2007 Diary

June 2007
One Love Farm is off to a great start!
The weather has been warm, but not too hot and there has been rain, but not too much! See last years post for the horrendous rainfall we had last year. In 2006 RI was declared an agricultural disaster area with 30-70% crop failure due to excessive rainfall and cool weather (which also led to huge insect infestation).

I used row covers on my greens and it helped control insect damage to a degree. Next year I will use organic nematodes to control soil born insects. The greens have done well and I have had many happy customers at the farmer's market. Radishes have also done well, but the beets have been slow to mature. Carrots are coming along.

Tomatoes are planted. I grew several hybrid varieties from seed and had great success with them. I will grow more next year after deciding which produce and taste best.

I scaled back pepper production this year as hot peppers were not a big seller at the farmer's market (although the customers who like hot peppers are rabid about them!). I planted sweet red peppers along with Cayenne and Jalepeno.

One Love Farm had a huge issue with squash beetles (as does everyone in Rhode Island). This year I am using row covers to keep them off the plant until the critical pollination phase. Once they flower, I will remove the row covers so they can pollinate. By then, the larvae should be dead or somewhere else. This year we planted summer (Patty Pan, Zucchini, Crookneck), winter (Butternut) and pumpkins.

In addition to blueberries (planted over the last couple of years), One Love Farm has added Gooseberries, Elderberries and Currants this year. The root stock is off to a great start and I am excited to see the results.
The grapes, however, have not fared as well. Every year a lose a vine or two due to weather. However, this year has been especially bad. Not only did I lose several vines, but the onces that came back are looking rather weak. The vineyard may have to be rethought.

I experimented with growing many plants from seed this year. Besides squash, tomato and eggplant, one of the big success was basil. The basil plants are looking vigorous and healthy. I look forward to another year of pesto and happy farmer's market customers. In addition, I have grown and potted wheat grass. Pets love it, but I like to have it on the window sill for a splash of green color. We juiced some wheat grass and it adds a nice kick to fruit smoothies (but you have to juice a fair amount to get one shot of wheat grass).

Finally, sunflowers were a huge hit at the farmer's market last year. This year I decided to grow a lot more sunflower varieties as well as other varieties of cutting flowers. I will keep an update on how this progresses.