Two Feet in the Dirt

We got a little flash of summer this week with two record-breaking days of temperatures around 80 degrees. As a result, our focus quickly shifted from keeping the hoop house warm to keeping it cool, a problem I wasn’t anticipating in February! Even with the sides rolled up all of the way and the door and window open, temperatures were still getting up near 90, not ideal for the cool-weather spring crops planted inside. Whereas it took the first round of hoop house beds at least a week to germinate, the beds planted right before this mini heat wave were up in a matter of days!

As a result, inside of the hoop house it’s starting to look like the real deal. As of now, about half of the beds are planted with spring mix, kale, arugula, spinach, radishes, and lettuce heads. The first succession of head lettuce has already put on new growth and we thinned the first radishes a few days ago. Of course, these early hot days can be both deceiving and a little frustrating, giving crops a sudden boost in growth that puts them ahead of their planned harvest date, but what can you do? That’s farming in a nutshell!