A Good Question and This Week's Growth

Last week someone posted a good question:

"Can you provide some tips behind your success at gardening."  

H.G. said:

"Start with a farm (garden) that has good soil! Take a soil test (#1 most important thing).  Add compost but not too much, 1-2 inches a year.Follow soil test recommendations.  Weed and pick off insects weekly at the VERY LEAST!  Cover bare soil with something. Straw, newspaper, whatever. 

Squash and Cucumbers

Sunflowers

Basil

Onions

Water every three to four days.  Skip irrigation if rainy. Rotate away from same crops every year (peppers and eggplant should be considered the same). Hope and pray no disease come in (do a lot of this).  If you rotate religiously or if it never rains, disease will be minimal.

Eat veggies when hungry!  HG"

Hope this helps and if you have any questions, please post them below!  

Here are a few more pictures of this past week's growth!  Enjoy and we look forward to seeing you all in a few days! 

Kale

 

Gooseberry

Green Beans

 Garlic

Peas

Peppers

We hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend.  We are very thankful to all of you who have served our country!

From Bud to Bloom

We grow nearly 70 varieties of peonies, several of which are ready for you to pick up at the stand this week.  

Last week we posted about a couple varieties, "Lovely Rose" and "Scarlet O'Hara." Here are two more to help you know what you're buying!  

This beautiful white variety is called "Ann Styer."

And this fancy named peony is "Mons. Jules Elie."

The "Ann Styer" and "Mons. Jules Elie" look beautiful together. 

Come on by and take a look at all the varieties we have to offer.  And please share this with someone who might be interested!

Everyone has been working really hard while basking in the beauty of these flowers.

 

 

12 MORE DAYS TILL OPENING DAY!

Brussels Sprouts

Our brussels sprouts are looking great. This is a vegetable which has truly gotten a bum-wrap over the years. When properly cooked they are amazingly delicious!  With bacon, goat cheese, onions!  Unbelievable! Sear them in a pan, then add a few table spoons of water and let them steam.  Add the above delicious ingredients and your family will not believe they are Brussels Sprouts. We should just tell them that they are H.G.'s sprouts and they'll never know!
 

Did you know that they are called Brussels Sprouts because they first became popular in the Belgium city of Brussels?  If you are interested in some delicious ways to cook these cabbages take a look at our Pinterest site.

Pretty Peonies

This week we've been debudding the peony fields which means taking off the tiny little buds on the sides of each plant to help the main flower grow up strong.

Then the flowers are cut and brought into the farm to grade and get ready for delivery.

 Here are two of the many varieties that we grow.

Lovely Rose

Scarlet O'Hara

We will be selling peonies at the stand for the next several weeks, from 9 a.m. till dark, until we run out!  Come on by and pick-up some of these beautiful flowers for your home or a friend!

Peonies will be sold at the stand on FRIDAY!

Come by anytime after 9 a.m.

Uncovering tomatoes, their flowers and planting MORE tomatoes!!!

The tomatoes in the high tunnel and field that were  "under cover" have now been uncovered....

And their flowers are blooming where tomatoes will soon be popping out!

This week, more tomatoes were planted to keep a steady supply coming your way!   H.G. planted 2500 regular tomatoes (six varieties).  And, two varieties of plum tomatoes, 20 varieties of cherry and 40 varieties of heirlooms.  Eggplant, cantaloupe and peppers are also in the ground getting happy!

Hang on, the tomatoes are coming...... June 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Can't wait to see you....

Praying Mantis

These little guys just broke out of their nests and are a very important part of our greenhouse.  Like the ladybug, they eat aphids.  After leaving their nest as seen below, they just hang out for awhile to let their exoskeleton harden.  Then they'll get to work.  Hope you enjoy H.G.'s real time video at the bottom. 

Empty Sack

  
Look at the sack at the bottom of the picture to the left.  Can you see them all coming out of the sack and climbing up the fig tree? H.G. got this shot right as they were coming out. 

"Hey, move over, I want to get up there."

                                         

 Looking forward to seeing you all....

 

JUNE 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Mother's Day

to all Mothers -- from SIW!  

Sending our first peony flower your way
and hoping you have a great Mother's Day!

To Market, To Market to Buy...

VEGETABLE PLANTS!
Many of these plants went to the Wilmington Flower Market for this week's events.

 

 

Over 6,000 plants were delivered: H.G.'s delicious tomatoes, cucumbers, all sorts of peppers  - and much more!

The volunteers at the Farmers Market were working really hard to get everything ready for this week. 

Besides beautiful plants to buy, 

there are so many fun things to do.

Rides, fun food to eat, and simply a pretty place to pass some time. Not to mention, you can't get much better weather than what we're expecting this week.  Great time of year to just get out and walk!

Come on out and support some great charities!

Visitors in the Peony Fields

In just a few weeks, before we officially open, we will be selling peonies, and only peonies.  Our sprouts are doing amazingly well.  

We've had some spring visitors!

Lady bugs are extremely helpful to the farmer!  They eat aphids!  To the right is what we commonly think of when we speak of a ladybug, but there are 500 species in North America. 

For all you young botanist out there, lady bugs are really not "bugs."  They are beetles.  Bugs are insects with sucking mouth parts and simple development.  Beetles on the other hand, have chewing mouth parts and experience a full metamorphosis, with larva, pupa and adult, similar to that of butterflies.   So, if we're going to be technical, the preferred name for them is "lady beetles."

We will keep you posted as they open up so you know when when you can swing buy the stand to pick some up!