Everything seems to be moving fast on the farm these days … including us!

Seeding, transplanting, planting, weeding, cultivating, mulching, preparing ground for crops, and many other jobs are keeping us on the go. There’s no shortage of things to do this time of year!

The crops are moving fast too. I took pictures around the farm last week for an update, but didn’t get the chance to post them. By the weekend the vegetables had grown so much I needed new pictures. Again I did not post them. Now it is Wednesday – new pictures again …

Onions, broccoli & kale.

Two plantings of snow peas – but the second has about caught up with the first.

Spinach, onions, broccoli, beets, lettuce …

The white row covering is insect netting which blocks the bugs. The aim is worm-free radishes & salad turnips, and pak choy leaves without holes.

The garlic is all up now.

There’s a competition between the rhubarb & the weeds to see which one can grow the fastest!

The winter was hard on our blackberries – a lot of canes died from the cold temperatures & winds or were damaged by mice & rabbits. Now that the leaves are showing we can see that a lot more canes are not alive. There will be blackberries – but not the big amount we had last year.

Both greenhouses are still full of plants – even though we have moved many outside on trailers.

Our large hoophouse suffered damage in that strong windstorm we experienced a few weeks ago. Like most hoophouses (or greenhouses), our is covered with a double layer of plastic. A small fan constantly blows air between the 2 layers, inflating them slightly to provide extra insulation. The outer plastic sheet on ours was ripped off leaving only 1 layer. The endwalls were also torn allowing cold air to enter the house. Fortunately no plants were damaged – just covered in dust & dirt – and it happened in late spring, not in the cold of winter. On chilly nights, we spread the white cover over the plants which is like a blanket to help keep them warm. Once the greenhouse is empty in a few weeks we will remove all the plastic, let the soil soak up the rains all summer, and install new plastic in fall. Growers who use their greenhouses year round replace the plastic every 4 or 5 years. Our plastic is at least 8 years old making it more brittle which is why it ripped in the wind. It owes us nothing!

It is a pleasure to be on the farm this beautiful time of year!

But I stand corrected – not everything on the farm is moving fast … or even moving!