Mayhem in the Field

It's a relief, being able to sit here and type a blog post after the power outage we experienced on Thursday. I was worried it would last days, like the ones in the residential neighborhoods where some of our friends live. Fortunately, the first real storm of July 2012 only knocked out the farm's power for about seven hours. That meant we could keep our plants alive through the heat that's continuing over the next several days.

In the meantime, we spent three of those hours hurriedly looking over the storm damage and preparing to be without water - the most important thing our electricity provides us - for a couple of days. We gathered generators, water jugs; evaluated water and air storage tanks, and started to determine where to go to fill them up. One generator was dedicated to the refrigerators so our CSA members' produce would stay fresh for pickup Thursday afternoon.

Of course we also discovered some damage in the fields as we slogged ankle-deep in mud in some of the freshly tilled areas. The market garden and sweet corn field sustained the worst of the wind damage. The 15x150ft shade tent that we built over the pepper plants on Tuesday didn't make it through the storm. Of course a lot of the fabric landed on plants, but most of the plants had been laid down by the wind already. Thank goodness the shade cloth isn't terribly heavy - as we moved it off the plants, we realized that not many of them appear to be severely damaged.

It's been very interesting to watch the vegetable plants return from their wind damage. I wish I'd gotten some photos of the "before" to show how they were leaning over. But now the green beans, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, as well as the tallest sweet corn are all standing back up again, with just a few exceptions. Only time will tell how this affects all these beautiful plants that we've worked so hard to nurture. The one category that doesn't seem to have been much affected is the cucurbits: the cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes and squashes all seemed to be standing tall or if they're vines, lying in a healthy-looking pose on their rows.

So we've pushed on, watering where it's needed (because the storm didn't end our drought by any means) and trellising and pruning those plants that are long and leggy like tomatoes and cucumbers. Now all that's left to clean up from the storm are a few sections of plastic mulch in the zucchini field that were torn, and finish re-erecting that pepper tent...just as soon as enough of us are in one place at the same time. And we're grateful that our storm damage was truly minimal, compared to what others have experienced!

Hot, Dry Weather: Tree Check Reminder!

I know life is busy, so here's a reminder to head outside and spend a few minutes of quality time with your new trees! Check the moisture level in the soil to see if they need some water.
Here's the quick version:

• Dig down a few inches into the root ball.
• If the soil is wet, head back inside for a cool drink of your own.
• If the soil is only damp, or getting dry, give the tree a long, slow drink instead.

The longer, more detailed version is at your fingertips on our landscape tips page.
You can also check our our moisture monitoring tutorial if you'd like to learn more about it. (This one's a downloadable pdf file)

A few things to remember about transplanted trees and water:

• A tree can be considered "new" for the first three years, or even four, after it's planted
• Rain is usually insufficient for transplanted trees, so be sure to check on them even if it's rained.
• Mulch is important for helping a tree to settle in to its new home.
• Keeping the soil completely saturated all the time can suffocate roots or cause disease.

Don't forget about newly planted trees and shrubs

You know, there are times I'd like to make a point about a topic, but somebody else already did - and better than I could! In last week's MSU Landscape Alert, Associate Professor Bert Cregg advised us to remember our newly planted trees and shrubs. Here's how he begins:

"Buying and planting new trees and shrubs is an exciting and time-honored rite of spring. But it’s important to remember your trees and shrubs AFTER you’ve gotten them in the ground. The first two years after planting are critical to the long-term survival of most woody ornaments, especially the first year. New trees and shrubs, whether container-grown or balled-in-burlap, need time for their roots to grow into surrounding soil in order to survive the transpiration water loss associated with summer temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s."

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I'll just link to his article. It expresses a lot of the tree care advice that we use at Trim Pines, such as infrequent, deep watering and using organic mulches. And check out Dr. Cregg's comment above, about the first two years. It's a wonderful thing! We like to go one further, and consider a tree "new" for the first three years.