Sowing Seeds for Cucumbers, Squashes, and Flowers
We’ve been seeding up a storm in the greenhouse in preparation for the spring season! Now that our tomatoes and peppers are happily growing away, it’s time to plant cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squashes. These varietals are much quicker growers than tomatoes and peppers so they don’t need as early of a start. This will be the first of many successions of cucumbers and squashes that will carry us through spring and summer. You can expect to see them trickling back into season in early April.
An abundance of flower varieties were also planted in the greenhouse this week! One of our favorite spring traditions on the farm is to grow a couple of cut flower beds for bouquets. This year, we’re focusing on planting smaller quantities of more flower varieties than we have in the past. We’ll have some reliable favorites like zinnias and marigolds with newer ones like yarrow and pincushion flowers. If all goes well, we should have cut flower bouquets at the Farm Stand just in time for Mother’s Day!
Aside from all of the seed starting, we took some time to use the flame weeder in some of our beds in preparation for spring planting. The flame weeder is a great way for us to keep weeds in check without disturbing the soil. An added bonus is that it’s much quicker than our other weeding methods! The intense heat generated by the flame weeder sears the leaves of the weeds which causes the plant to die back. As the plant decays, it adds nutrients back to the soil which will benefit future spring crops.
In Season at the Farm Stand: Carrots, Beets, Salad Mix, Butter Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Komatsuna, Swiss Chard, Cone Cabbage, Bok Choy, Kale, Collard Greens, Cilantro, Scallions, Fennel, Kohlrabi, Cauliflower, and Broccoli (limited)
