Category Archives: raised bed

In the Share: Week 28

lettuce, raised bed
lacewing on the lettuce

LETTUCE  blushed butter oaks.  Lacewings eat aphids which can sometimes be a pest in protected environments like the high tunnel.  It is nice to see our beneficial friends.

ARUGULA  big leaves from the high tunnel.

RADISHES  sweet red ones from the high tunnel

BROCCOLI/GAI LAN  the bunches will include both – stems, leaves, buds are all edible.

SPINACH the first pick from the high tunnel

CILANTRO  big plants are thriving in the high tunnel

TOKYO BEKANA  This is a new one for all of us.  Similar to Napa cabbage but more open.  It grew pretty large, so plan on some stir fry or coleslaw soon in your future. 

BULB FENNEL  from the field.

POTATOES choice of Desiree or Fingerling varieties

NEXT WEEK:  lettuce, carrots, greens, herbs, garlic

FARM REPORT:

Once again post-season baseball for our hometown team, the Kansas City Royals, coincides with our post-season.  The extended season for 53 shares starts this week with greens from the high tunnel, fennel and broccoli from the field and potatoes from storage. 

The farm has been a quiet place these past few days.  The employees and apprentices finished their season on Saturday. Before they left, we built a big raised bed with old stones from the barn.  After the deluge we experienced this summer, raised beds seem like a safe bet. 

Royal blue skies
 

Building a Raised Herb Bed

herb garden, raised bed

We continue to try to get the best out of our soil at the farm, but for some plants a heavy silt loam is never to their liking. Such is the case with some of our herbs. When we were in Upstate New York we seem to remember one tarragon plant growing as tall as your head in their sandy soil and being enough for the whole CSA. Our plants do not do as well, to say the least.

So we are building a raised bed for some of these herbs, in an attempt to make them happier. The soil mix we are trying is roughly 1/3 sand, 1/3 compost and 1/3 topsoil. A little wood ash, a quick mix, and voilà, an herb garden.

The other factor that helped us decide to try this out is that we are cleaning up an old pile of building stones from behind the barn as part of our farm beautification. These wonderful limestone blocks came from our barn’s old foundation wall that was replaced in 2004. While there is only a limited amount of stones, we may build another raised bed if this one proves beneficial.

Here is the stop action video of the project. A higher resolution version is available on YouTube