If there is one thing that working outside on the farm has taught me over the years, it’s how very little control I have over things. This spring is a case in point. Mother Nature seems determined to hold on to cold, gray, wintery days for as long as she can. In a way this isn’t so bad; I’ve been able to get a lot of indoor projects crossed off my list, but I need to stick some seeds in the ground next week and so I am really, really hoping that temperatures start to warm up soon. This is not only because it’s more pleasant to work outside when it’s sunny and warm, but also because I want to make sure you have your first CSA box ready on time.
The good news is that I have hundreds of little seedlings under grow lights inside a warm, cozy house right now and as soon as outdoor temperatures rise, they’ll be transplanted into the field where they will really take off. Many veggies do best if they are started as seeds indoors rather than direct seeded into the ground. This gives varieties that take a long time to mature a head start in places like Minnesota where our growing season is short. So far, I’ve started tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, Bok choy, lettuce, eggplants, cilantro, and leeks, among others. Look at these beautiful little artichokes and peppers. In just a few months, you’ll be eating veggies from these!
Things are happening outside, too, despite the weather. Last weekend, I pruned back herbs like oregano, mint, tarragon, and sage so that they’ll send out new stems that won’t be woody and tough. I saw rhubarb and chives pushing up through the soil and my one gooseberry bush is budding out.
Our garlic is starting to sprout as well – something I look forward to every spring – but this year we are having a problem with some rogue deer who have decided that garlic is not only delicious to us, but delicious to them as well. This is very strange. Deer typically avoid garlic as it has a strong smell that they normally don’t like. We actually planted our garlic outside of the deer fence this year; when we did that two years ago, they never touched it. Well, so much for that. It turns out that deer will eat anything and everything under the right circumstances and they have chomped on pretty much every shoot that has come up so far.
We think this is because, with spring being so late this year, not much else is growing out there and they are hungrier than usual. Still, we can’t let them graze on garlic. If the plants have to expend too much energy putting out new leaves to make up for the ones that were eaten, the bulbs will be smaller than we would like. Thus, we ran to the store Tuesday morning and purchased an electric fence to put around the field which we will install this weekend. To protect the beds in the meantime, I went to the nursery and filled 100 bags with 1/2 cubic yard of bulk sand that I hauled to the field and used them to hold down row cover that will block the deer until the fence goes up. It’s a good thing I’ve been working out this past winter. 100 bags of sand weighs a ton. You can imagine how well I slept that night!
Next week I will start planting in the field. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather cooperates…
Middle Fork Farm 