Holy Seeding, Batman!

Well we had a whirlwind of a seeding day for myself on holiday Monday, and an extra long weekend for Ben, who stayed longer and worked his butt off to prepare the rest of our garden plot. We expanded so much, we didn't really know what to seed we had so much room! So we added some extra experiments, because why would we waste a perfectly prepared bed for the season! We finished the rest of the seeding and some initial weeding this past Sunday, and got some much needed water on the ground. Ben also installed a solar power drip line for the very first time! So hopefully that helps out our carrot germination while we are away this week.

In terms of seeding: we will have SO MUCH potatoes. If you are reading this now, and you are close enough to us, please, for our sake, do not buy any potatoes from July -September.. we have you covered. We planted three and a half rows of potatoes, which to compare, we planted a meager 1 full row last year.. so.. I hope you all like potatoes. We have 3 varieties in the ground, German Butterball, Bellanita (yellow fingerling) and our favourite, Candy Cane (red skinned, white with red ring in middle and oh so delicious).

We also have our staple carrots (3 varieties), garlic (2 varieties) and beets (3 varieties), and new additions of radishes, cabbage, zucchini, cucumbers, turnips, parsnips, basil, Simonet corn, strawflowers, sunflowers, strawberries (10 plants), chamomile and toothache plant (this one is an interesting story which we can hopefully share when it sprouts!). Yes, we have been busy! Our garden is packed, and now we panic about how dry it is going to be the next few weeks.

Our weed management has been excellent so far this season (compared to our start!), the thistles are way down from the previous two years and we have some extra tools in our repertoire to make some of the weeding a breeze. Now mind you, we are still going away for almost two weeks at the end of June as we did last year, and that always means a disaster of a garden when we get home, but what can you do when you have family to visit! Hopefully the weather cooperates while we are away, as always you are rolling the dice with gardening in Alberta.

We will be back out again this weekend for our second seeding of carrots and beets and that will mean most of the garden will be ready and we wait!.. and water... it's not looking overly promising for a cosy weather forecast from a farmer's perspective (equal rain/sun). Mostly hot and sunny with minimal rain, means seed germination might be difficult. Our drip line irrigation might have to expand to ensure we have enough water on the plot while we are away. Fortunately for my heart, I did get to see a few little radish sprouts popping out to say hello on Sunday. The faith you have to put into a garden is huge.. but its also so incredibly rewarding! And if all else fails, our garlic is looking fabulous!

And our little haskap plants are flowering! Which means we will get to enjoy some wonderful berries in the near future! Unfortunately not enough to share at market.. but promising enough to plant a whole lot more to perhaps have a little orchard to share some of these gems at a farm stand in the near future!

So it has been a very successful 2019 so far, with our big expansion and seeding and irrigation! Now we hope on some good weather, few pests discovering our plot, and maybe a couple of experiments working out in our favour! We have a great lead on a potential market location which we will update you on as soon as we know! But until then, we will focus on growing our product and another successful farming year! We hope we can reach more people this season with even more produce in the works.. so if you are interested, please follow our instagram/facebook page to find out where we will be selling!

I will be updating more on our progress as we go, excited to take all the pictures of budding sprouts!

Have a great week.. enjoy that sunshine!

Cheers,

K