Archive for seeding
June 14, 2009 at 1:39 pm
· Filed under buy local, seeding ·Tagged Local Vegetables, vegetable crop production
Rhubarb is ready! If you are interested in purchasing some please ask one of the staff at the farm. We do not have the rhubarb cut and in the display cooler because it seems like a large waste of energy to start up these units for only one product. Instead, just ask us and we will go to the field and cut some for you right then. How much fresher could you get!
We are also starting to harvest some herbs. Garlic Chives, French Tarragon, small amounts of Basil and Mint. Herbs will be available on Thurs – Sun starting June 18th.
Other than this, it is a slow season. Our crops are a few weeks behind schedule due to weather. Please check our harvest shedule to become familiar with average harvest dates. Some folks have been looking for corn already. If you see corn in the supermarket at this time of year it is most likely from California or Mexico. Familiarize yourself with the growing season in Saskatchewan to understand better the challenges local growers face. We just want to remind customers that growing food in Saskatchewan is highly dependent on the weather! We do not enjoy the long season that growers in the southern parts of North America do.
We are finally able to transplant the tomatoes and peppers. We had to hold off on this until there was no risk of frost (which would kill the tender transplants and make it impossible to grow these products). There are a few more cabbage, lettuce and herbs to go into the fields and then we are finally finished planting. If this heat holds up we should start seeing some progress in the fields.
I will be posting some photos of the crops so that you are able to see how things are progressing.
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June 3, 2009 at 1:59 pm
· Filed under lincoln gardens, seeding
I hate to sound like a typical farmer, complaining about the weather, but it has really been a poor spring! Dropping down to freezing temperatures a few times a week has caused issues with the planting schedule. We still have lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, swiss chard, peppers and a few other things growing in the greenhouse because we can’t risk freezing them off in the field. Some of the cauliflower that was transplanted froze and we don’t know if it will make it or not. That was about 3000 plants, so we really hope they will come back.
The weather has been hard on the home gardeners too. We have heard from folks who have re-planted their tomatoes 3 times already. With the short growing season in Saskatchewan this cool weather is not making the season look very promising. It is one thing for backyard gardeners to spend $20 planting a garden only to have it freeze, but on the scale that we are dealing with it could be very bad for us if we can’t get a decent crop.
The one thing that is growing well is the weeds! So the crew will spend the rest of the week hoeing and “scuffling” between the rows. A scuffler is a walk behind implement that tills the soil and uproots weeds. I tried to find a picture of it online, but no luck. It is one of those old fashioned tools that people are surprised to learn we actually ’still‘ use on the farm.
There are frost warnings for Friday again, so planting is on hold for another few days. With any luck we will be able to finish next week and maybe, just maybe the weather will cooperate!
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May 13, 2009 at 1:16 pm
· Filed under Regina Farmer's Market, lincoln gardens, seeding ·Tagged garden centre, lincoln gardens, Regina Farmer's Market
Well, I had planned to go to the RFM today, but looking outside, at the gusting wind and pouring rain, that is a no go! I hope the vendors that do go to market today are ready to brave the cold.
So far we have carrots, peas, corn, dill, spinach, radishes, 1/2 of the potatoes, and the strawberry plants in. This weekend we start the transplanting of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower. And then there are about 1000 new raspberry canes to go in too.
Even though the weather has not been great we are steadily moving ahead with the planting and seeding. We also have nearly completed the dismantling of the greenhouses in Moose Jaw that we are moving to the farm. And have got a handle on some of the clean-up around the yard site too.
Things in the garden centre are moving along too. Our next shipment of pottery from Mexico will be here any day now. Then we will spend a few days unpacking, taking inventory, pricing and displaying the shipment. With any luck we will have it on the shelves by the end of the weekend.
But for now, I am off to work in the rain!
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May 9, 2009 at 1:15 pm
· Filed under lincoln gardens, seeding ·Tagged seeding, transplanting
Spring is slow to get going this season. It has put us a bit behind with seeding and planting. So far the guys have prepared the strawberry fields for the transplants, uncovered the herb garden and are starting to plant potatoes.
Today will be too cold again to get out and plant anything. At this rate we start to wonder if we will ever get a crop in the ground. The further behind in seeding we are the higher the chance that we will get frost before the veggies mature. Still trying to be positive though.
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April 16, 2009 at 1:54 pm
· Filed under seeding ·Tagged tomatoes, vegetables
Wayne started to seed tomatoes this week. I can’t remember which varieties we are growing this year, but I will post that info eventually. I know there are several cherry tomatoes, a couple of heritage varieties, a black tomato, and of course the big ‘beef steak’ types.
We may be trying our first high tunnels this season, if our schedule permits. We have had difficult getting the tomatoes to ripen in the field, so the high tunnels will help with that. But first we need to remove them from their present site beside the sales building. We purchased a new gutter connect greenhouse and will be taking the small hoop houses down (the ones we use now for growing the field crops) and moving the hoop houses to the field to use as high tunnels.
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April 10, 2009 at 1:49 pm
· Filed under seeding ·Tagged vegetable bedding plants, vegetable crop production, vegetable seedlings
We spent yesterday in the greenhouse seeding Kohlrabi and Cauliflower. Will be doing more of the same today. Swiss Chard, Broccoli and Cabbage are going in today.
This seeding is for the field production, but we will be offering the same varieties of seedlings for sale on the farm (in the garden centre) and at the Regina Farmers Market later this spring.
We have had several calls for seed potatoes already. Usually we have them bagged and ready for sale at the beginning of May. We sell Norland, the same variety we grow in the field. We only sell 5 and 10lb bags of seed potatoes, so if people are looking for larger amounts I would suggest finding a commercial seed potato grower/supplier or contacting the Seed Potato Association. We can only supply backyard gardeners as we don’t have a huge surplus of seeds.
The Garden Centre will be open in about a week. Still way to early to be thinking about plants, but we have all of those garden pots and decorations that will make you think about spring!
Now, lets see if the remaining snow will melt over the weekend.
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March 28, 2009 at 1:27 pm
· Filed under seeding ·Tagged seeding, vegetable seedlings
Yesterday we seeded the peppers. This year we are nearly doubling our pepper production because we can not keep up with the demand. So, Hungarian Pepper fans (you know who you are) don’t worry, there will be LOTS!
The seeding greenhouse and the germination room are filled to the brim, but it is still to cold too move bedding plants into the sales greenhouse. We hope that after this weekend we will be able to move into the other greenhouse, as it will put us behind if we don’t have more room to seed. oh the joys of Saskatchewan.
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March 19, 2009 at 1:41 pm
· Filed under seeding ·Tagged garden centre, market gardening, seeding
Well, most of our time has been spent seeding and transplanting flowers for the garden centre. I can’t believe that in less than a month we will open the garden centre for the season!
We haven’t forgotten the vegetables. Yesterday we seeded Celery (about 3000 of them), Artichoke, Parsley and Garlic chives. We also transplanted some tumbling tomatoes, but those are for sale at the farmers market and in the garden centre, they are not going out in the field. We haven’t seeded the field tomatoes yet.
Today will be more transplanting. Petunia hanging baskets need to be made, and there are some Jungle Gold Impatiens that seriously need to be planted up.
We also have a seeding flat disaster to sort out. So many trays and so little storage space. Somehow this needs to be dealt with. It seems like there is still so much to do, but with the cold snap we had in March our schedule was really set back. If the snow would melt we might get back on track!
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March 11, 2009 at 8:40 pm
· Filed under Photo Album, seeding ·Tagged seeding
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March 7, 2009 at 1:20 pm
· Filed under seeding, sustainability ·Tagged food miles, food politics, greenhouse, seeding
It doesn’t want to warm up, but we have put off opening the greenhouse as long as we can.
So, this weekend we are starting up the furnace (yes, in Canada you need a furnace to heat your greenhouse until it gets warm enough to heat itself). And we will begin seeding onions. We are seeding Walla Walla, Kelsie Sweet Giant, Super Star, White Spanish, Red Zeplin, Red Spanish, and Candy Yellow. These seeds will grow indoors until we can plant outdoors in May.
As you can imagine it is fairly expensive to heat a greenhouse. We start many of our vegetables in the greenhouse because the growing season in Saskatchewan is not long enough to direct seed. This is one of the reasons that produce from Saskatchewan is generally more expensive than produce grown in the USA or Mexico.
We are not “greenhouse producers”. We don’t operate our greenhouse year round, and all of our crops will be planted outdoors in the field when spring comes. Environmentally, greenhouse produce (that produce grown entirely in the greenhouse) grown in climates as cold as Saskatchewan or Manitoba has a large carbon footprint. It is a reality though, that if we want summer vegetables grown in Canada in the middle of winter we require greenhouse production. It may be better to purchase greenhouse produce from Southern Ontario or BC because their climate is milder and does not require as much fuel to heat the greenhouse. But then that produce needs to be trucked across the country. It is a trade off I guess. Food politics gets more complicated as the days go on.
Anyway, onion planting this weekend and then herbs right away.
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