The Greenhouse

This is a picture of the completed greenhouse.  It took several weekends and hours of hard work digging post holes, building walls, and putting on the plastic.  It's finally completed and we now have several trays of vegetables that are growing very quickly: lettuce, onions, greens, chard, kale, and celery to name a few.  I figured out almost immediately that the wood-burning stove wasn't going to be enough by itself to keep the greenhouse at a constant temperature, so I bought a kerosene heater that turns on with a thermostat to keep the veggies at the perfect temp.  The wood-burning stove does provide a good amount of heat and definitely reduces heating costs on those cold nights.



Greenhouse and Seed Order

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything so I figured I would give an update on the farm. I placed my seed order last week and am anxiously awaiting its arrival! I can't wait to start seeing things grow. I would love to list all of the wonderful things that I ordered, but there are just too many, so I'll just mention a few: Lucious Sweet Corn, Winter Density Lettuce, Bull's Blood Beets, Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomatoes, and Cortland Onions. Once I start sewing things in the greenhouse, I will give a play by play of what's being planted.

Speaking of the greenhouse, my Dad and I started construction this morning. It is going to be 14' X 24' and the heat will be provided by a woodburning stove that we were able to salvage from the basement of our house. We hope to get the plastic on by the end of the day tomorrow and have all the odds and ends finished up by the time the seeds start arriving! Stay tuned for pictures and updates on the greenhouse and all of the new veggies.

STRAWBERRIES!!!!

This is the first post on the new blog and I'm very excited about it!  I will try to keep it updated with information and photos so that everyone knows what's going on at Johnson Farms.  About 4 weeks ago, we planted the first thing at the farm...strawberries!  With the help of Kelly, her friend Amanda, and my Dad, we tilled a 30'X50' area and planted 800 strawberry plants.  There are two different varieties (Early Glow and Chandler).  We will place a hoophouse over half of the plants in the spring which will give us an early harvest while the other half will remain uncovered.  This should give us 4 to 5 weeks of great berries.  Later that weekend, I prepared 3 acres of ground and sewed white clover and bluegrass.  This will act as a cover crop this winter and it will be a living mulch between rows of vegetables next year.  Thanks for checking out the blog!