4-H Chickens, Sheep, and Goats

OK, I know this is a blog for lawns, gardens, and such but I wanted to share some exciting news. I have been incubating chicken eggs for the last three weeks, and they are starting to hatch today! The chickens are for the second annual 4-H chicken club and show! The show is held at the Avery Agriculture and Horticulture Fair on Saturday September 11, 2010!!!!! I have also arranged for 4-H to start sheep and goat showmanship club lambs and kids. We will have no less than two sheep and goats available for children to take home, raise, train, and show this year at the Fair! The sheep are "free" but come with some stricter responsibilities outlined in their contract. There will be a small fee for the goats but, less obligations will come with them. I am super excited and currently working on the contracts. I ask you, my followers for assistance in getting the word out, I need children to sign up or at least contact the office if they are interested in participating this year! So, Please help spread the word. And a big THANK YOU! for helping.

Farmers Market Now Open for the 2010 Season

I am happy to say that the Avery Farmer's Market will be open tomorrow! I hope to get there, the Newland Elementary School parking lot on Hwy 184 in Newland, to get some of the best food ever. Fresh asparagus, the famous Elk Park sour dough bread, local grass fed beef, the best goat cheese ever, transplants for my garden, and hopefully some great greens and other foods should be available. Only time will tell. If you are interested in participating please come on down, we kick off the season at 8 am on Saturday. I look forward to seeing you there!

NEW POST!!!!

Hello bloggers, I know, I know, it has been a very long time sense my last post, and I know I've said that it wouldn't happen again...but, I must say that is has been a busy spring this year. I'm sure that I'm not the only one to feel this way. I haven't even been able to till my garden yet, with farm visits, training requirements, speaking at workshops, hosting workshops, teaching embryology at schools, lining up for the 4-H Chicken Club/Show, calving on the farm, etc..., I just haven't had the time to spend getting my own garden planted. Hopefully I will be able to get into the garden soon. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my family is going to enlarge by one sometime around the 1st of August. How exciting. Well, enough rambling on, now to important things. Soil temperatures are up and it is time to get gardens well underway, ground should be ready, soil tests completed, fertilizer and lime applied, and ground prepared for planting. Now is the time for planting crops you are starting from seed! Transplants can wait for a little longer but, you should be sourcing out your plants already. Most garden seed needs soil temperatures above 55 degrees F for proper germination and some seed (such as corn) need soil temps above 65 degrees, we are now above or at that mark. So get your seed out and start planting! As for transplants, we still have a slight chance of seeing frost, even heavy frost in our area, especially in the higher elevations, so keeping a close eye on the forecast, and having frost protection in place will be critical to a successful growing season. If you can wait another 10 days, until May 21st, we should be out of our frost/freeze period and it should be safe to plant all transplants without worrying about protecting those young tender plants. Hopefully, I will be able to post regularly throughout the year and keep up to date information available for you.

Happy Gardening.