Fall

Farmer Paul next to his prized sunflower! Actually, this is his I told you so sunflower. This one had grown elsewhere and he wanted to move it but I said it wasn't a good idea because sunflowers didn't like being transplanted once they got to a certain size. He did it anyway and here is the result!! :o)

Now this is the Paul I know and love.

How about this for a beautiful tomato! This variety is called 'Orange Strawberry', quite appropriate I would say. This is from a very prolific indeterminate vine that is still producing a great deal of tomatoes, I'm really hoping we get a couple more weeks of sunshine to help them along.

Fall is so in the air; the nights are cooling down, there is a cool wind at times and the plants have slowed down their growth substantially. But lately we been having gorgeous sunny days - Fall is stunningly beautiful when it is like this.

I'm very excited to report that I will be taking a few 'Professional Development' days off in a couple of weeks to visit a farm in the Kootenays. If any of you are familiar with the beautiful inspiring book The Garden That You Are you will have seen Elderbee Greens who are featured. They produce organic bedding plants including veggie starts. I am planning on expanding my business next year, in collaboration with Linda from the Green Room, to incorporate organic veggie plants. It seems like such a natural progression because I start my own plants anyway for the CSA, and it will extend my season by a few months into the Spring. By visiting Elderbee Greens, who have been doing this for 35 years, I hope to avoid many of the 'learn as you go' mistakes.

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Apologies.....

....for the long silence! The Summer is such an insanely busy time, and what a Summer it has been! This year we have had approximately 3 days of rain since May, and combined with the, at times, very high temperatures it has been a challenge to keep all the plots watered sufficiently. As a result, the produce at some locations have struggled. However, the heat loving plants have been fabulously successful. The beans, tomatoes, basil and cantaloupe have been incredible, and the Summer squash, aghhhh, it won't stop producing. This all makes for a great display at the farmers' market:


Things are starting to get less crazy now though. Most of my Winter crops are planted, I just have a few more flats of seedlings to go out. Trying to get the Winter crops in on top of the busy Summer schedule made for a pretty intense time, but fun because it is so nice to see the next wave of veggies coming along so nicely.

At some locations the soil really needs building up, so after clearing away the main season crops I've planted clover seeds. I'm not confident they will germinate well with this lack of rain, but I can reseed if necessary in a few weeks. My plan is to let the clover grow for a while then turn it under as a green manure later in the Fall and then dress the beds with leaves and straw to add mass that will break down over the Winter.

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