Hello hello everybody out there,
What a wondeful time of the year we're in.... May is a busy busy time on the farm and we're loving it. We're spending each and every day out in the roasting desert sun, digging beds and planting gardens- experimenting with different methods of watering and mulching for maximum water retention with less frequent though deeper watering... We're itching to plant our first bed of early heirloom tomatoes- there's a nice mix of Jaune Flamée, Red Calabash, Golden Muscat, Isis Candy, Stupice, Persimmon, Black Russian, and Green Zebra- all bursting out of their pots and over a foot tall yikes!
We'll be planting this bed in our top garden, in between a bed of cucumbers and a bed of Zucchinis (and Zucchettas!!). We're planning to dig two trenches in a raised bed thick with compost (llama, rabbit, and chicken) and plant the tomatoes as deep as up to around their top four leaves, removing the lower leaves to allow for a larger root mass. We'll then mulch the trench with an inch of black gravel (conveniently from the base of the mountain across the road from the farm). Posts will be pounded within the bed to string up the tomatoes, pruned to three main branches. We're expecting earlier tomatoes with a greater yield and denser flavour due to less watering and more heat generated from the gravel...
Today we planted our 'Beach Pyramid' Garden- a patch composed almost entirely of beach sand! Last year we hauled compost, dug trenches, planted a variety of potatoes (purple, red, yellow and white) and mulched heavily with hay from the goat yard (mixed with precious goat compost).... The potatoes did amazingly and we enjoyed them all winter long- the rest are sprouting like crazy and asking to be planted this week....
Today after pulling up the Rye cover crop, mixing in a truckload of five year old cow compost and making terraced beds, we planted a mighty mix of roots and toots.... Beets- Golden, Chioggia, Detroit, Ruby Queen, Cylindra, and Patsy's Red; Kohlrabis- Purple and White Vienna; Carrots- Long Orange Improved, Nantes Corless, Scarlet Nantes, Amsterdam Gold, Nuova Kurota, and Purple Dragon; Radishes- French Breakfast, Easter Egg, Tasty Red, and Lo Bok; Summer Turnips- Purple Top and Goldette; and a lovely mix of flowers- Zinnias, Sunflowers, Purple Poppies, LionsMane Dagga, Angel Trumpet Datura, Cosmos, Marigolds, and Hollyhocks.... we still have a lovely Castor Bean to plant on the edge of the path to our shallow bay on the river where you can float about on a scorching summer afternoon...
The rest of the month is busy busy busy with onion planting for at least an hour every night, bed prepping, opening up new land- picking rocks and digging beds, and planting planting planting.... The greenhouse is exploding with forty-five varieties of heirloom tomatoes, twenty types of sweet peppers, more of chili peppers, eight varieties of eggplants, celery and celeriacs galore, flowers and herbs, cucumbers and melons, tree and grape cuttings and planted apricots and hazelnuts, hops and more! We keep having to move trays of plants from the big greenhouse to the little one, then outside to 'harden off'- face the wicked wind and brilliant sun...
As well we're getting ready for the Grand Opening of the new season for the Monkey in the Garden Restaurant on the farm... We'll be opening up on the Last Day of May- Sunday, May 31st. We'll be making delicious Sourdough Spelt Crusted Pizzas, Tender Salads freshly picked from the gardens with thick strawberry dressing, Goat Milk Fruit Smoothies, Triple Layer Cakes, strong fantastic Cappuccinos and lots more! There'll be a last chance plant sale (gotta plant those gardens!) and tours of the farm! It's going to be a grand event!
Until next time- Happy Planting!
Peace,
Michael and Brandie Monkeys