About two weeks ago we had a family barbecue and we were all set up in the backyard. We had a tent and activities for the kids, coolers etc… People started to arrive and then about a half hour into the party it started to rain. Well, it was a pretty steady rain and at times came down pretty heavily. We were all okay with it though because it has been extremely dry on the East Coast this summer.
After the storm the sun came out and it was remarkably cool and comfortable –finally, the humidity was gone!
Then I checked the rain gauge.
I was shocked. I thought it had at least rained an inch or at least half an inch, but it had only rained 1/4 of an inch! I then asked our remaining guests how much they thought it had rained. Most of the guests guessed similar to me, one half to one whole inch. At this point I knew that I still needed to run the irrigation the next day, (most plants need about one inch of water a week). Without this little inexpensive little plastic gauge, I would have left my plants without proper water for the rest of the week.
The rain gauge is such a simple tool that gardeners and farmers everywhere do not use but should. It is such an essential tool when you are growing plants of any kind. It is like the stethoscope that hangs around the doctor’s neck - it checks the vital signs for you. Without the gauge it is simply a guessing game and even though I am usually fairly accurate after all my years gardening, I still goof up when estimating how much it has rained.
A rain gauge can be purchased at a hardware store, online at garden supply companies, or at agricultural supply houses like Agway and Tractor Supply. I would urge even small-time gardeners to go out today and get themselves a gauge so that they can stop the guessing game.
Our kids love to check the gauge and report how much it has rained and it really saves me time in the end. If I know it has rained enough that week I don’t have to walk the irrigation lines looking for a leak and you don’t have to stand there with a hose over-watering your garden.
Working with mother nature can be a real challenge sometimes.
Last year we had so much rain this time of year I had garden slugs everywhere and I could not keep up with all the weeds that were growing. Now this year we have the exact opposite and on top of that we have this extreme heat wave that is literally killing things in front of my eyes. Plants are pretty tough but this is a real test…for them and us!
Luckily my irrigation system is up and working and I can happily say that my field grown flowers are not suffering as much as my garden plants (my poor vegetable garden!) and me.
Things I do to combat overheating… I work in short power bursts, for example I go out for half an hour or an hour tops to work and then pick something inside the workshop to cool off. Of course I drink a lot of water and I always wear a big hat to keep my head and shoulders covered. Most importantly though I try not to let the “idea” of the heat get to my head too much. If you listen to the weather people and people who are inside all day they can really freak you out about how hot it is going to be…. and it is hot, but sometimes there is a slight breeze and you can always take a break in the shade. Besides, farmers are the toughest people I know!
This is the third year for the Blairstown Farmers Market and we have a new location….
just across the street from the elementary school and next to the Agway and Firehouse on Route 521.
It’s a great new location as can be attested to by the great turnout we had last week for our opening day.
We look great at this location! Everyone can see us, unlike the last location which was a beautiful shady spot tucked away from the road…TOO far away from the road! While we did love this last location, we had to move to accommodate better parking and the increasing demand for additional vendor space.
We are really growing and it is truly awesome to be a part of it!
Come visit us at the market to pick up a fresh or dried bouquet and get some great local bread, produce and much more. Hope to see you there!
Last June, we had a visit from the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) regarding our property and what we can do to attract more pollinators to our farm. Pollinators are the little bugs, flies, bees and butterflies, to name a few, that help turn flowers into fruit and eventually food for us.
I know most of you already know these basics but did you know that the honeybee alone pollinates up to one third of all the food we eat? (That doesn’t account for all the other pollinators by the way..) Pretty amazing insects! We hardly notice them most of the time but without these pollinators we would be lost - not to mention hungry.
So we invite you to watch our meadow in the making…
So far, we have plowed, disked and harrowed three long strips in the pasture. The idea is that these strips will be planted with lots of wonderful meadow plants and grasses and that they will be so happy and prolific, they will re-seed and help to slowly establish the entire 1.2 acres of pasture that we have dedicated to the project.
Mowing is another vital step to establishing the meadow. I will need to keep all other existing plants and grasses well mowed so that the new baby meadow plants are up high and strong and able to fend for themselves. Then I should be able to stop mowing around July 4th or so and let the meadow take flight. Tune in to see the next phase!
Little Big Farmers Kevin, Patti, Henry and Lucas, donated their muscles, butterfly bushes and echinacea plants for the new children’s garden at Blairstown Elementary School. The garden was inspired by a collection of parties in the town, including Blairstown Elementary, Sustainable Blairstown and the local Brownie Troop. It was a great way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Thanks to Rich Mailhot for putting together a quick video of the event.
By the time the fourth dump truck left the property, we fully realized that we bit off a whole lot to chew. It’s April on the farm and with our spring fever raging, what other choice could we possibly make other than to completely over burden ourselves?
The tallies:
6 tons of 3/8 gravel to fix the barn
4 tons of QP to repair the collapsed culvert bridge
10 yards of soil to regrade the barnyard
15 yards of hardwood mulch to keep the weeds down and give the beds a much needed facelift
Oh yeah, and after “Farmer Patti” was looking for “just a bit more” for finishing touches, she went and ordered five more yards of mulch!
Fortunately, our nephews, Frankie and Dylan, came to our rescue again. Over the past four years, they have come out of the burbs to help us move things along. They are country boys at heart, though they don’t even know it yet.
As the pics show, one thing piles are good for… a good game of King of the Hill. Henry and Lucas were happy to demonstrate!
To top off the typical spring workload, the steam boiler in our farmhouse gave up the ghost in March, leaving us with no heat. What to do? Replace that too. My nephew, Tony, and I cut out nearly 3,000 pounds of iron to make way for a new high-tech heating solution. I only pretended to help push the dolly. Being 18, Tony didn’t notice.
The seeds are all here in my hot little hands now.
Next I categorize them according to how soon I need to start them. So that means carefully going over every packet to see how long it takes for germination and how many weeks before the last frost date I can start them. Then I make up a chart that has every month and what flower needs to be started when. For instance, I will sow some rudbeckia now for a spring harvest and then sow some more seeds again in late June to have some new fresh blooms for the fall markets. I can look up the month or the flower to know when I need to sow the seeds, This way I have done all the “thinking” ahead of time because once things get moving here on the farm with weeding, watering, planting harvesting etc…I really have no time to go through the whole seed box again.
Spring is almost here again! We have had some really nice mild weather here in our part of New Jersey. About one week now of sunny, beautiful 50 degree days. It has been enough to melt almost all of the snow on the ground. Yesterday the kids and I found the first Crocus in the lawn. I have to say I was pretty happy to see it but my kids were surprisingly more excited. “Look! the first flower of the season!” they cried as they madly dashed about the lawn looking for more flowers. Just when you think that they aren’t really paying attention to little things they surprise you.
So I have a bunch of seeds started: Verbena, Dianthus, Craspedia, Snapdragons and Rudbeckia. I tried the Craspedia, or “Golden Drumstick Flower” last year and loved it. Unfortunately so did the rabbits. It has been the only flower so far that the rabbits have really bothered. This year I will try again and now I have a secret weapon….my new puppy Daisy Rose (note the flowery name!??!). She loves to chase down anything that moves so she should keep the rabbit damage to a minimum. I will keep you posted on that.
