We have been busy planting, weeding, mulching and staking. Great news – there is a lot is growing, and we were blessed with rain last night. We anticipate that you should start enjoying garden produce very soon.
It is so fun to watch the crops that you plant sprout and grow. This is a young spinach plant. Do you know how long it takes for spinach to germinate? 7-14 days depending on growing conditions.
Mulch and irrigation line was laid at the beginning of May for our tomatoes to provide regular moisture to the plants to provide more even growth opportunity for the tomatoes. Note: We usually work with our shoes on for safety purposes. This job gets so much dirt in your shoes it’s difficult to work with them on.
Learning to fence is part of living at our place. We will use trellis’ for our sugar snap peas and cucumbers.
Planting of pumpkins and squash also occurred earlier in May, and they are peeking out of the ground.
We utilize fence repurposed from my parents farm to use for our trellis for our peas. We are ready for these little plants to take off climbing.
Garden Science
We did have frost in mid-May. Notice the black parts on the leaves of the potatoes which were caused by the cold weather. Good news is that it didn’t damage the plant significantly, and it is growing out of the stress of the cold weather.
Agriculture in the Classroom
We were privileged to be part of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s Book of the Year project and were featured in their Ag Mag – great for students in 3rd -5th grade. The Book of the Year is First Peas to the Table which tells a story of President Thomas Jefferson and his farm.
We had a fun day with Miss America 2016 Betty Cantrell. She is a farm girl from Georgia. As part of my job with the Minnesota Farm Bureau, we were able to share Minnesota agriculture with her starting at Little Oscars and farm visits at FarGaze Farms and Wolf Creek Dairy. She also stopped by to see the national contest in action that she partnered with the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture on called First Peas to the Table Contest. The students have learned so much through this opportunity. Thank you to Betty for being such a great spokesperson for agriculture!
