This week marks the beginning of our 2021 growing season. I knew it was coming with the days getting longer and the turkeys jockeying for position in my backyard, but it still seemed to have snuck up on me. Except for a couple of gray stretches, winter seems to have flown by with some much-needed downtime to recoup and reorganize. With Carrie’s help, we have detailed crop plans in place with lots of interplanting in beds and more diverse cover crops planned. Those of you who know me will not be surprised to learn that flowers play a big role in our plan for much more polyculture amongst our crops. Attracting beneficials, feeding microorganisms and confusing insect pests are benefits of these practices, it will be exciting to see them at work.

 

I am extremely optimistic about the upcoming season and the possibility of Growing to Give to reach out to even more people in our communities. We not only hope to reach more people through our expanded vegetable production, but we also see our volunteer base growing and people being supportive in so many ways. Please keep in mind our 2nd annual seedling sale will be happening in May, all proceeds go to Growing to Give.

 

Tuesday with the help of three volunteers we started 1,000 multiplant soil blocks of spinach. These went into our new seedling/CoolBot trailer. Daily temperature checks by John have shown us it is working as it should and today our first spinach seedlings are emerging! Thursday brought Carrie to my house and we started over 7,000 onions, leeks, and seeds from last year’s bunching onion crop.

 

I would say we are well on our way.

 

Thanks, Theda