Summer Check In
We are into July now at the farm, and have had a prolific year thus far which we are really grateful for. Weather has been different from last year. We had a period of heat and drought, followed by daily heavy rains and mild temperatures. But the plants are loving it. Michael’s veggies are filling the gaps and reaching into the aisles with their lush green foliage - so that venture of our farm is taking off.
Michael continues to sow seeds for successions, and has impressed and inspired me with how beautiful his vegetables are. He’s a meticulous planner and it shows in his work.
And thankfully (so thankfully!!) our flowers have been doing much better this year as compared to last year.
In the flower farm, we did a round of broadforking on the beds in the spring, followed by topping up with new compost. We have been doing more frequent foliar feeding. Other than that - I didn’t change much from last year and I’m glad because it points to what the problems were last year more directly. We didn’t perform soil testing or amendments. Didn’t change water source. Didn’t chemically change the pond. So - that leads me to believe the main issues with stunted growth last year was soil compaction, and lack of nutrients / poor soil structure after many seasons of industrial farming. I think after adding compost, aerating the beds, and fertilizing with natural and nutrient rich fertilizers we are beginning to build a healthy soil structure and our roots can dig deeper for those nutrients as evidenced in growth this year compared to last year. I also think infrequent watering was an issue.. it’s very windy in our fields so I think we will constantly battle drying soils especially at the top layer.
While we lost a lot of roses in the harsh winter storms of late 2022 and early 2023, we had a lot come out of that shock and have had a lot of growth on the transplanted roses, and roses planted 2022. We still did several rows worth of replacements, unfortunately. We added our rose expansion this spring, and those roses are also doing well. Roses, as usual, are slowing blooms in the summer heat. Managing weeds, deadheading, and pest management has been on rotating schedule but has been manageable. We are nearing 500 roses on the property!
Oh and our orchard! Our old apple trees are loaded with fruit compared to last year where we had hardly any fruit. Only difference is perhaps the wet spring, and I did one round of fertilizing after they flowered in spring. Our young orchard trees are mostly doing well despite some deer damage. We filled in the orchard in spring with cherry, peach, pear, and apple with about 30 trees.
It’s not been all rainbows - but it’s certainly been better in every way than our first year. So good, in fact, that we have been inviting our first farm visitors through private events! I’m frankly amazed at how much the farm’s grown. It’s taken a lot of work, but it has been so rewarding to witness our vision come together. We are working on other massive projects related to the farm right now that will grow what we can offer to the community. It’s just the beginning.
-Kristen