Hello and happy late summer!

It's been a full year now that our beautiful greenhouse has been planted and growing.

Here are a few photos of the greenhouse in full summer growth. We continue to learn a lot as we watch what works and what doesn't. We're also trying new methods of dealing with pest insects; for most of the past year we've used beneficial insects from M & R Durango ( green lacewings, Orius -thrips predators, leafminer predators, etc) which seemed to work pretty well, but we were curious as to our other options, so we stopped with regular releases of these insects and started a new regimen. Mainly, we still need to focus on improving our soil in the raised beds, although it is much better than a year ago as we've added a lot of peat, composted sheep manure, worm castings and worms, and more topsoil. With better soil, the plants become healthier, and can fend off disease and pests better for themselves, rather than treating the problem after it's arrived. Until then, we're currently spraying Neem Oil, which is a natural pest control made from trees and sprayed on our plants. We've also been applying a microbe spray that Jerome recommended and is supposed to help improve the micro organism count in our soil to help the plants uptake nutrients.

We've also finally started to plant our orchard behind the greenhouse. We laid out the guilds on the hillside, and are tackling it one guild at a time. We start with the center fruit tree (apples or pears) and then plant 3 or 4 Siberian Pea Shrubs ( which fix nitrogen- take it out of the air and pull it down into their roots, where it can then be released into the soil) and 2 or 3 berry shrubs ( currants or gooseberries) around the central tree in a circle. We will have plenty of room in each guild to add more shrubs and/or other understory perennials and annuals, but for now we want to get these established.

Our harvests are going well, and our passionfruit are not just beautiful- they're delicious! There is also a photo of an artichoke which we did not pick but let go to flower... surprisingly lovely thistle!

It's been a busy few weeks at the farm, as is expected in spring! Now it's already summer.

What we've been up to is pretty much getting the farm in order for real outdoor farm production: spreading compost and mulch, cover cropping, weeding, raking new beds, planting seeds and plants... and the never ending watering! We also have been keeping the greenhouse in full swing, producing and selling out of there.

In the greenhouse, we have planted out all of our hot season annuals. These include the usuals, like tomatoes( 4 kinds), peppers (3 kinds), eggplants (3 kinds), basil( 4 kinds), cucumbers, something else that I've likely overlooked... as well as seeding more salad greens, and turnips, radishes, kale, parsley, cilantro, and dill. We've started our outdoor annual crops with just squash and brussels sprouts for this year. The squash didn't do so well last summer/ fall inside, so we'll try a drier environment outside. The Brussels sprouts taste better after they've been touched by frost, so we'll give them that, as hopefully it will be much warmer inside this year. As for more outdoor annual crops, we're holding out for next year to really dig in to those. The annual production beds will be around the pond. We continue to work on improving the soil in the raised beds inside, which is easy when we re-do annual beds, but tougher when trying to work around the perennials. We have citrus fruit, passionfruit, and papayas fruiting, a few figs, and artichokes, and I have transplanted the pineapple and guava plants, as they were not performing up to our standards. No free rent here! But I gave them a second chance, in pots with some nice rich soil where I can keep my eyes on them.

As for outdoors, the final grading around the pond was completed last month, and we seeded that area with rye and clover to keep the weeds out until we're ready to plant there. We covered it with straw to deter birds from eating it, to keep any moisture in the soil, and to keep it from blowing or washing away. It has sprouted in most areas; some rain would help. Deano also has raised the water level in the pond by about a foot.

We also just finished seeding the fenceline. This mile long bare swath seems pretty prominent from across the valley, and I'm sure we all as well as the neighbors are very eager to green it up again. Bring on the rain! It's needed. The fence has not yet arrived on site, but rumor has it that it will this week. Let's hope so.

We need that fence to keep out the wildlife. A pair of elk were spotted the other day, but the moose has been elusive for a few weeks. Plenty of deer tracks, though. We are especially eager to keep them out, as we have plants outdoors now. The cutting-flower garden out front is getting established, and some of these perennials are starting to bloom. The perennial herbs that we started from seed (sage, oregano, lavender, lovage, and thyme) have settled into their new home outside the east door. We've also moved most of our 5 gallon containers of shrubs and trees to this front area for ease of watering. This includes the shrubs left over from last year when we planted the agri-forest, as well as the orchard plants that we potted up this spring in the greenhouse. We also have plenty of strawberry plants in ground outside, and some raspberries too. Some of the berries (currants-black, white, and red) and raspberries are fruiting. So, we need this fence! We will not become a salad bar for wildlife.

We are now harvesting twice a week, and delivering our goods directly. This seems to be a great partnership so far.

Here are some pictures of the different passion fruit that are growing on the trellis.

Plans for the outdoor planting at the farm are progressing. We will likely plant the flower garden in front of the greenhouse in May, with a beautiful array of flowering perennials to bring in pollinators and other beneficial insects, and to cut and sell as bouquets. We will also tuck in annual flowers that we can start from seed, like cosmos and sunflowers, and edible flowers, like calendula and pansies.

This a a passionflower vining up a trellis in the greenhouse.

We will next plant the orchard behind, to the north of, the greenhouse. We have received pears, apples, currants, and gooseberries as bare roots, and potted them up in 5 gallon pots to nurture a bit longer in the greenhouse. They all came in looking great, and have mostly started leafing out already.

Under the trees, we will plant fruiting shrubs, and under and around those, we will plant more annual and perennial flowers and perhaps some vegetables, too. This area was cover-cropped with nitrogen-fixing clover, and rye, last year to help keep weeds down as well as increasing fertility.

The future forest garden, surrounding the pond, will be planted either this fall or next spring, with more fruit trees, underplanted with shrubs and perennials. We also will have space for annual vegetable production here, and plenty of berries: raspberries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, and we may try some blueberries.

Jeannie and I will cover crop this area around the pond as soon as we can to keep out the weeds, especially thistles, and to increase nutrient content in the soil. Deano has been hard at work smoothing this spot out into some semblance of a garden, rather than a construction zone.

Back in the greenhouse, we're moving into the summer vegetables now, with some tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, and beans in the raised beds. Other varieties of these warm season annuals remain as seedlings in pots, like the peppers, eggplants, and of course, more basil and tomatoes.

Spring has sprung, full force! Most of the snow is melted from the agri-forest, there were ducks on the pond and Sandhill Cranes in the meadow, and a coyote (a big one!) has been spotted a couple of times on the farm. We have potted up the bare root pears that arrived last week, and the currants and gooseberries will be potted up this week.

We've been harvesting and selling (hooray!) to Sweet Pea. It seems to be a good situation so far. We have plenty coming in: beets, broccoli, peas, arugula, chard, greens, are all about ready, with plenty more nearing readiness.

The first fig on the "Peters Honey" fig in the Med. bed.

Butch is making sure that Deano is doing everything the right way. He makes a good job supervisor.