BIJA Gardens: Cosmic Gardening With Altitude: UnFolding

Backyard Aspen leaf unfolds welcoming warmer weather

The beautiful thing about AK/PacNW weather is, is the amount of lush green life we now have. The drought is over, reservoirs are filled, and life can now unfold into what it will as it warms. ahh Mountain living.

In the spirit of "doing what I can with what I have from where I am at," I started a cool project last week drilling 1/2" holes into the bottom of some dresser drawers that Kevin brought home from work. They are perfect. I am so glad we have them for our own small personal stash of food. Kevin is adding as I type this, "ReUSE comes before ReCYCLE Everybody!"

drainage

personal stash of arugula and swiss chard

After our visit down to Full Circle Compost a few weeks back, I purchased a nice big bag of rice hulls that I am adding to the soil this year in all of my starter plants and a couple of the raised beds. These add as a nice soil amendment because of the aeration and added nitrogen over time. Find them at Full Circle Compost in the Carson Valley or Peaceful Valley down in Grass Valley. My starter plants have been loving this new soil!

The Truckee Farmer's Market started this week. It was a frigid temperature as the inversion layer of fog stayed with us until about 9 a.m. We get there at 6:30. The first few weeks are a bit scarce in the way of both farmers and customers. The weather for us has set crop production back almost 3 weeks to a month for many. Heirloom tomatoes will be in by mid July at this point, with Cherry tomatoes coming in around that first or second week in July.

For the last 5 or 6 summers I have been working slinging produce with Guy. He and his wife, Sharon, own Towani Organic Farm. There is no link to this farm because Guy isn't a technological person...at all. He just got his first cell phone last summer! I love them! They have been mentors to me throughout this whole process helping boost up my courage to start this project sooner than later. Sharon started Towani out of a raised bed selling her flowers down in Berkley. She met Guy soon after, and then found a place up in Bangor, CA with 66 acres with an old growth Olive orchard on the property. They have been farming as a way of life for 20+ years now. They do four to five markets a week in the summer and two markets a week during the winter.

Next week starts the first Truckee Thursdays downtown. This is my market. I hope that I have enough to sell! I found out on Tuesday I need a nursery license to sell my starter plants. Between that, and the size of my produce, I just don't know if I will be ready by next Thursday~even with some potential supplemental help from Towani. I have decided to play it patient, though. I will let my life follow the intelligence and guidance of the plants~ and let it UnFold into the start of summer.