UNSUSTAINABLE FARMING PRACTICES AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIC MATERIALS

     Being able to preferably make seeds, and if not, buy the right ones, is as strong a link in the growing process as any of the many others toward the final process.        The days ahead are going to be challenging in this respect, I'm noticing the big box stores offering a lower grade seed as each year goes by, and the mom and pops outlets being closer to a hit or miss situation.      One of my biggest challenges still is the snow pea seed, they quickly mold with too much moisture and shrink as conditions dry, the line in the middle being very fine.   I have had some luck here and there over the years, but nothing steady.       And this year proves no different, because I was too busy to harvest properly, as a portion of the crop went to seed early rather than growth, yet the drying process has basically again lead to a large bowl of mostly shrunken dried seeds that I now add the ones from the later harvest and see where I land. I have seen large dried seeds before once with a

 For the most part the year has been a raving success,  even though the snow peas haven't grown as tall from me being to busy to harvest and a portion going to seed rather than growth, I've still eaten snow peas just about everyday for the past 6 weeks and froze up a bunch too.                                                                              We've had a bout of extreme heat and little rain over the past two months yet most plants are doing ok. These tender and juicy strawberries are going to do just fine and expand outward from there location, and these cantaloupe will be the perfect future filler for the waning snow peas.                                    The bread and butter of the farm though are the spices, and these grow containers are appearing to be the most productive way to grow my marjoram, thyme and parsley, but some of  my latest tarragon, (and even squash and a few others), recruits might have a seed quality problem about to rear its ugly head in t

  Over all things are progressing rather well, we've been very dry, one spell giving just 2 1/4 rains over a six week period where towards the end I had to install water devices or not get full potential out of the efforts. In addition to some cold snaps that left the potato's and squash rather tender after not being covered fully. I've been eating snow peas for the past two weeks, and even some melt in your mouth strawberries. Most all the plants are coming along in one fashion or another, the marjoram above being the lone holdout again this year.  I don't have much to show in the way of marjoram recruits this year so i'll go  back to container grown first and then transplant into the larger area.  I set up a weather station and am monitoring it. .The parsley, thyme and marjoram are doing fine but not one tarragon showed up so I'll attempt that a second time.     This is definitely the best way to start and grow the basil, it will free up some valuable space in

 After consulting a more experienced organic farmer, it appears that soil temperature is imperative during the early stages of plant formation, which is just another reason to construct a large heated cold frame, but instead of designing the structure around air temp, I will attempt to design it for soil temp and let the air simply stay above 32, while concentrating on keeping the soil temp at the to be determined best range. I dont have anything to show for it as much work needs to be done and there is plenty of time to do it so i'll concentrate on what has started this season, which is a lot.  The beans are coming along great and we've had no rain, but a couple fair waterings and off to races they go. I bought some summer squash and planted 3 of those in a large container, if this works out they, the broccoli, and the basil are strong candidates for cold frame starting. The organic transplant of the soil appears to be saving the streak of years grown at the same site, almost

    I lost some month old basil, the cauliflower, and some different plants which are going to need a heated environment to protect them from the cold and encourage healthier growth while still young. I also want to see if I can do some winter growing of lettuces and such .  The rest of the plants did ok during this years winter cycle.    So what I have decided to do is build a large cold frame to test the ability of the passive water heater to transfer and store hot water under the raised cold frame, if successful a larger unit can be constructed in the future.  It starts with framing this tempered glass I've had sitting around for quite a while and building and insulating a cement container to hold a 55 gallon drum of hot water. The entire design will be organic, all gravity fed which requires no electricity to operate. 

What permits us to attempt to grow this early in the year is the battle between the late cold artic air and the warming sea water.  I created some maps below to show how even during the worst conditions nature can bring, this area has been very friendly to this plant, and this year appears to be no exception.  As the warm water battles and wins the artic battle earlier in each year, one can get started Feb 1st and as long as the plants don't super hard freeze, they just have to wait for the sun to reappear some 5-10 days later and explosive growth occurs soon after, that has been the past and I jumped a half a week early this year and so far the results are promising. So here are some maps to show once again this battle between the cold artic air, and the warm southern waters.  Some heat vs cold maps in feb 2021. So just take notice of this years battle between heat and cold and who pushes who back and the recovery time. Each push of warm air extends further northward with each att

 It appears some 5-7 marjoram transplants are going to make it through the winter, this is the best one and significant as not to long ago I had trouble growing this plant, and now i'll seed small patches during the next 8 weeks to catch that perfect 10 days to germinate and begin growing. I made this mini seedling greenhouse and have basil, marjoram and some cauliflower and they will transplanted to their new homes as soon as they are able and ready. There are no freeze warnings here for the next ten days and we may only have 2 or 3 for the rest of this year.