Flat Fork Farm

Well 2009 is here and that means in just a few short weeks I should be starting some seeds in the greenhouse. I’ve just been looking over my calendar and when I started things last year. I started several batches of seeds in early January but after doing some math on the cost, it doesn’t make sense this year. Most of those early crops are better off just purchased as transplants from the local feed store. I will be starting tomatoes and peppers towards the end of January, as I like a more diverse group than I can buy locally, but will by local transplants when the time comes also.

Almost all the seed catalogs I order from are in, so now I just need to spend some time doing some selecting. I also need to go trough last year seeds I’ve saved and see what I have. I use my notes from the previous seasons to pick out what I want to plant for the main crops. I like to pick up some new stuff to test and I always plant a few crazy things just for fun.

I’m looking forward to the new year and new crops.

I’ve been plowing up the gardens and getting things ready for some fall planting. I had planned on doing some things this past weekend but with the threat of Hurricane Gustav I didn’t. I didn’t want to see everything washed away like several of my spring plantings.

We did get a lot of rain and I think that things will probably be ok to start planting this coming weekend, guess we will wait and see.

It’s going to be a hard year for gardening, and I’m not alone. Just about everybody I’ve talked to has had the same problems I’ve had. The closest farmers market just had it’s first day this past weekend. Looking at the books from last year, everything is weeks behind.

This past weekend I replanted green beans, again. Late cold weather, after warm weather took a toll. Then it was the flooding that we usually get in the early spring / late winter took its toll. So here is the bean story, so far. I planted as planed on the same days as last year, with nothing but good weather in the forecast. The down went the temps and down went the beans. So cleanup, rework and replant. Then comes the big rains and rotted or washed the beans out. This is also about the time the tractor broke. So cleanup, rework and replant all by hand, which takes a lot longer. Now we have seeds in the ground about 2 weeks later than the time we were harvesting last year. Not good. And we are already really dry and really hot. We need some rain or this planting won’t come up either. But I just keep trying, and trying.

Not everything has done badly though. On another piece of ground where the peas are growing things are looking great. They started blooming and hopefully will be a good crop. So people will get more peas and less beans, not a bad trade off in our part of the country. Peas tend to be a more valuable crop anyway.

I replanted some beans today. Things have really been challenging this year with lots of things. The beans have really been hard to get going. Today I tilled up the bean rows again and planted them again. Hopefully this time they will take. Then beans I replanted last week are looking good. They will be late, but better late than never.

I’ve been out of town for about a week, so I’m still catching up on things around here. The good news is that lots of things are growing, the bad news is that I’m so busy catching up I haven’t had time to post pictures or any news. I plan to do both this weekend.

Well its been crazy and busy around here for the last few dates. My dad had to get a triple by-pass so I spent most of my time for about 2 weeks at the hospital. We’ve had windstorms and rainstorms and flooding a couple of times.

I’ve ended up working and re-working the garden a few times. The floods took out a few things and the winds took out a few things. Some things were easy enough to replant, just later than what I wanted. The wind broke a-lot of tomatoes so I had to go with plan B and get transplants from a local nursery, which should turn out just fine.

We any luck I should be fully caught up with plantings by the end of the weekend, if the weather holds out. There is rain in the forecast and as long as we don’t get 5 or 6 inches again we should be fine.

The day I’ve been waiting for is tomorrow. The main season planting starts. Its been raining every other day for the past few weeks, so soil moisture is high. Its been warm and dry for the last few days, so the soil is perfect to be worked. I think the bulk of the cold weather is gone. The 10 day forecast is showing one night the low of 45 which is no problem. Tomorrow it will be in the 80’s and most days will be between 70 and 80. This is about the same date that I planted last year and I think the weather is a little better. I just start updating a lot more now that there will be something to talk about.

After getting about 7 inches or rain a week ago we got another inch on Friday. I’m afraid that all the rain rotted some of the potatoes and washed away some of the seedlings. Most of the seeds that I think got washed were early season varieties. I’m planning on replanting potatoes as soon as the ground dries out some.

I got the main seasons seeds in the mail this week and I expect planting to start for most things around March 16th depending on the weather and forecasts of course.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are looking good so far and the peppers are just about to start coming up.

Things are starting to get busy around here and I plan and building the rows as soon as the ground allows.

Welcome to the new Flat Fork Farm blog. We plan on posting about things going on around the farm and garden. Our planting season is already underway with many things started in the greenhouse and winter hardy plants and seeds start going in the ground this week.Our main goal this season is do make a test run as a CSA. The test run will be to see how much we can produce and how we can space out the plantings to get the best and widest selection for our potential customers. We already have a few people interested in buying what we produce from the gardens already. If you in the East Texas area and are interested, let us know. If you have some special you would like us to grow let us know about that also.