Whitsend Market Garden

Hello everyone:

Sorry for the pro-longed radio silence.  It has been a very busy couple of weeks.  I try to keep my posts as optimistic as possible, but with the multiple challenges to stare down, I have been hard pressed to find enough positive stories to relate.  2013 will likely go down as my least favourite farm season ever...and hopefully the most disappointing.  The best that I can say is that I have expanded my farm knowledge base, and have won some battles - more on these below.

We have been preparing beds as fast as possible to make up for lost time (due to unexpected off-farm employment early this year) to get a good crop for the fall.  My strategy has been to get the longest season crops in first (Fall Peas, late summer Beans, Beets, Turnips, Carrots), and then to work my way down to the shortest season crops (Spinach, other leaves, Radish).

In some cases, we had empty beds available, but in order to follow our rotation system, could not put particular crops in.  Eg, we had an empty Bean bed but could not plant Radishes in it as the following leaf crop next year would have suffered from following a Brassica family plant. (In our rotation, Leaf crops excluding Brassica family plants follow Peas and Beans).  Most crops suffer when following Brassica's.

In the meantime, all of the established crops need tending, and the rain has ensured that the weeds and grass needs tending more so than the previous two years.  At least we have had a bumper crop of Nitrogen to build up our compost supplies.

A quick update on your food:

Tomatoes:  These are imminent - the plants are heavy with fruit.  However, the cool weather is delaying their ripening.  I have begun to lay some rocks under them to soak up and re-radiate heat to keep them warm.  As well, I have been pruning off as many leaves as necessary to let light get to the fruit.  Hopefully, the extra heat next week will bring them to fruition.

Peppers:  I found that I did not plant enough Pepper plants last year.  As I had doubled my customer base, I increased my Pepper s fourfold.  However, they are grinding along slowly, I assume due to similar reason as the Tomatoes.  The Hot Peppers appear to be ready to produce a lot of fruit.

The Eggplant failed shortly after transplant.   I suspect that it may have been in the hardening off shelter a little too long, and could not handle the transition.

Corn:  The stalks are producing ears - a few tassels have started to turn brown, indicating that the first cobs are almost ready.  Unlike last year, the variety is a hybrid sweet corn.

Broccoli:  The second round of Broccoli has done what our Broccoli did in the first two years here.  Nothing but leaves.  We are trying a third round for the fall, hopefully, the weather will co-operate with moderate temperature and lots of light.

Leafy Greens in general:  Plenty of Spinach, Arugula, Cress, Tokyo Bekana, Beau Sin, Pak Choi, Cabbage, and more Chard is on the way.  I have started to get the late fall Lettuce in as well.  I expect the next round of decent leaves soon, and these should continue until the close of the season.  Expect a lot of Spinach, I have two beds growing and two more on the way.

More Coriander and Parsley for  late September is on the way as well.  The Basil is ready for its next cut.  I was waiting for the Toms but think I will have to harvest some now so as to get some good quantity for the final harvest.

The Chard is growing slowly owing to too much under sowing of clover.  An improvement to make for next year.  In the meantime, we have planted more chard to hold for the late fall, and can take a few leaves before then.

Beans and Fall Peas:  The Provider Beans got off to a great start and then failed due to the heat.  I expected them to bounce back (they usually do when the weather cools, but for some reason they have not.  The following successions were a bit late, but I am starting to see some flowers now.  I expect these will be ready soon.  We have two successions that should carry us through to mid/late September.

I had to make a choice between Snap Peas and Snow Peas:

Snap Peas:  60 days (longer in the fall as the days get shorter), tolerant to Powdery Mildew - a fall growing challenge.

Snow Peas 50 day (longer in the fall as the days get shorter), not particularly resistant to Powdery Mildew.

What would you choose?  I went with Snow Peas and try not to fret about what - ifs....

Winter Squash:  For some reason, the 105 day Pumpkins are out of the gate sooner than the 100 day Delicata or 90 day Acorn squash.  Go figure.  This beds gets slightly less sun than the Delicata's.  We have 6 curing, another six on the vine, and several more blooms.  We may just barely get enough for everyone to get one.  A nursery mix up has caused some crossing, so there is a very interesting specimen in the field.  By the way, nursery mix-ups are completely inexcusable, as I am the boss, this is going down as my fault (so if we are short one pumpkin....).  These Pumpkins - New England Pie - make great soup, pies, and are simply great stuffed with a Pilaf and baked.  We had one keep until early February last year.

Beets and Turnips:  These crops taught me the following mantra - sow more seeds, thin out more seedlings, harvest bigger yields.  Three more rounds of beets (striped Chioggias, sweet Kestral, and smooth Merlins) on the way.  The Chioggias are recommended for winter storage.  With all the mice, I like the name Kestral as one of the varieties...At least two more rounds of turnip on the way, possibly a third.  The Rutabaga seem to be doing ok, though they will likely be a bit small.

Zuchini:  We had to clear the Zukes for three reasons.  First, they were becoming infested with a bug I had never seen before, and I did not want it spread to the other squashes.  Second, it was growing bigger than anticipated (advertised as a bush variety) but I found it was nowhere near the size of bush squash plants I have had here before.  It was shading Lettuce and spreading out over a bed - and preventing the sowing of - turnips.  Third, I assumed it would be done by now and the bed was earmarked this month for the Daikon Radish as well as other Radishes.  These could not wait any longer.  So the 12 plants had to go.  It fought us (Intern Randy and I) all the way with its spines, foliage, and hidden land mines of fruit and mice.  What a mess.  To top it all off, all of the infested foliage had to be carted past the Delicata and Pumpkin squash to get to the compost.  In the end we prevailed, with no discouraging words uttered (except when I macheted one of our irrigation lines during the fray...)

Green Onions, Potatoes, Carrots:  The great success story of the season.  Can't harvest them fast enough, even the two beds that were neglected have performed at improved rates over last year.  I planted Green Onions in between Peppers and this have proven to be a great way to save space.

I am sure there is much more to say, but would like to leave off for a while (this is technically my day off) and I should be keeping my head out of the farm.

See you next week, hopefully with more updates (and photos), and fewer reasons to frown.

Bob