Beginning of June

June has already begun and we are still busy planting crops. You can see only a few of the boxes have been opened up on the left.

Farmer No. 1 has put up bamboo trellis structures for the Avocado Squash and cucumbers to climb. We started all of these from seed and transplanted them a few weeks ago. Looks like they'll make it.

It's not all weeds back there

We are finally getting serious about the farm for this year. We really thought the entire farm was infested with weeds. Well we were 90% right. In one of the boxes is a lively display of greenery. We thought that they could only be weeds since we haven't planted anything yet. Well… we are pretty sure that these are all tomatillo plants. Last year we planted three tomatillo plants in this box. The seeds must have survived the mild winter and are back at it. We do have to thin it out. 

We also discovered a luscious lettuce plant that has been taking care of itself with absolutely no help from us. Last season we planted lettuce seeds in this pot and none of them really worked.

Hopefully we are right about these two situations and they are not actually in fact weeds.

Fresh construction on the farm.

Before we get really deep in planting time, we decided to add another box to our Northern territory. We usually grow tomatoes and peppers in this area. But a couple things have come up in the last year. One is that with all the construction done last summer there's an abundance of dirt that we need to contain. And second, we want to grow fresh lettuce again and it will need to grow it in a new box with new dirt. So with confidence, Farmer No. 1 cut out the wood to fill up the area perfectly. Oops. Never round up, measure twice, cut once.

We leveled the ground, added two inches of gravel for drainage, and put the wood walls in place.
Next we'll add new dirt with compost and plant!

Scaffolding

Since we excavated the old cucumber trellis to make room for the barn, we needed to build some new structures for the beans and the cucumbers. We choose bamboo because it's rot resistant and really strong.

The cucumber box is on the left, the heirloom beans on the right. Whoa! We need to cut these back a bit. They are getting unruly!

Spring Cleanup

Over the weekend, Farmer No. 2 excavated 6 months of cat nasty. Thank you NYC Department of Sanitation. We spent time turning and conditioning the soil… and of course covering it up again… all to get ready for the first planting later in the month. We are also redoing the weed cloth surrounding the boxes.

Pepper Box

Farm Boxes No. 3 and No. 4 are ready for their plants.
We had really good luck with peppers last year and have designated Farm Box No. 4 as the Pepper Box.
Farm Box No. 3 (left) got three eggplant plants and some lima bean seeds.

Our Dirt

The farm spent the weekend prepping our dirt.
Famer No. 2 turning the dirt.
Farmer No. 1 mixes compost and soil conditioner to the soil.

We built two new boxes (Farm Boxes No. 3 and 4) this year. Here Farmer No. 2 fills the box with our new super soil.

Brooklyn Farm Fashion

Brooklyn Farm was recently featured as the backdrop for an upcoming fashion story in the French magazine Dirrty Glam. The photo shoot was a lot of fun watching the talented team of Anna Wolf, Mike Perry, Nicole Olson, Ainee, hair and make-up lady (sorry!) and the three models (forgot their names too). Here is Anna framing the shot:
A few finished layouts. There are Farm Boxes No. 1 and 2 on the left.
The grape vine plays supporting roles:
The fig tree:

Plant Problems: That is not kohl rabi

The seed packet is labelled kohl rabi. There is no way that this plant is kohlrabi. This plant looks an awful lot like a dandelion. That would mean that the seed company is selling packets of weeds under the guise of cabbage. Good thing that dandelion greens are actually extremely nutritious cooked or raw.
Bad thing that the growing season is extremely short… as the leaves get bigger the taste goes more bitter. A taste test Farmer No. 2 confirmed that the leaves are in fact bitter. The plants have also flowered which is another sign that we missed harvest time. At least the hundreds of bugs loitering on the stalk are enjoying themselves.

Harvest: Bok Choi in the Boxes

We planted three short rows of baby bok choi in one of our boxes. The crop has been growing perfectly. Every single seed sprouted and it's all been pest free. The earlier crop grew so well we wanted a second go of it.
Flavor wise this plant doesn't bring much to the table, it's very mild. Color and texture are it's best qualities. 

Farm Boxes No1 and No2

The farm recently purchased Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomen. And while Mel does overly state his accomplishments (the originator of gardens in a box?) and he writes in the third person, this book does have worthwhile information about building boxes for plants. We like the aesthetics of the boxes but they are also practical for controlling soil quality and temperature. We bought 400lbs. of soil and manure to fill the boxes and also mixed compost from Kimberly in there as well.