In the flurry of spring activities, making entries to the blog got swept under the carpet. Now all the planting is done and it's on to maintenance, so we can take a little breather. Summer around here will consist of making sure everything is weeded and watered, and then harvesting as needed. We are harvesting shell and snap peas and lettuces at the moment, with the remainder of the crops spread out over the rest of the summer and fall.
After a nice wet spring, we have good subsoil moisture and have had to do minimal watering. We prefer drip irrigation using T-Tape, since it is so much more efficient at water use than overhead irrigation. Plus, many crops don't like wet foliage. At the moment, the pole beans are a foot tall, the garlic is about two feet tall, and most other crops are doing well.
Although there are a number of bright areas, we have had more than our share of setbacks this spring, which have necessitated a few changes in our plans. The most regrettable is our primary retail outlet experiencing financial problems, which has resulted in us needing to pull our products from their stores. We also had total failure of most of the 4000+ plants we attempted to grow from seed in our propagation area. As a result, we will have no commercial quantities of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, and essentially all herbs. This has required us to pull out of the Monument Farmers Market for the season, which was to be our primary marketing channel after the retail store option was closed for us.
We are courageously pushing on with the things that are growing well, and the pigs and rabbits continue to do their part. But for this season the vegetable production will likely be a non-event.
We are searching for God's plan in the midst of our setbacks, and do not have any answers yet. But we have faith that He has wonderful plans for us even if we can't see the big picture just yet.
