This was a strange year in the greenhouse. The first planting of basil seedlings developed some form of root rot and died. The germination on peppers was spotty, and the ones that did come up and got transplanted didn't grow, just stayed the same size. Too many cloudy and cool days in April, I guess. Then Greg spotted aphids on some of the peppers. Uh oh, somehow, we had forgotten to order the ladybugs which we usually release in the greenhouse as a preventative measure (ladybugs love to dine on aphids). Out came the insecticidal soap, which helped with the aphids, but scorched some of the plants (Greg sprayed them on one of the rare sunny days we had) and I hopped on the internet to place an emergency order for ladybugs. Good thing the tomatoes were fairly trouble free!
Our big plant-selling event each year is the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on the first weekend in May. Our sales during that single weekend generally equal our entire farmers’ market season. We have repeat customers that have been buying plants from us for eight or nine years. We usually bring four truckloads of plants to the Festival; this year we only took two and for the first time did not have any peppers or basil. Add to that a damp weekend (off and on showers on Saturday and steady rain for most of the day Sunday) and it seemed to be a recipe for disaster.
In the end, although our sales were down, things could have been worse. The threat of rain on Saturday did not hold back the crowd at all; I heard that at one point they even had to close the parking lot of the Howard County Fairgrounds because it was full! We sold just about every plant we took to the Festival and came home with a total of four trays of plants. Sunday sales were slow, but that could have been because there really wasn’t much left by then as much as because of the weather.
Now that we’ve had a couple more weeks of warm weather, the peppers are finally looking great! The second planting of basil is coming along, and we’ve transplanted more tomatoes. We’ll be taking a truckload of plants to the 2nd Annual Maryland Heartland Sustainable Living Fair next weekend, Saturday, May 23 2009 from 9 am - 5 pm at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster, Maryland (http://www.sustainablelivingmd.org/). Come join us if you are in the market for some sustainably grown plants for your garden!
Kris
Our big plant-selling event each year is the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on the first weekend in May. Our sales during that single weekend generally equal our entire farmers’ market season. We have repeat customers that have been buying plants from us for eight or nine years. We usually bring four truckloads of plants to the Festival; this year we only took two and for the first time did not have any peppers or basil. Add to that a damp weekend (off and on showers on Saturday and steady rain for most of the day Sunday) and it seemed to be a recipe for disaster.
In the end, although our sales were down, things could have been worse. The threat of rain on Saturday did not hold back the crowd at all; I heard that at one point they even had to close the parking lot of the Howard County Fairgrounds because it was full! We sold just about every plant we took to the Festival and came home with a total of four trays of plants. Sunday sales were slow, but that could have been because there really wasn’t much left by then as much as because of the weather.
Now that we’ve had a couple more weeks of warm weather, the peppers are finally looking great! The second planting of basil is coming along, and we’ve transplanted more tomatoes. We’ll be taking a truckload of plants to the 2nd Annual Maryland Heartland Sustainable Living Fair next weekend, Saturday, May 23 2009 from 9 am - 5 pm at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster, Maryland (http://www.sustainablelivingmd.org/). Come join us if you are in the market for some sustainably grown plants for your garden!
Kris
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