful round heads of cabbage that we can't wait to pick in a month or two for our CSA. And the broccoli are producing lots of sprouting shoots and the kale plenty of leaves.

We have added some sunflower seeds in strategic spots around the garden so that we have some beautiful blooms that entice both humans and birds alike.

And we checked on the progress of the garlic and tasted a sample. The garlic is coming along and is spicy and soon we will be able to pull up the plants to cure them.

We've had more compost piles to build as we mow down the grasses along the fence lines. One pile was so big that it slowly leaned over and toppled gracefully in the night to be discovered the next morning.

And lots and lots of watering to continue this growth within the garden. Cool weather crops get a nice overhead shower, while warm weather crops get a slow drip along the length of the bed.

Squash plants like drip line

Rainbow of overhead water on the onion and leek beds

And just for "awwww" factor, this little guy just wandered by our deck outside and I managed to capture some excellent photos of him (or her??). I don't think the fawn could hear me due to the gusty breeze and apparently doesn't know too much yet about humans.

I don't think he could hear me as I walked outside carefully to take his picture

As he wandered around the side of the house he finally looked up and noticed me as I snapped his photo. And then Momma saw me and made big bounding noises which clued him in that he should be wary of me!

Around the Farm and What We Have Been Up To

  Already late in May, and it is unbelievable. We have been extremely busy with getting the farm in shape and prepared for our very first CSA season. We are excited that we have acquired our very first inaugural CSA members and we can't wait to share with them all of the wonderful fruits and veggies we have planned for this year. If you are one of our CSA members reading this, thank you again for joining us on this wild journey through the world of farming and we can't wait to enjoy the fresh garden delights with you this season from Furlong Forest Farm.

I'll try to set up a recap of what we have been doing since the New Year around the farm. This is going to be heavy on the photos and light on words so that you can visually see how the farm is rapidly changing month to month, week to week, and day to day.

In January:

making more seeding flats. our carpentry skills sure need work.

various versions of seeding flats

that kittons sure is helpful when I am trying to sow our first seeds

our first seeds in our homemade seeding mix and protected in a makeshift greenhouse while we set up the hoop house

hoop house framed up

In February:

wrapped in plastic 

hoop house complete with half door and rolled up "window treatments". moved the seeding flats onto our benches and we are ready to grow!

brassicas the first to germinate in the hoop house

scything down the cover crop to prepare the strawberry beds

planting strawberry plants

strawberry plant

In March:

peppers germinated

a bed of cosmic purple carrot. the first seeds to get direct sown into beds: carrots, beets, lettuce, radicchio, radishes

brassicas transplanted 

garlic planted in november are growing very well

brassicas ready for outdoor protected area to toughen up for planting

re-staking the lower blocks of beds 

cosmic purple carrot: the first direct sown seeds have germinated

first tomato and pepper plants transplanted

lettuce plants transplanted

In April:

broccoli and cabbage beds ready

one compost pile can take all day to gather green and brown materials

and can be over 4 feet tall

many of the first direct sown seeds are beginning to grow well: greens and lettuces, beets are seen in the picture

view of the farm from the southern end looking northerly

planted the first onions: newburg

and had the help of family to plant lettuce transplants that would go in the first CSA boxes

transplanted the last of the tomatoes

first reddish strawberry ripens: seascape 

and planted cabbages

prepared bean beds and melon beds and cucumber beds

sorted and selected the best seeds of our dry bean varieties for planting: hopi red 

calypso

hopi yellow

And then there was May:

prepared beds for tomatoes and squashes and more dry beans

and everything seeded and transplanted has really started to grow

on the farm looking northerly in May

friends visit and help prepare and plant more cosmic purple carrot seed as well as more bean selecting and sowing and summer squash seed planting

planted all our tomato plants

and then planted our pepper plants

germination of all the recently planted seeds begins: beans as well as melons, cucumbers,  more lettuces,  more carrots

And now we are caught up to the weekend of May 17th and 18th when we harvested our first goodies and brought our members their first Furlong Forest Farm CSA box!

You can see more photos of the preparation of the first boxes (as well as earlier farm photos not on the blog) on Instagram with some sort of smart phone or on the web using the site webstagram and typing in @furlongforestfarm or #furlongforestfarm.

We got most everything in the ground that we had wanted to by this time of year. Just a few late season beds to plant with seed and later transplants from the hoop house and we will have met our full capacity for this season's plantings! 

Is it time to take a breather yet? Not a chance.... still lots to do and not just sit around and watch the plants grow and wait to eat them!

'till next time.

A New Year and New Projects and Renewal of the Farm

Over the winter months we have been busy working on a few projects which has kept us from sharing on this blog.

Project One:
Begin planning for our first CSA growing season

Project Two:
 Buy seeds for the whole year and spend lots of money

Project Three:
Build a hoop house for starting our seeds which includes: Measuring out the footprint, putting in rebar, putting up the PVC hoops, screwing in the spine of the house, duct taping the PVC to prevent it from degrading the plastic, building the door frames, building a door, putting up a very large 45 foot long piece of greenhouse plastic over the PVC hoops, cutting out the doorway and window and then securing the plastic to the PVC and wood, making air vent flaps at the door and window.

Project Four:
Build seed sowing boxes

Project Five:
Build benches that will double as potting benches and for keeping seed sowing boxes above ground

Project Six:
Finalize the design for our farm logo

Project Seven:
Continue working on our brochure for potential CSA members

Project Eight:
Finalize our offer letter to our first season potential CSA members

Project Nine:
Create a website specifically for our farm and CSA

(are you getting tired yet?)

Project Ten:
Make a soil mix specifically for germinating seeds

Project Eleven:
Sow the first seeds including the following vegetables, fruits and herbs: peppers, tomatoes, onions, leeks, cabbage, broccoli, kale, echinacea, bergamot, roselle, borage, lettuce, sage, eggplant, celery

Project Twelve:
still need to buy our website domain, launch the website, get ourselves official farm related website email addresses, set up a new Instagram account for farm related photos

Project Thirteen:
I just set up a new blog called Feasting with Furlong Forest Farm so I can post recipes, veggie and fruit storage and consuming tips, food related bits and whatever else is related to eating.
You can find it at feastingwithfurlongforestfarm.blogspot.com and it will be linked to this original blog as well.

all this and we still found time to work our "other jobs" and complete our taxes. Stay tuned for a post about our new website!

(and I figure you can wait to see some of our best recent photos of the projects we have been working on once our website and Instagram account is launched!)