We have some really nice baby Bok Choi coming in from the farm next week. See the action photo to the right.
Lots of fresh juices, insanely juicy citrus, and fresh berries. All in all a great week to be alive and eating fresh foods.
Lots of things to touch on this week, so let’s get right to it. Annual Plant Sale. Saturday, April 30, 9-Noon. Hands down our best event of the year. In the past we have had music and other fun stuff. But we realized that people don’t even need that, they are just excited about the plants. And that makes an old farmer like me blush with happiness.
You may not know this, but I found my way to the farm through the aisles of a nursery. During college, I worked at the local nursery and got to see firsthand both sides of the nursery business from the consumer side and from the business side. And I have to be honest with you, that neither side gave me the warm fuzzies.
Consumers were never interested in solutions to their gardening issues, they just wanted to know what to “spray.” That of course usually meant a chemical. And plant reps were always trying to sell larger plants because they had bigger mark-ups on the plants. The larger plants, however, are more stressed out than a cute little 4” pot.
So being the rebellious college kid, I would say to myself and probably to any other person within earshot, “When I get older, I am going to sell plants, but do it right.” Fortunately for me, that little dream of selling plants the right way has come true. But what the heck does it mean to sell plants the right way? Let me explain.
First, we want you to succeed. That means planting the right plants at the right times. The right plant is a plant that grows well in your/our micro-climate. Big box nurseries really don’t give a manure about your climate. They sell you a plant that was not started in your climate and not bred for your climate. It is a cookie-cutter plant that everyone else from Toledo to Tucson gets. One size fits all.
But plants don’t grow in a one size manner. Altitude, day length, light intensity, humidity all play a role in whether a plant does well or not. So having the right plant is huge.
Because of that, we trial plants in our fields and then sell those plants to you. If they do not do well for us, I doubt they will do well for you. So we will not sell you a Black Prince if they don’t do well here. Rest assured we have made plenty of mistakes in our fields so you won’t have to.
Secondly, timing is huge. We have our plant sale at the beginning of May because that is the “Go Time” in a garden. You can plant them earlier, but nothing will start to take off until the weather warms up in May. This is a very important piece of the gardening puzzle. Getting plants in the soil before their optimal time really runs the risk of them getting stressed out due to weather or wind or etc. And a stressed out baby plant will never grow up to be a well-adjusted adult. Maybe humans are the same. We have to pamper small plants to give them the best opportunity to be a productive adult. So don’t plant early.
Lastly, size matters. You do NOT want to plant a big gallon tomato plant. It has been living in a pot for probably 3 months by that point. Way too long for a fish to be out of the water, or soil. Our plants are 5 to 6 weeks old. They will have solid roots and sufficient greens. Most importantly, they are ready to explode and grow.
When they hit that phase and they are still in a pot, they will stunt. When they start to grow, they have to be in the soil and ready for the roots to grow up to 6 ft deep. Please remember that a smaller plant will always grow better and faster than a stunted root-bound bigger/older plant.
To help with your garden planning, we will be hosting adult gardening classes throughout the morning and will also have a kids’ table set up so they can get their paws dirty as well. I always like to encourage folks to try gardening, it is a blast and people seem to have a better respect for farming after they try and grow something themselves 🙂
Farmer Monte