John's Farm Update: What does this soggy spring weather mean for us?

As all gardeners know, this has been a challenging spring for getting plants into the ground and having our flowers and vegetables really “kick in” and grow.  The excess water, saturated soil, and low temperatures have slowed seed germination and limited the growth of warm season crops.

Here at our farm, however, many of our crops grown in raised beds with temperature enhancing covers are showing good growth and color.  Cool season crops such as strawberries and peas, as well as our lettuce and greens, are showing promise and should produce acceptable yields.

Certainly, during a spring like this, we all better realize the vulnerability of raising food crops and the effects of weather on this process.  Farmers face these challenges every year.  The importance of CEA (controlled environment agriculture) is evident, especially in our hydroponic greenhouses, which enable us to grow fresh crops of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs for our farm market on a regular basis, regardless of the weather.

Our tomato house is part of our CEA plan.

Hopefully, summer sun and heat will arrive, maybe even by this Saturday, when many of our summer student workers will be graduating from high school. Congratulations to this exceptionally great group!

Congratulations to our team members who are graduating from high school this month.

As soil conditions permit, we will continue to seed and transplant to our fields and home gardens. There is plenty of growing time remaining this season! Visit our garden center for vegetable plants, annuals, perennials as well as flowering shrubs and fruit trees.

Yes, you can still plant your vegetable and flower gardens. Visit our garden center to get your plants.