All my seeds have arrived! Every year I order from two of my favorite companies Fedco Seeds Co-op and High Mowing Organic Seeds. This year I also ordered a few things from Johnny’s Seeds and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I am excited to see how my old favorites do in the Eastern Shore climate and how some new varieties perform but more importantly how everything will taste.
A couple of weeks back I headed up to Pennsylvania to gather supplies from Nolts they have a great selection of greenhouse and irrigation supplies. Tracking down supplies as a farmer can sometimes be tricky. Even today when you can order anything you need online somethings you either need to see it in person or it is just so heavy that shipping costs can be prohibitive when you are ordering a “small” supply (i.e. two 7500’ rolls of drip tape). No matter where I have lived farm supply stores always seem few and far between.
I also collected 16 random samples of soil from my field to do a soil test. Each sample was a hand trowel worth of soil from a depth of 4 to 6 inches. I mixed the samples all together and then filled one quart size freezer bag which I sent off to Logan Labs for analysis. I had my results and recommendations in a weeks time. This field has been fallow for many many years so the organic matter is quite high at 6.25% but it has a low pH and is lacking in many nutrients. Right now I am figuring out the amendments the soil needs to improve these numbers and where to source them from.
With seeds and greenhouse supplies in hand, I have started seeding. The greens (kale, chard, collards, arugula) have already popped up and are reaching for the sun. A bunch of the cherry tomato varieties have pushed out their cotyledons (seed leaves) and onions are just starting to poke through the germination mix. Each week I will be seeding something based on the planting schedule I created a while back. This week I started dill, cilantro, marigolds, okra, lettuce, and mustard greens. Next week will be sugar snap peas and nasturtiums.
You will be able to find all these seedlings and ME at the St. Michael’s farmers market which starts on April 13th and continues every Saturday until November 23rd.