Farm Journal, End of July 2014

We are still getting the leftover bread from GMF. The ducks and geese seem to be doing fine on that and forage. It is not enough protein for the chickens, as they remind us whenever we forget their soy supplement. The pyrs think the pizza is the greatest thing after liver.

The raspberries came in a week late this year. Normally they hit the 4th of July like clockwork. We have few reds, but the more plentiful blackcaps gave us a nice crop this year. There looks to be a nice crop of blackberries on the way. If not delayed, they should come in the first full week of August.

The 2011 wax beans I planted basically didn’t come up. I didn’t bother with the final planting. Now I know where to put the last carrots. Since we expanded the garden, the geese don’t seem to be coming around the outside. I planted peas along the fence, which should be coming up any day now.

The garlic is late (should have been last week, looks like two more weeks), but looks good. I blame the delay on weather, not site. The onions are there, but not happy. They’re definitely reaching for sun, but also just not thriving. The shallots and potato onions look the same way.

We never got any parsnips at all. That has to be a seed issue, which seems strange after the excellent crop last year. I suspect we may have donated all of those varieties to the seed library, and planted some fussy hybrids instead. My carrots did decent germination, but aren’t thriving. Lisa’s Memorial day crop has finally caught up. I’ve no explanation for the delay.

The tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and okra are finally on their way. Slowly. We’ll get some, but not what we should in this fine weather. Again, not enough sun, but these guys aren’t even reaching.

The old seed lettuce and mustard for salad just didn’t come up. The new stuff is up, but growing slowly.

Finally, the potatoes are reaching for sun, but otherwise actually thriving. I suspect it is not coincidence that we’ve been told that 30 or 40 years ago, the then owners grew several acres of potatoes here.

So, I’m convinced that this year’s issue is the soil. As we pull the last chicks out of the brooder room, I’ve started bringing the bedding down for mulch. I’ll leave a bit to jumpstart the composting when we refill it. The stalls don’t really need emptying, and the coop has too much manure to put directly on plants.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.