Update-us Maximus

Operation: Salsa Garden is underway! We have tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro in the ground! Next week, we'll add the grafted tomatoes, which are currently being started in Southwood's greenhouses on Delaware Ave. All of the wind we've had so far hasn't helped the plants already in the ground, which include the starts we're evaluating for OSU. We've had to run the water quite a bit, and the onions and cilantro are struggling from being whipped around by the wind.

Here is the garden in its planted glory, being inspected by my daughters. I accidentally erased the pictures Joe and I took the day we planted. Which is a shame, because there was a really fantastic candid shot of me discovering that I had put my hand in a pool of fresh neon orange nursery paint. Oops.)

Another big announcement: the Southwood Salsa Party is officially set for July 28! It's earlier than we originally thought, but spring came so early this year, everything else is apparently going to follow suit. As you may recall, last year on that date the temperature was a balmy 118. Hopefully that will not be the case this year. If it is, we might have to get creative with the party, which I vote will happen whether we grow anything or not.

The Farmer's Almanac says it's going to be an intermittently hot and stormy summer, but it doesn't say scorching, blazing hot like last year's did. The Farmer's Almanac claims to be surprisingly accurate, having also predicted the 2011 "Snowmageddon" storm we all remember so fondly. The link above describes their process. I'm going to start reading it, like a good farmer, and I'll report back on my findings.

The next crop to go in the ground will be watermelons, followed later by pumpkins, at the farm garden. As it turns out, we have a ton of watermelon seeds, due to some confusion in our last meeting with OSU's Dr. Brandenberger. Hey, if a double order of watermelon seeds is the biggest goof we make this year, I'm going to consider it an overwhelming success.

Ready for its watermelons, with a lovely new gravel road and water line.

This weekend was the Jenks Herb Festival, which is a very well-attended event. For the past several years, Southwood has partnered with RARC/The Bridges Foundation to sell hanging baskets and patio pots, with part of the proceeds going to that organization. (I'm going to write a blog post soon about cause marketing.) By this time next year, we would like to have the market building built for people to walk through. I'm pretty confident that there's some overlap between the people at that event and our future customers.

As the final update, here is a picture of Emmie's Pallet Garden. Southwood's vegetable guru Emmie Sherry demonstrated this unique and inexpensive method at our Plant a Row for the Hungry event in March. As you can see, it is currently thriving in a sunny spot outside of the office trailers at Southwood. Yes, office trailers. We're nothing if not resourceful. Happy gardening!

It's not the best picture in the world, but the tomatoes are flowing at the bottom, and there are tons of tiny peppers and tomatoes growing all over it. The kale at the top is doing well, too. This would be so easy for a balcony or patio!
Just don't forget to water it!