Well, way past time to update!! It is now almost July. We have been selling on Saturday at the Newport Farmers Market since the beginning of June, and this Thursday will be the second week of the Toledo Farmers Market.  The green houses are feeling jam packed and are requiring lots of TLC! So far, we have been reaping harvests of red and white kale, radishes, a variety of lettuces, and creating salad bags using the lettuces, arugula, endive, beet , radish , and brocolli rabb greens and pac choi.  The cauliflower are producing nice medium heads, the sugar snap peas are proliferating, and the red and green cabbage are shaping up.  And- TOMATOES! We have 14 varieties including heirloom and hybrid, all are setting, many are loaded already! We should be having ripe tomatoes in several weeks, it's exciting to have them earlier this year! And my oh my do we have a lot of plants! One lesson we learned this year- remove all rotten tomatoes and other seeded produce entirely from the green house.  I have been faced with a moral decision as a gardener as I go about my weeding- to pull or not to pull.  'It was not planted there on purpose, and I'm not really sure what variety it is, so do I pull it or leave it?' So many plants........

Another season under way....

The snowy time of year has passed.... we hope! It is now mid February again, and the seed catalogs have been pouring in like crazy.  As I flip through the pages, I practically drool over all the wonderful looking pictures of the zillion types of veggies- if only we had more room! So, we make our lists, send in our money and wait.  Then, we feel like it's Christmas time as we receive the package's containing our seeds- resembling gold in our hands. Next comes gathering together enough trays and pots and mixing the 'super soil' to be the growth media for our little seeds.

Both the greenhouse's received several loads of crab shells this year to improve the calcium in the soil, tomatoes seem to need a lot of it! Boy, did that smell good! I'm sure the neighbors weren't too happy when the winds blew their way.... Now the smell has passed, the ground has been tilled and seems to be ready! A variety of lettuce, carrots and radishes have already found their way into the ground, in hopes of an early harvest.
The 'grow room' (small sun room), is getting full! There is a large amount of potted Iris (yellow, pink, maroon, navy and purple), daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinth, scilla and pink bells that were intended to be sold off at the fall/winter markets- but, life has other intentions and we have been unable to attend any of them.  So, if anyone is interested, give us a call!! The grow room is super crowded now, with all the spare pots and now new starts.
This weekend, the focus was on the tomatoes and peppers since they have a long growth season.  Last year, when they were all bearing their heaviest, the summer market had finished. Alas, we canned much ourselves (enough tomato this-and-that to last several years!), but also were able to do private sales by word of mouth.
The list of started seeds includes: Basil's-cinnamon, lemon, Italian large leaf;  Peppers- 4 types sweet and jalapenos; Brandywine tomatoes- red, yellow and black; other large tomatoes- Golden Jubilee, Mortgage Lifter, Box Car Willy, Opalka (longer than a Roma), Garden Peach (yellow and fuzzy!), and a free packet of an "Heirloom mix" (so, surprises!); Cherry tomatoes- Sun Sugar (a sweet yellow favorite!), Juliet (roma shaped and great for drying); Tomatillos- Pineapple and Toma Verde; Marigolds (mainly to ward off bugs) and Sweet William (a supposedly wonderful flower, with a sweet aroma).
So many more seeds to start, can't wait to have full greenhouses again! Longing for the smell of warm, happy plants.....