Bottle Gourd Herbs at Historic Penn Farm: Mid-Summer Update with Photos

This week we've begun preparations for the fall growing season.  We created our first two new growing beds for growing mixed greens through to frost.  We received a 20 cubic yard delivery of quality aged compost from Laurel Valley Soils.  We double dig this compost into our existing soil, amended with bio-active mineral meal to increase soil biology, balance soil chemistry and provide a foundation for growing nutrient-rich crops.  Click here for our previous post on soil minerals to learn more.  Together with foliar feeding of liquid trace minerals throughout the early stages of crop growth, these low-cost practices make up our soil and plant fertility plan.  From our spring/summer crops, we have found these growing methods to produce great-tasting veggies with preserved freshness well after harvesting.

In flats we are starting fall crops for trialing including bulb fennel, cabbage, collards, broccoli, and bok choy.  By the recommendation of a fellow local farmer, we will be introducing beneficial nematodes to these fall crop growing beds to outcompete soil-born predator pests that tend to indulge in the cruciferous family crops. 

We continue to direct sow bush beans, carrots, beets, radishes and mixed greens.  In addition to continual sowing of our spring greens mix, we are trialing some new varieties of salad greens from different climate zones in the country.  We will be sure to document their development (and of course share their harvest!) 

At this time we are harvesting a bounty of zucchinis, squashes, and heirloom bush beans.  Soon will come our summer tomatoes and sweet peppers, followed by our melons!!!  We are posting frequent updates on our FACEBOOK page and send out a weekly newsletter we welcome you to sign up for: enter your email address via the DE Permaculture homepage. 

And now for a few photos:

This is what 20 cubic yards of compost looks like (the bed behind it is our newest leaf bed - a growing bed patterned after a leaf, with paths along the leaf veins and growing beds on leaf surface)

The jungle of vine crops that run through the center of our field (summer squashes, winter squashes, pumpkins, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers.....)

One of our new beds: a bermed raised bed (sown to drought tolerant greens mix) with swale to mitigate erosion from downslope bed sown to hot-climate acclimated mache (corn salad).

More photos coming soon.....