February and March are classically the season for Gophers

The hunt is on,  and the only way for a farm with our sandy soil type to prevent lots of damage it is to hunt and kill them.  Paul Kaiser of singing frog farm says he does all of his hunting in February and March and largely ignores them rest of the Year.  Cinch trap is the tool of choice as I have never pulled a live gopher  out of a hole with one

Bad bugs and cabbage

My first attempt at the three quarter inch plugs planting cabbage was a complete failure as it turns out small cabbage family plants are very delicious to most bugs that are very prevalent in the springtime especially slugs and ear wigs the solution to this problem is to grow cabbage family plants in the greenhouse until they are much larger  4 to 6 inches with lots of mature leaves and then protect them in some way,  copper bands, beer traps or whatever you have to do especially if we're planting through deep compost that harbors bugs. I also have a lot of pill bugs that don't typically eat plants because they eat rotten material but do because they're so young.  Interplanting among up pretty sick cover of herbs will also discourage bugs

Potato emergence

Purple potatoes emerged for the first time today 14 days after planting which is right on target considering the soil temperature is exactly 60 degrees.  It's still only March so frost protection may well be needed when plants are young before they produce June and July

We have fruit

Once again the Tomcat apricots have set fruit but all of the other apricot trees including pixie cot and Mormons are without fruit and should be replaced by more tom cats
After walking the whole orchard it's clear that this year we are pretty much bugs free although I found aphids on sick apple trees and fortunately only a couple leaves of curls on the peaches. 

Crop List 2014

Genovese Basil
Cylindra beet
Red ace beet
Touchstone golden beet
Lutz Winter Keeper beet
Red Mangle beet
Amedeus broccoli
Di Cicco broccoli
Marathon broccoli
Farao cabbage
Red cabbage
Brussels sprout
Kohlrabi
White Cauliflower
Bok choy
Little finger carrot
Purple carrot
Atomic red carrot
Rainbow carrot
Fordhook Swiss Chard
Santos cilantro
Homemade pickles cucumber
Eight cucumber
Zefa Fino fennel
Green afro kale
Dino Kale
Vates Kale
Blue curled scotch kale
Winterbor kale
Kking richard leek
Ridgeline Romaine Lettuce
Allstar mix Lettuce
Helvius romaine Lettuce
Minnesota midget melon
Red giant onion
Ailsa Craig Exhibition onion
Red Zeppelin Plants onion
White spear bunching onion
Guardsman bunching onion
Oregon giant snow pea
Javelin parsnip
Pea sugar snap pea
Numex joe e parker Pepper
Early jalapeno Pepper
Lipstick Pepper
New england pie Pumpkin
Waltham butternut squash
Black beauty zuccini squash
Accorn squash
Straigh neck yellow squash
Ovation asian baby Salad Green
Arugula
Red giant mustard
Purple majesty Potato
Carola Potato
Warba Potato
Celery
Marjoram
Oregano
Garlic
Diamond Eggplant
Purple top turnip
Tomatillo
Matt's Cherry tomato
Amish paste tomato
Thessaloniki tomato

Potato & peas

Still no rain, so now out to the garden to proceed with spring despite the lack of a winter this year.  The fruit trees are very confused, which is usually bad for crops. Fortunately our trees are only two years old and thus our goals are focused on root growth, architecture and truck girth so with enough water and nutrient they will do well in any case.

This week we will prune trees, transplant artichokes, prepare the hoop house for new salad greens and get going on a new hot bed for starting a variety of seedlings including our new root parsley to be set out in refurbished raised bed.  In addition snow peas will be grown in last year's tomato patch and rather than let the gophers have 'em I decided to put new potatoes in a protected raised bed.  Everyone is invited to come by for a visit or to lead a hand.


Of course there is lots of irrigation repair as happens every spring.  The automatics are online and just a few leaks to mend.  We had some freeze damage over the winter and will have to build insulated boxes for the irrigation control risers before next winter.  (We hope to be in the new house by then.)

The honor system

We place a new self-serve egg box at the road today and following are instruction:

Oasis Community Farm
Egg Box Instructions

We place new eggs in the box daily and collect money from drop box on the post (adjoining box)
Self-serve and self-monitored.  Put in $5/dz for eggs.
If you don't have exact change, feel free to leave a $20 and pick up eggs 2 or 3x.  First come first served,
but we'll try and keep the flow smooth. Accounting is up to you.

Please Do Keep in Touch and Keep on Clucking! 

Calendar

365 Day Garden

• January 15 prepare and clear water course and broadcast water cress
• Feb1-March1 prepare hoop house with compost and seed to greens for use in salads. Germination depends on daytime temp being above 60 degrees. Succession plant every 20 days spring through fall, letting the last crop mature and over winter.
• Feb 5 start
• Feb 10 start early leeks in hotbed and set out in temporary row covers when pencil sized
• Feb 15 start early cabbage & broccoli in hot bed and set out in row covers in 4-6 weeks
• Feb 20 plant out artichokes, protect from frost and straw mulch to control weeds
• Feb 25 plant peas & trellis.
• March 1 plant beets and Swiss chard under row cover to protect from bugs and encourage early start
• March 5 prepare raised bed with compost and plant potato for early crop mostly purple and red
• March 10 inter plant buckwheat in open areas to encourage pollinators and smother annual grasses
• March 15 set up hot bed for starting seedlings. Plant with herbs including parsley, celery, roman chamomile, stevia & thyme for planting outdoors in May (The chamomile is intended for a 12x40 lawn area and will naturalize and grow as perennial.
• March 20 start basil in hot bed and set out in hoop house. Replant successively every 30 days though mid fall leaving mature plants to stand into winter for kitchen use
• April 1 plant onion seed to hot bed for planting out to field as starts when pencil sized
• April 15, plant pumpkin & squash in hot bed to be transferred to hoop house to grow and hold for planting after frost (as late as may 1)
• April 20
• April 25 plant eggplant in hot bed 10 weeks prior to planting out to row covered beds depending on stable warm weather. (4-5 yr rotation.)
• May 1 plant peppers and tomatoes in hot bed to be transferred to field when ground temp hits 63 degrees and night time temp is above 55 degrees. Row covers may be needed as a buffer to temp
• May 5 plant kraut cabbage in hotbed and set out in 4 weeks to row cover for processing in Sept.
• June 1 plant second crop of potatoes if weather looks mild through July
• June 1 plant melons, in hot bed to be transferred field when temp hits 75 degrees
• July 1 Plant bush beans in field but protect from insects with row covers for first 45 days
• July 15 plant fall crop of leek, carrot, parsnip, rutabaga and celery in raised bed. Leeks and parsnips may need to be pushed by staring in hot bed because of slow germination. These crops will enter the winter young to mature slowly through late spring.
• Aug1 plant a super late crop of tomatoes to be set out in an uncovered hoop house that can be covered in November after flowering to extend the season for vine ripened fruits. (This is a test.)
• Aug 15 seed onions to winter over for early summer onions
• Sept 10 start winter cabbage & broccoli in hotbed and set out in row covers in 4 weeks for harvest Dec-Jan
• Sept 15- Oct 1 plant fall crop of potatoes if cool weather prevails at planting and ground temp is low enough
• October1 set out Jerusalem artichoke roots in a 8x24 bed on a fence row and allow to naturalize in the area
• Oct 15 plant garlic in well fertilized soil for harvest in late June
• Nov 1 inter plant green manure crop in orchard rows
• Nov 15 seed filter grass in erosion prone swales and drainages
• Dec 1-Jan 1 prune fruit trees and dormant spray for pest control
• Jan 1-Feb 1 plant replacement fruit tree, grape and other dormant root stock

Of course weather, time and energy may change many things.

The Spring is Sprung, the Grass is Riz...

I wonder where the birdies is (is the old saw). I wonder, too, where so many of the birds went this spring. To the Frozen Tundra? Seriously, did they FREEZE or leave us?
We have lots of birds at Oasis Communty Farm and a wonderful new one (barn owl!), but not the amazing load we had last year. No quail yet and few barn swallows. Few titmouse(s?) Titmice? or finches.
Seems true throughout our region. Last year at Ellis Creek, spotted 13 swans; this year, 4. Egrets? Hardly see a Snowy. A few new Great White Egrets. Once counted 21 snowies flying into Dempsey’s trees. Now just a dead heron is up there attached by fishing line, rocking himself in a tree he used to live in above the restaurant. Tragic really. Better to watch the ever-present barn swallows, red and blue, who swoop with joy over the River. They’re doing fine. Have spotted no Canada Geese and babies in the Petaluma Turning Basin this year, either.
Not to complain! We have scrub jays, robin’s nest full and then empty, occasional barn swallow, REGULAR mockingbird! Crossing fingers the barn owl spotted last two days (Nancy Long says its a good omen) will come into the nesting box we built for just for such a bird!
And we have new young chicks to fuss over – the little Black Star sexlink chicks I went to sit with and talk to today. They like singsong just like any baby. We got 14 but one tiny little girl couldn’t seem to warm herself and nearly died the first night. Should have hand picked the chicks. Otherhand, we now have 27 chickens and a doz. eggs per day for sale! See pics of that and our PLANTS.
This year is when the fruit trees are starting to show what they will do. Lots of bitty fruits on every tree, nectarines, cherries, sour cherries, some bits of leaf curl, but we asked and were told we could wait to treat for leaf curl, just remove the worst and I did. 3 veggie beds coming into their own – will be glad to collaborate w. Petaluma Bounty about getting food out to people who can eat it all up. Beans and peas and squash and garlics and you name it we got it.

Come visit! Much to be grateful for! And hopefully, next winter won’t be so cold and we’ll invite loads of friends to wander around in our new barn and make it feel like old friends have lingered here already for years. So very much to get ready for…

Today at Oasis Farm - baby Black sex-link chicks

Today at Oasis Farm…baby Black Star sex-link chicks

by In.Her.Own.Write

Woke a bit excited and pulled on clothes fast to go check the new chicks in the barn. One was dying; seemed chilly last night, her tiny wings flapping to warm her, she cried and cried. We took her in the kitchen for warm gruel from her feed which she hungrily gulped but she wouldn’t stop crying though she quieted many times in my hand. Now she is still. Just too tiny to get her baby body to work right, I suspect. The runt. Blame self for not hand-picking the chicks; I wouldn’t have picked her but then someone else might have taken home the dying chick. Nature is cruel when she culls her babies.

Saw the African Cats movie yesterday at Boulevard. Unbelievably gorgeous, Kenya and the Big Cats. Hyenas are hard to love. The bit about the lioness who had to leave her daughter and the River Pride was a tear jerker, but we knew it had to happen – like this baby death.

Now we have 27 chickens and will blend the two small flocks when the babies are big enough. My much-petted house cats think the chicks are all right but don’t let a dog come onto the place or they freak. And today, after the house is swept and picked up, family will come see the flower garden and the wild flowers up the hill and how the fruit trees have grown over the winter and into spring. Somehow, this Mary Oliver poem through Larry Robinson seemed perfect this am:

Toward The Space Age

We must begin to catch hold of everything
around us, for nobody knows what we
may need. We have to carry along
the air, even; and the weight we once
thought a burden turns out to form
the pulse of our life and the compass for our brain.
Colors balance our fears, and existence
begins to clog unless our thoughts
can occur unwatched and let a fountain of essential silliness
out through our dreams.
And oh I hope we can still arrange
for the wind to blow, and occasionally
some kind of shock to occur, like rain,
and stray adventures no one cares about –
harmless love, immoderate guffaws on corners,
families crawling around the front room growling,
being bears in the piano cave.

– Mary Oliver