spring start
February 29th, 2012 by brooke
We are off to a good start for the season. We had a work party last weekend and with the help of some friends planted our onions, leeks, and potatoes. The greenhouse and cold frame are full of seedlings. Because we were gone in January we ordered our onions, leeks and kale from Pamela at Cole Canyon Nursery. Pamela is consistently generous and supportive of us and we really appreciate her!
In the ground we have seeded turnips, radishes, cilantro, parsley, carrots, beets, fennel bulb, mustard greens and spinach. The farm is bursting with the potential of all these seeds! It’s exciting and also a bit scary to be the caretakers of so many tender young things all at once, especially when we are depending on their success for our upcoming CSA. Germinating seed and recently transplanted plants are at their most vulnerable stages now and need the most attention from us as they take firm root and gain the capacity to fend for themselves. We are spending a lot of time these days keeping seedbeds watered and covering transplants with remay and shade cloth.
Late winter and early spring seems to be the season of abundant travelers. We have been getting a lot of out of town visitors — some friends and some who have just heard about us through the grapevine and want to see what we are up to. We have been especially lucky to be visited by fellow urban farmers from Providence and Reno. It’s really a warm and validating feeling to compare notes and stories with other committed, inspired urban farmers. It motivates us to keep doing this work when we feel that we are part of a network, a growing movement of people who believe that small scale agriculture in cities is possible and important.
