Gardening Info

I spoke at length with Eric (our official Grand Poobah of gardening) and he gave me a lot of great information and suggestions. I'm not sure how many people are using the blog (?) so I am sending out this group email to get the info. out. In the future, I would really like to use the blog for this sort of communication. Maybe people could get in the habit of checking it once a week or so (like before the weekend?)

Here is the info in no particular order:

Eric says that manure in the Fall is optimal. That way the manure isn't as strong and has time to mellow. So we should definitely plan on turning our beds over with manure this fall (October?)

He thinks we should just manure our long season crops right now (like the new area that he plowed - and anyplace we are planting corn, tomatoes and potatoes. We should NOT put manure on the lettuces...too fragile a crop.

We should move our broccoli to the other end of the garden from where we planted it last year (may be too late for that??) for pest control. We should move all corn and tomatoes to new beds. Don't worry about moving the other crops.

There is a product called "Chicken Feather Meal" that he has not been able to find locally - we could order it. A 50lb bag costs about $25 and it's an excellent source of nitrogen. We could put a little bit on each plant (he thinks the whole bag would cover the whole garden) and that would take care of our manure needs until fall. I personally like this idea...

As for the starters he has for us...he wants to wait until June 1 to get starters in the ground. Possibly end of May if it stays warm. So that was good info.

As for seeds...he has TONS of seeds. If anyone wants to take a "field trip" to his farm we are welcome to come out and get some seeds for the garden. Bring baggies so we can take them back with us (and maybe post-its/markers to identify the seeds.)

If you want directions to Eric's farm, just let me know in a comment and I'll email them to you...