|
Greetings Everyone,
We hope everyone is doing well by staying home as much as possible!!! With the uncertainty as to when it’ll be safe to be out in public or travel, we know many of you are planning your garden right now so we’re offering plants for your garden. We’re starting seeds and stepping up plants for delivery early to mid May because that is when you’ll be wanting to plant those summer loving goodies such as tomatoes, basil, zucchini, cucumbers and peppers. Honestly, we don’t plant any of those until our last frost date of mid May. While climate change is happening and the temperatures may seem warmer, in our area we’ve noticed that we still get cold snaps up until mid May.
We’ve been farming for over 20 years, and are continually refining the varieties we grow selecting those productive and disease resistant for our mountain climate. Those who purchase their plants from the big box stores aren’t getting varieties adapted to our region because those stores don’t grow the plants out like the farmers are doing. We’d appreciate you sharing this newsletter with your friends who’ll be growing a garden in our region this summer since traveling may not be permitted!
Read on for helpful garden tips, and how to easily find plants in our online store, plus highlights for some of our favorite garden plants. YOU WILL NEED to place an order for your plants, then we’ll be sure to start plants for you. Free deliveries to the Marshall, Mars Hill, Asheville and Waynesville area for $50 minimum purchase per delivery site. If you can’t use $50 in plants, it may be a great time to check in with your friends and neighbors who can pick up at your home. You will want to select “Cash on Delivery” for your order, then once we have your plant starts ready, we’ll bill you and you’ll pay with a credit card through our secure website. That way you aren’t paying in case we have a crop failure. We’re offering a FREE 8 pack of annual flowers for each $50 Order!
Here is a link to peruse the online store to browse through the plants we’re offering! For those who were added to our email distribution list for plants, we’ll be leaving you on our distribution list so you can read about what’s happening on the farm throughout the season. For those new to gardening, you might find helpful hints in the newsletter based on what’s happening on the farm, which could make your garden space productive, thus feeding your family and neighbors all season long! You can unsubscribe at any point throughout the season.
Your Farmers (and cleaning staff),
Carl and Julie
NOTE: Your’re receiving this eNewsletter because you’ve requested information about our plants, you’ve been a subscriber to MHO in the past OR if you’ve registered for our newsletters from our website. Feel free to unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive this eNewsletter!
|
|
|
Tips and Tricks for using the online store
|
|
|
We’ve added a lot of products since we were last accepting orders, those being all the plants we had planned on selling at our area markets until those were canceled.
HERE IS HOW TO ORDER: We’re offering free delivery for orders of $50 or more to one site if you’re located in Asheville, Marshall, Mars Hill and Waynesville or other locations within an hours drive of the farm. It may be helpful for you to find a couple of neighbors to purchase plants with to achieve the $50 order delivery level. Those outside the hours driving distance, we’ll meet up somewhere. We’ll be making arrangements for Spring Creek residents to pick up at the farm.
- We’re requiring a minimum $15 order of plants to make it worthwhile for us to grow and pack your order!
- CHOOSE “Cash on Delivery” for your payment option because we’d like to adjust your order if we have a crop failure. We will be invoicing you once your order is packed and at that time we want you to pay with your Credit Card using our website. Cash transactions have been proven to be a point of spread for the COVID-19 virus so we are not accepting cash at this time. Email us if you’d rather pay cash/check and we can work out a solution.
- HELPFUL HINTS ON USING THE STORE: When browsing products from the online store and looking at the details of a product, below the “Add to Cart” button, you will see links for product categories and Tags. Clicking on any of these links is an easy way to navigate and browse other products that are related to the one you are viewing.
- PLEASE email us if something you want is out of stock. It is likely if it is a quick growing plant that we’ll be able to start that plant for you. Many of the herbs take longer to propagate so those may be in limited supply.
- FREE with every $50 order, we will be giving away two – 4 packs of annual flowers.
- WHAT IF YOU WIN THE FREE GARDEN PLANT GIVE AWAY? Many of you who follow us on social media have entered into a free giveaway of garden plants. The contest winner will be receiving the Farmer’s Value Garden package and we will contact you to see if you still would like to receive your existing order. For those who haven’t yet registered, you are welcome to find our free giveaway post and place an entry for the drawing.
|
|
|
|
The farmer’s Value Garden PACKAGE
|
|
|
Look for the Farmer’s Value Garden Package in the online store!
We’ve selected plants that perform well at MHO and yield a good amount of nutrient dense food per square foot of garden space. While the photograph above may be a little deceiving, because some of those plants aren’t included, it is an example of the bounty you might receive from your garden.
What’s included in this Garden Package: This package is valued at $88 if all plants were purchased separatly. We’re offering it for $75.
|
|
|
OUr favorite gardening tips and tricks
|
|
|
While many of you are very experienced gardeners, we’re including some of our tips that make our production a bit easier, so please ignore if you’re processes are already established! We’ve been selling plants at market for nearly 20 years so our tips are based on the most frequently asked gardening questions we get from customers.
Trellising made simple!
Above we’re growing our peas along cattle panels. The cattle panels can be used year after year, and just a few T-posts hold them in place. These can be found locally at our favorite Tractor Supply store. We grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, pole beans or any other vining plant along these trellises. While many plants may naturally grab a hold of the trellis using their tendrils, we tie up tomatoes using twine against the trellis. The cattle panels can be a little difficult to transport so you might want to consider using fencing that comes in a roll, however, you will have to use some additional T-posts for support. Plant cages also work, but they make it more difficult to harvest than a flat panel.
|
|
|
|
Who doesn’t grow eggplant because it gets eaten by the bugs?
Eggplant is such an amazing versatile summer vegetable. It can be grilled as patties and used on sandwiches as a substitution for meat, it can be made into a dip/spread for sandwiches, it can be roasted and put in a casserole with tomatoes, or it can be a substitute for bread. The list is endless!
The most common questions at plant sales are because folks have given up growing eggplant because the pesky flea beetles devour the plants before they are established. After we plant eggplant, we cover it for 2 weeks or until it is over a foot high, then we remove the row cover. It seems that once the plant is no longer tender, it will survive the flea beetles munching on it. Above you can see our radishes and arugula are covered, which is the same row cover fabric we use to protect our eggplant until they become established.
|
|
|
|
Whose pepper plants always fall over once they’ve set fruit?
Peppers are such a wonderful summer crop for seasoning, stuffing, roasting, slicing or sauteing. Many folks aren’t aware that with nearly all pepper cultivars, the fruit will be green and ripen to either red, yellow, orange, etc. If allowing your peppers to ripen, the plants need support so the branches don’t break off. We use a technique called stake and weave, where we plant them on an 18 inch center, and in between every 2 plants we put a stake, then weave twine between the stakes to support the plant stems. We’ve found that when the plants are spaced further than 18 inches, the stems of each plant aren’t supporting one another, in which case you’ll have more plant stems breaking with heavy fruit set.
|
|
|
Want to grow more without spending all your time weeding?
One of the major issues of growing organically, especially in a semi-temperate rain forest, is weed control. It seems that while you are sleeping, the rain comes, the weeds germinate and thrive, quickly overtaking the vegetable garden. We use landscape fabric in our garden, because the fabric is tough and will last up to 15 years as we pull it out each season the lay it back down. In addition, if we do find ourselves in a drought, it will help keep moisture in the soil thus preserving water. Above, we’re using a little different plant spacing than we have in previous years, so we mulched the center with cardboard underneath the landscape fabric. We burned holes in the landscape fabric so that the material doesn’t fray.
|
|
|
My tomato plants always die before I ever eat one!
Organic tomatoes are one of the hardest crops to grow in our region because of our semi-temperate rain forest climate. A virus (we’re all sick of viruses after the COVID-19 has spread across the world) late blight is caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, perhaps this virus may overwinter in your soil, but it travels to our region in rain storms, landing on our tomatoes and potentially wiping out the crop overnight. A tomato breeder in our area, Randy Gardener (whose daughter has now taken over the tomato breeding program) has been working for years to develop a tomato that is both tasty and late blight resistant. We’re offering those varieties: The Cherry Bomb cherry tomato, the Plum Regal paste tomato, the determinant Galahad beefsteak tomato and the Mountain Magic salad tomato.
Copper sprays have been used in organic production to protect tomato plants from getting the virus. We at MHO haven’t chosen to use copper sprays but rather we grow our tomatoes in a greenhouse where they are protected from getting the virus as rain storms move in and out of our valley. The reason we don’t use copper sprays is because copper doesn’t break down and accumulates in the soil potentially building up to toxic levels, which could affect subsequent crops. There are gardeners who have tried inserting a copper wire into the stem of the tomato to prevent late blight. This preventive technique is done once the tomato plant’s stem reaches the diameter of a pencil, then insert a 3-inch piece of 16-gauge copper wire through the center of the stem, approximately a half-inch above the soil line. A trial was conducted by Iowa State University Tomato Study comparing yields on several varieties of tomatoes using the copper wire technique and it showed no statistical difference but anything is worth a try when you want to save a crop of tasty tomatoes.
|
|
|
My basil keeps dying every year
The last several years, there is a new strain of downy mildew that has been killing all the basil in the southeast! Thank goodness for good old fashioned plant breeders who are continuing to cross plants with one another, selecting the traits for both flavor and disease resistance. These plant breeders are going to be incredibly important in adapting the food supply to continue being productive with climate change. We’re offering Prospera Basil starts this year which is bred to be downy mildew resistant.
|
|
|
The Ebbs and Flow of Gardening
While to many of you, it may seem like two zucchini and two yellow squash plants are a lot for one family, but it’s important to factor in the peaks and valleys of vegetable production. We farmers always plant enough crops of any given variety so the we’re harvesting enough each week for the shareholders. When plants begin fruiting, it may seem like you don’t have enough, then the plant reaches peak fruiting level and you wonder what the heck you were thinking by planting so many, but typically peak production doesn’t last long. While your plants are at peak production you’ll want to either share/preserve your bounty. The other option, which we farmers tend to do, is gorge on the fruits at every meal while they’re at peak production, then you’ll be so happy about the plants tapering off on growth.
|
|
|
Always include some annuals for the pollinators!
We always plant annuals for the pollinators becuase they bloom all summer long keeping the polinators close to your vegetable garden. While many of our native perenniels are great, they tend to have a 2 month blooming cycle, that is why we always have an entire section of annual flowers near the farm fields.
|
|
|
|
