Sparta Farm

Here we are in June, and enjoying the fruits of our labor in the "Early Garden" - lettuce and kale are doing splendidly this year; we put on floating row covers at the very beginning of planting time and they have more than paid for themselves: no flea beetles, no cabbage worms, and no bunnies coming by for midday snacks.  This means less spraying and dusting - which is very welcome, since even organic pest control methods can be annoying and time-consuming.

The only crop to suffer at all was our first turnip planting: I didn't think to cover that - turnips are indomitable, right?Wrong! I had no idea that those annoying little root maggots that we saw a few of last year would be back in full force - nor did I know that they enter the root via eggs planted by a moth on the leaves.  At least I figured this out in time to cover our second planting.

 Our burgeoning cabbage plants are pretty epic - the difference between last year, before we'd made the switch to only-organic, and this year, with our richly prepared beds and compost heap, is astonishing. Also, we picked our first tender little beets yesterday, and found that they too had appreciated the generous applications of "manure tea" we gave them.  Even our four-year-old was gobbling the sweet little buttery slices up happily.  These beets are so good, I almost don't want to sell them, but want to keep them all for ourselves.

Interestingly enough, our garden last year that was so much less productive was also more time-consuming. My husband is working more hours at his regular job this year, and I am 8 months pregnant, so you'd think we'd be floundering helplessly in a sea of weeds - but in fact, our methods seem to be paying off in terms of time-efficiency, too.  

We put in 100 asparagus plants in the early spring, and several friends warned us that we'd need many, many more than 100 - but based on what my mother is harvesting from her little cottage garden (I think she has about four plants there) we should have more than enough for both ourselves and our customers, once they begin producing in earnest.

Our tomato plants (all heirloom this year) are nearly all in, as are our peppers. So far the tomato plants seem to be enjoying themselves in their new organic world - I had read that a healthy plant tends not to be attacked by pests, and I thought, "yeah, right," but in fact it seems to be working out; we've had far less trouble with flea beetles on our tomatoes since we set them out in such rich soil. And in fact I have since discovered that this theory has its basis in scientific fact: a plant which has a healthy balance of minerals and nutrients apparently produces its own natural insect-repellent (wish I could do that!). 

Green beans and corn are still going in... lots of manure, compost and blood meal for that corn!