A Great Start to the 2019 Season

I wanted to share a little bit about how we are getting prepared for the 2019 season and what we plan to have happen throughout the season!

March 22 was the official start to my 2019 season. It was a gorgeous day in the upper 60's with full sunshine - the kind of weather that just makes you want to go out and plant something, and so that's exactly what I did. I headed to Sparta right after I finished my class for the day stopping at my beloved Wendy's for lunch.

Author's Note: When I was at Wendy's, there were a total of 4 people, including me, in overalls that came to eat while I was there. Are they making a comeback or is everyone just getting old?

Anyway, I headed straight for the "farm" and was anxious to get to work. I started off by taking some pictures. As I will explain later, we are planning a large expansion for this season, so I took some before pictures to help me remember what it looked like before we were planting. Sadly, we'll have to wait a couple months to see the after pictures.

I've been waiting to put seed in the ground for months now, and I couldn't resist any longer. I had leftover cover crop seed that I didn't get to plant last fall, so I decided that would be my first planting task.

***A cover crop is a plant that you do not intend to harvest, but is planted to benefit the soil. We plant a cover crop mix where each plant has a unique, individual job. I will explain more about cover crops and why we use them in a later blog post!***

Since the weather forecast included rain throughout the weekend, I decided to broadcast this seed into a section that was bare. Now I will pray for a good rain and that the seed will do its job for me!

I also prepared the soil where we would be planting our greens. I don't take credit for thinking of this method, but I do want to share it as it is probably the easiest way to get started in gardening. There is a table on the back porch that acts as a raised bed where we place three bags of Miracle Grow Potting Mix. We simply cut open the bag, expose the soil, and plant. Make sure you poke holes in the bottom of the bags so water can drain out! We have only tried this with greens such as kale, lettuce, and spinach, but let me know if you try this with any other plant! I was able to remove slightly less than half of the soil from the bag, therefore I could use this soil to mix with my other planters. Scroll through the slideshow below to see it step-by-step.

Our 2019 Plans

I would like to share our plans for 2019 as well as what we hope to offer as products. Last year we planted around 4,000 square feet. This season we plan to plant 2 acres, or around 87,000 square feet. Our vegetable portion will be slightly less than 2 acres, around 76,000 square feet, and will consist of around 18 different species of plants. We will also plant the remaining area in a mix of pumpkin varieties, which we hope to have available this fall.

For anyone curious to know what plants we will be growing, I will put together a species list as well as descriptions of what that plant does for us! Also, if you haven't already, be sure to sign up for our website. This can be done on the Blog page by clicking the "Login/Sign Up" button, and will allow you to comment on the blogs as well as receive emails in the future when we start to share available products. Our email subscribers will be the first to know, then followed by posts on social media.

Thanks to all and I hope to be able to provide many pounds of produce this season!