Hi I’m Erin.
Farmers’ market season has started here on the ranch.
Every Saturday you can find us in town at our local market.
But that doesn’t mean that the work in the gardens is done.
In fact, there’s way more work to do then there is time.
Today is all about the juggle of time, priorities and winter planting is already in the works
on Our Wyoming Life.
We’ve got two successfully farmers’ markets under our belts so far this summer.
By time this video comes out I’ll be knee deep in prep for our third market.
Sales at market have been great so far this year and the gardens are starting to pump
out a wider variety of produce every week.
In about 2-3 weeks things will be really get going and we will have tons of crop variety
available for market.
This time of the year things are a bit crazy here in the gardens.
There’s lots to do and sometimes I find it hard to decide what needs done first.
There’s weeds to pull, chard needs trimmed after receiving some hail damage and the beets
could probably use some thinning.
But all of that can wait until next week.
More seeds need to go in the ground today.
The calendar is ticking and if we want multiple harvests of some crops they need to go in
the ground.
Succession planting or multiple harvests is something that we work on improving every
year.
Short turn around crops like lettuce and radishes are easy to reseed and harvest multiple times
per growing season.
But we struggle with always having to plant.
See for years as just a family gardener you plant once, and you’re done.
Market farming needs multiple plantings per year.
It’s not essential but it does help our profit margin and this year with the hay situation
here on the ranch we need to squeeze as much profit out of the gardens as possible.
Multiple plantings of lettuce and radishes is something that can be done in any garden
very easily.
If lettuce has bolted or radishes have gone to seed just pull them out and put more in.
Not only do we have more stuff that needs to go in the ground outside but it’s times
to start planning for winter planting.
Next week the high tunnel needs the first winter planting to go in the ground.
There’s prep work to do to make that happen but there’s also seedlings that need started
back in the basement.
It’s still so strange to be thinking about winter harvest when it’s still July but
if we want winter gardening to be successful this is when the work needs to happen.
The first and easiest thing to tackle is putting more lettuce and radishes in the big garden.
This area in the big garden was left open for succession planting.
Ideally it would have been planted two weeks ago but that’s where the time juggle struggle
is always a problem.
There are some lovely weeds that have been growing here of course.
We shallow tilled with the BCS a couple weeks ago and most of the weeds died.
But rain, market and more rain kept us from getting seeds in the ground.
Head lettuce was transplanted just a few days ago and it got pounded with rain and 60 mile
per hour wind so it doesn’t look super great but should be fine in the long run.
The Hoss Wheel Hoe is the first tool that gets put to work today.
There some weeds that need to go.
It’s quick and easy to run the wheel up and down the open plot.
The oscillating hoe attachment is great for weeding.
After that’s done there’s still just a lot of drying weed debris that needs pulled
out.
A rake helps pull it to one side and the weeds can go in a bucket and get out of the way.
The earthway seeder makes seeding radishes super-fast and easy.
And since this isn’t a huge area that we are working in today we can skip stringing
and just eyeball our rows.
Hopefully they turn out somewhat straight but again we’re crunched for time and we
just need to get it done.
Radish seed goes in the seeder and up and down the plot we go until 3 rows of radishes
are now planted and done.
Radishes are a 29 day crop.
The turn around goes extremely fast this time of year.
In just a few weeks these guys will be ready to go to market.
Lettuce and the seeder just don’t seem to work in my opinion.
An old-fashioned garden hoe still gets the job done.
A shallow trench is dug, and seed gets sprinkled in.
A light covering of dirt comes next and then we can cross succession planting of lettuce
and radishes off the list.
45 days from lettuce will be ready to go to market.
Since the wheel hoe is right here we might as well run up and down the rows and work
on eliminating some more weeds.
This is the first season that we’ve had a wheel hoe and after now using it for a couple
of months we wonder why we waited this long.
The oscillating blade destroys weeds extremely fast.
In just 10 or 15 minutes all of the walkways can be cleared.
Doing this every 10 days or so has kept the weeds much more manageable.
If the weeds have gotten too big they still need pulled by hand.
But there’s only a few and they can easily be pulled.
Ideally the ground would be just a little bit drier but, some extreme afternoon thunderstorms
the last couple weeks have kept the gardens pretty wet with minimal sprinkler watering.
If we don’t do this now it will be next week before we can get to it because of having
to prep for market.
Next on the list is starting seedlings for fall and winter harvest.
It’s back inside to the kitchen and out comes the black trays, plugs, dirt and the
mess.
Lincoln is all about dirt so he climbs on a chair, so he can see and help me and eat
his brownie that he was having for snack time.
Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage are planted in seed starting trays.
It’s as simple as adding damp seed starting mix the trays, sprinkle the seeds in and add
a light layer of soil on top.
Salanova lettuce is going to be a great fall and early winter harvest for us if we plant
appropriately now.
The plug trays that you guys have seen me use in the past are what the lettuce gets
seeded into again.
The process is the same as always and look in the description for a link to a different
video to see more detail planting of the Salanova from before.
Lincoln is a great helper for the first tray and then it’s naptime for him.
He practically needs a bath after all the dirt and brownie that is somehow all over
him.
Grace helps with the second tray and does a great job with the whole process and again
there’s more dirt everywhere!
I really do enjoy having the kids start helping me more with the market gardens.
I can foresee that in just a few years things like starting seeds can become their responsibility
with just a little supervision from me.
Mackenzie could probably do it by herself now but when I asked her if she wanted to
help she said no she didn’t want to get dirty.
I just don’t think that she’s going to be my gardener.
I might have to wait a few more years for Grace to get a little bigger and I don’t
think I’ll ever have to ask Lincoln twice to play in the dirt.
I’m glad that the to do list is a little bit shorter after today.
Next week will still be a busy week.
There’s one section of the garden that is overrun with weeds and it desperately needs
my attention.
But winter planting must happen, and the high tunnel needs some soil amendments as well
as tilling and seeds need in the ground.
Pigs are coming back to the ranch Sunday or Monday and there’s a road trip involved
with getting them here.
Grace has a birthday party next week.
After that there’s hopefully still one more outdoor planting of lettuce and radishes that
can happen and more Salanova needs seeded around mid-August for an even later harvest
around November and maybe December depending on weather.
I’m a little overwhelmed right now but it’s ok we will get through it and we will be at
market every week and we’re always happy to be there.
After all that’s what all the hard work is for.
Mike has a new video coming for you on Sunday.
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Thanks for watching as we explore the ranch life and escaping the ordinary here on Our
Wyoming Life.