By Ben Penner, Open Farms Director
July brings hot weather, harvests and the seemingly endless thirst of plants and soil. The midpoint in the summer ushers in the second half of the season. With the frenzy of spring planting and early harvests complete, we’re working on the second round — cooler weather crops that we’ll harvest in September and October.
In the coming weeks, we’ll plant another round of spinach, arugula, lettuce, kale, cabbage and other brassicas, letting them take advantage of the long days of sunlight to get maximum growth before the (hopefully) cooler days of late summer and fall kick in. Since we’ve been experimenting with season extension techniques, we’ll also continue planting crops in preparation for low tunnels and hopefully a harvest late into the fall.
Fortunately, for the last few days we’ve seen cooler temperatures and some rain. Although the bulk of the moisture missed Open Farms, we’re still enjoying some more reasonable working conditions. There is still a lot of work to do, so if you have some extra time please join us at the farm for the second half. Check out our open farm shifts>>
