Coming out of our second winter, we're ready to take what we've learned about growing in Northwest Colorado and adjust our practices to make our farm more beautiful, efficient, and deliciously productive! We plan on making a few changes in the next couple of months inside the greenhouse, removing a few plants that have been disappointingly unproductive or less than tasty (mango, lychee, jujube, two of the four passion fruit, & olive) and focus on what what has been successful. This will result in a more Mediterranean planting focus, with lots of citrus and a strong emphasis on herbs. The fruit and herbs that we harvest from the greenhouse will be used mainly in value added products, but of course we will continue to sell our fresh produce as well, narrowing down our crops to what we've grown that we really like and that grows well in our unique climate, and continuing to try interesting new varieties. We will keep the farm in the permaculture style, with polyculture or intermixed plantings, as seen in the top photo, rather than row cropping, or monoculture. This helps maintain healthy plants, soil, beneficial insects, and micro-organisms. We've started our hot season crops from seed, and the seedlings have been loving all of the sun we've had lately. We'll have numerous varieties of tomatoes, a few cucumbers, and some peppers inside, as well as plenty of basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender- lots of lavender! For outside we've started squash, melons, beans, and herbs, too.
The perennials have already started leafing out, as seen in the photos of the Meyer Lemon and the Mars Grape. The Peter's Honey Fig even has tiny new fruit! I am really looking forward to getting growing this season.
