The dog days of summer are here: harvesting, plant updates, and unique growing techniques

Hey all!

There isn't much big news this week, so today I am going to fill you in on all of the little stories from the week.

For those of you who aren't in the mid-Michigan area this summer, this week was a scorcher.  The temperature was in the nineties almost every day, so we were nice and sweaty at the farm.  But the heat is what summer is all about and it didn't ruin the fun!

For the most part, our crops are doing well.  Many of the difficulties that I described in my last post have taken a turn for the better.  The hot and dry weather has benefited the tomato plants in the community garden plot that Jodie and I are taking care of, because it has allowed the soil to dry out a little.  During the recent wet spell, it looked like the soil became a little too moist for the plants' roots to properly absorb nutrients.  The plants are now looking much better than they did last week.  The stressed leaves dried up and fell off, but there doesn't appear to be any new damage.  In case the stress was due to some sort of disease, Jodie and I removed the dead plant material to prevent the problem from spreading.  In other news from our plot, it appears that Jodie and I have managed to get a handle on the cabbage looper infestation.  We spent some time early in the week physically removing the loopers from our broccoli plants, and their numbers declined as the week went on.  That is a good sign, because the damage was starting to worry us!  One final update from our plot is that we have harvested our first tomato!  Hopefully there will be many more in the days to come!

Our first tomato!

Some of our other plants are beginning to produce fruit as well, including our pepper plants in the demo farm.  They aren't quite ready yet, but they are getting there!  Many of our cucumbers, however, are ready!  We picked a few this week, and they were delicious!  We also harvested our first summer squash of the season this week.  We should be able to start taking some of these plants to market soon!

Peppers

Half-eaten cucumber from the hoophouse

Summer squash

Today I also wanted to show you some of the unique techniques that people are using out at the farm.  One cool thing that some of the Bhutanese farmers are doing is using tree branches as trellises for their plants.  Some of our farmers come from cultures in which people use whatever resources they can get from the land, and this is an example of that.  In addition, not everyone has the financial resources to buy conventional equipment.  There can be many reasons, therefore, for people to find innovative alternatives.  In this case, for example, the farmers used tree branches instead of t-posts, twine, or wire cages.  I thought using tree branches was a great idea.  The branches seem to work fine, they're free, and using them is a way of recycling and repurposing a common product of nature.  No manufacturing of posts or cages needed!

Tree branch trellises

More tree branch trellises

Neal is using another interesting technique in his community garden plot.  He is using the Three Sisters technique (see this Wikipedia article for more information), which was used by some Native Americans.  A three sisters garden consists of corn, squash, and beans.  Neal planted his in small squares.  Each square has a cornstalk growing at each corner, a squash plant in the middle, and pole beans growing up the cornstalks.  The plants all help each other in different ways.  The squash acts as a mulch, the corn provides something for the beans to climb, and the beans provide nitrogen to for the soil.  Another benefit of the technique is that the three plants together help to provide a balanced diet.  A three sisters garden is also a form of intercropping, which I discussed in one of my previous posts.  Pretty cool, huh?

One of Neal's three sisters squares

That's all I have for you this week!  Thanks for reading, see you next time!