Farm at Home - Weekly To-Do List

Here we provide our weekly To Do List of what our staff is accomplishing within the Farm-at-Home Garden.  This guidance is specialized for those participating in our Pre-Planned Veggie Kit installments.  Others practicing sustainable living by maintaining their own garden or participating in a community garden may find our To Do Lists helpful as well.  The kits include commonly grown garden vegetables and herbs.  However similar the plants are or weather conditions of our area, each of our gardens are unique and may have more or less, different or none of these To Do's to do. 

Visit our blog "Farming the WC" for more details on gardening and sustainable living, or participate in the discussion forum with our staff of naturalists, gardeners, farmers, and fellow localvores. 

Spring Pre-Planned Veggie Kit Installation: 

As long as you are growing the same type of plant, may it be a different variety, these instructions will also apply. Our Spring Pre-Planned Veggie Kit included the following:

5th Week of July 2010

Weather Conditions

• Pleasant summer heat with scattered humidity and rain

To Do List

• Weed
• Water
• Redirect strawberry runners to stay within area designated for strawberries
• Trap Groundhog

Harvest List

• Harvest & trellis cucumbers (see "Farming at Home_Week #6" blog post for instructional video on harvesting cucumbers)
• Harvest Basil (see "Farming at Home_Week #4" blog post for details on how to encourage leaf growth)
• Harvest any ripened tomatoes
• Harvest radishes
• Harvest strawberries
• Harvest beans

4th Week of July 2010

Weather Conditions

• A very wet week of rain and hail storms interspersed with the summer heat

To Do List

• Weed
• Watering may not be necessary for raised beds or ground rows, but still needed for container gardens
• Snip the main stem of the tomatoes as high as you can reach if the plants are getting taller than their trellis
• Start a compost pile (We sell Earth Machine Compost Bins for $50.  Call 914.962.2368 for more information)

Harvest List

• Harvest & trellis cucumbers (see "Farming at Home_Week #6" blog post for instructional video on harvesting cucumbers)
• Harvest Basil (see "Farming at Home_Week #4" blog post for details on how to encourage leaf growth)
• Harvest any ripened tomatoes
• Harvest and thin radishes (good shredded in salad)

3rd Week of July 2010

Weather Conditions

• few days with scattered rain showers; few days with intense heat to dry up all the rain water

To Do List

• Water!
• Weed
• Trim any tomato leaves on the bottom 10” of stem
• Thin the carrots
• Thin the radishes
• Place cloches atop the beans for protection (See Farming at Home_Week # 8 blog post for details)
• Plant another succession of bush beans

Harvest List

• Harvest & trellis cucumbers (see "Farming at Home_Week #6" blog post for instructional video on harvesting cucumbers)
• Harvest Basil (see "Farming at Home_Week #4" blog post for details on how to encourage leaf growth)
• Harvest Sungold Tomatoes (just a few ready)
• Thin and eat thinnings of baby radishes (good in salad)
• Bush Beans would have been ready if the Mexican Bean Beetle larvae did not kill our plants first!

2nd Week of July 2010

Weather Conditions

• temperatures in high 90s, even tipping over 100 degrees F

To Do List

• Water! 
• Prune & trellis tomatoes (See "Farming at Home_Week #3" blog post for instructional video)
• Thin radishes
• Thin spring planting of carrots & direct seed fall planting of carrots
• Plant first round of beans
• Pest Control - Squish Mexican Bean Beetle larvae (see "Farming at Home _Week #7" blog post for details)

Harvest List

• Harvest Basil (see "Farming at Home_Week #4" blog post for details on how encourage leaf growth)
• Harvest & trellis cucumbers (see "Farming at Home_Week #6" blog post for instructional video on harvesting cucumbers)
• Harvest Beets