Good afternoon Veggie lovers!
The weather has finally turned. For the last several weeks, months even, everything has been growing SO SLOWLY. Now that we have some warmth, and some rain, I expect the plants to explode with new vigour. I’m delighted.
We put in our first green bean seeds, and started all of our squash, melons, and zucchini in the greenhouse to go out in the next 10 days or so. We’ve also been trellising our hot crops (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers). We do this by tying them to strings in the greenhouse. It keeps them upright so they take up vertical space instead of sprawling along the ground, it also produces superior and more abundant fruit.
I want to apologize to anyone that has been experiencing technical difficulties with Harvie, or in getting a response from us for that matter. Amid this pandemic there has been a huge increase in the interest in local food. It’s wonderful, however, us local food folks are all scrambling to catch up. There are only a few platforms (and farms) that were serving this community pre pandemic and they are overloaded. If you send in questions or concerns and it takes some time to get a response, I’m sorry, please know we are all doing our best.
Harvie has an amazing assortment of help files that likely cover your questions, please take a moment to look here:
https://harvie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/115001112094-Customer-FAQ
You can also reach out to me at firmlyrootedfarm@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to respond and to help.
Garden like a Professional: What to transplant, what to seed?
As I mentioned we are selling some transplants on our online store here:
https://www.localline.ca/firmly-rooted
We’ll be loading more in the next week or so as they come ready.
Transplanting vegetables can give you a huge head start on weeds (because the transplants are so much larger than the weeds to start with), reduce the time until harvest, and give you stronger plants.
Some vegetables are better to direct seed. In some cases, they are so fast that the benefits from transplanting are limited, such as with spinach or radishes. In other cases, they don’t “like” being transplanted, and suffer from transplant shock or have very delicate roots that are easily damaged. This is the case with zucchini, squash and melons. We transplant these anyway because we know how to handle them gently and because the benefits from transplanting outweigh the drawbacks- but we are professionals! A final group needs to be planted so frequently, and tends to “bolt” (go to flower) so quickly that you are better to direct seed these on a regular (bi weekly or monthly) schedule. These include baby lettuces, cilantro and dill.
Here’s a summary:
| Transplant | Direct Seed |
| Basil | Beans |
| Broccoli | Beets |
| Brussels sprouts | Carrots |
| Cauliflower | Cilantro |
| Celery | Corn |
| Eggplant | Cucumber |
| Kale (full size) | Dill |
| Leeks | Lettuce (baby) |
| Lettuce (heads) | Melon |
| Onions | Parsnip |
| Peppers | Peas |
| Tomatoes | Potatoes |
| Swiss chard | Radish |
| Spinach | |
| Squash | |
| Zucchini | |
That’s all for now, happy eating until next time!
Tamara
