D&V Organics CSA
Week 17
This week feels like we are moving closer to the last of the summer vegetable selection. We anticipate having melons this week, but definitely for the last time for our 2021 season. After last week's rain the tomatoes are starting to get harder and more time consuming to pick, so we'll see how much longer we can stretch them out. We are looking forward to cooler temperatures ahead this week. Our work over the past week has been to keep up with harvesting, continue our Fall vegetable planting, both in the field and in the greenhouse and spend some time cleaning up the fields. It is necessary for us to continue transitioning plants from the greenhouse to the outdoors to prepare them for the conditions they will encounter in the field. After the seedlings have been in the greenhouse for 2-3 weeks, we'll set them on wagons outside of the greenhouse to condition properly before being planted into the field. Years ago, we encountered difficulties with an animal entering the greenhouse and climbing up onto the tables and eating the smorgasbord of delicious little seedlings. We got savvy and found a way to keep the critter out of the greenhouse. We thought that the critter wouldn't be able to reach the trays of seedlings on the wagons, which sit about 2.5 feet off the ground, but we were wrong and the critter (later we would find out it was a groundhog) was able to jump or climb up onto the wagon and continue eating the plants. Fast forward 3 years, we hadn't had issues with groundhogs or other animals in the greenhouse again until now. We took some extra precautions to keep the animal out of the greenhouse but it kept mysteriously finding a way in. Having no other reasonable choices, we decided to move the plants out onto wagons (as they were close enough in size to move outside) and then move the wagons well away from the greenhouse to a new location. Immediately, the plants on the wagons were attacked again. Either we moved it closer to the original culprit's hideout or nearer to a new culprit. Either way, we have tracked down and trapped the culprit, which again was a very savvy groundhog.
Enjoy,
Derek & Vicky
