November 8, 2010
Frost has not stopped all garden activity
It’s been about a week since our first major frost of autumn, marking the end of most, but not all, activity in the garden. The frost was pretty late, I think, even for as far south as we are—so we counted ourselves lucky.
September 30, 2010
Matt in the garden wondering 'dude, where's my rain?'
I just finished my third summer in Virginia, and I can safely say that this was by far the hottest of the three. Even more of an issue for our garden, it was also extremely dry.
How dry? According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration*, from June 1 to September 23, Charlottesville (10 miles from the farm) received 6.17 inches of rainfall…total. On average, it receives about 17 inches during roughly the same time period. Contrast this with the several feet of snow we received from December to February.
The dry summer has yielded brown, crunchy grass, and young trees showing signs of stress (just like grad students). (more…)
February 28, 2010
Our broccoli sprouted this week, and we transplanted it from the vermiculite to potting soil. Here are some pictures. We’re excited to see our first crop go from seed to sprout! Next step – transplanting it to the ground once it thaws!
Also, today we went and visited Wendy & Jerry Custer, a family in our county that breeds chickens, to get an idea of how many chickens we want and what breeds. We’re interested in getting at least 4 chickens. Our top choices are (more…)