Is it Spring Yet?

The weather seems to be confused about what month it is. This past week was windy and extra cold (we almost got a frost). If you have plants in the ground make sure to give them an extra drink of water making sure to wet the foliage as the wind can be dehydrating. Cold dry soil puts a lot of stress on a young plant. Luckily this week is warming up and we should be getting more May like temperatures, with highs around 70 degrees.

mowing cover crop
I attempted to mow the cover crop but the ground was too wet for the tractor.

With the blustery cold weather outside the seedlings have been loving the warm temperatures inside the greenhouse. In addition to it being a cold spring it has also been a wet spring. So our field has been too wet to prepare and our first field crop, tomatoes, are still hanging out in the greenhouse. If these sunny dry days continue we hope to be preparing and perhaps even transplanting this weekend.

We have added a second pick up location for online orders. You can now select to pick up your items in Tilghman Island (Sunday-Friday) from a covered porch of a local residence on Tilghman Island Road. This will truly be a contactless transaction. The items will be ready for you to pick up at the time you select (9am-7pm). You will find your items packed in a biodegradable plastic bag or cardboard box and labeled with your name. 

Our seedlings are planted in fiber pots which are made of peat moss and wood pulp making them 100% biodegradable. So the entire pot can be planted with the seedling. Just gently rip the bottom of the pot off and place the whole thing in your soil, making sure the entire pot is covered with soil, including the top edges of the pot.

german johnson tomato

The online shop is currently filled with lots of spring and summer seedlings including arugula, bush beans, calendula, chamomile, collards, dill, green onions, kale, lettuce, marigolds, nasturtium, parsley, peas, peppers, red onions, sage, sunflowers, swiss chard, tomatillos, tomatoes, and zucchini.

We now have our first offering of produce, bunches of spring onions (aka green onions). The entire spring onion is edible: the white bulb, green tops, and even the flower head. Enjoy them sauté or eaten raw, when stored inside a plastic bag they will keep in your refrigerator for over a week.

seedlings, green onions
A few offerings from our online shop: tomatillo seedling, spring onions, nasturtium seedling, and conch ceviche.

By ordering from our online shop you will have access to our complete selection of products. With our new booth set up at the farmers market we are not able to bring all of our products to market. For example at market we only offer 6 varieties of tomato seedlings but we have 17 varieties of tomato seedlings available in our online shop.

We have designed our farmers market booth to have zero contact with customers. When you approach our booth we have one line for all customers, first you tell us what you’d like from our list of products. We bag or box your items then put them in a bin that we slide towards you, so that we maintain 6 feet of distance between us. Next you step over to pay for your items, our preferred payment methods are credit cards, checks, or exact change. If you chose to pay by credit card just place your card on our sanitized table our credit card processing software will scan your card so we never touch your card. If you’d like to pay by check or exact change we will slide a bin towards you with a jar for you to place your payment in.

farmers market booth
Our new farmers market booth set up

By following CDC guidelines we are doing our best to ensure that we provide you with the safest product. But just because we need to practice social distancing, doesn’t mean you can’t get gardening advice or help troubleshooting a plant problem. Feel free to shoot me an email or ask me a question on Facebook or Instagram anytime. No question is too basic or odd, I’m here to help you have a successful home garden.