Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

Now up on our Freshman Farmer website, applications for next year’s first year farms.

Check it out here, and spread the word if someone you know is interested!

Consider these customer reviews:

Organic German White Garlic:

“Unpacking last September’s shipment, I was somewhat concerned to note only 4 cloves to a bulb. Very large cloves, but still, since I grow garlic to sell at Farmer’s Market, I have to be concerned about yield. A pound of German White produced only 32 plants, as opposed to 50 or more for California White or Spanish Roja.

Well, those 32 plants were the largest, stoutest and healthiest garlic that has ever grown here, in North Central Kentucky, (Zone 6, well-tilled, well-drained clay soil). Some bulbs were as large as my fist, and each had 6 or 7 enormous cloves. I will be saving the best for seed, which will quadruple the yield from my original investment. Customers are impressed with the smooth, perfect bulbs, large cloves and great roasted flavor.“

Organic Music Garlic:

“This is a MUST garlic for anyone who grows their own garlic. Every year I harvest nice big heads with 5-6 big cloves each. Yum, yum!”

It’s not too late! Hurry and get your garlic growin’!!

Due to overwhelming demand, Carolyn Singer has added another workshop at Peaceful Valley! Hurry and sign up before this one fills up too!

Award-winning local author Carolyn Singer, will be hosting a workshop about Fall planting emphasizing season extending & bare root preparation, and will also talk about wildflowers, native grasses, bulbs, meadow gardens, cover crops,  and deer resistant plants. Attendees are encouraged to bring questions.

If you plan to attend, you must register soon! The 10/10 workshop filled quickly.

9:30-11:30am at Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply (map)

Call 530-272-4769 x106

The cost is $10. Participants will also receive a 10% off coupon for use in the store.

From her website CarolynSingerGardens.com

“Carolyn gives practical garden information as a gardener, designer, teacher and writer who grew up with a gardening family in Sonoma County, California. She later added to her gardening experiences in Montana and Colorado before returning to garden in northern California.

Carolyn has been gardening in the Sierra foothills (elevation 2600 feet) since 1977. She writes a regular garden column, the seasoned gardener for The Union in Grass Valley CA.”

There’s been some interest of late in our Glaser Wheel Hoe’s.  These are worth taking a look at for the small garden or full production farms.  We carry two different styles and sizes.  One is the Standard and the other the Professional. Now for those of you that can remember sting ray bicycles you’ll recognize the same type of handles on the Standard Wheel Hoe.  You can ride that puppy through your garden making short work (and a whole lot less bending) of those new weeds that the recent rains have encouraged to grow.  The Professional is a little beefier and has wider coverage than the Standard, as well as more attachment options.  I have used the Standard and I must say they do take those young weeds out in a jiffy.  The blade sits on top of the ground and you push it along digging just underneath the soil line popping off weeds in one swift pass.  If they are bigger plants with bigger root systems it may take a couple passes.  The blades are designed so you can “rock” back and forth if you need to, they cut from both sides of the blade.  This long honored farmer’s tool has several blade sizes to fit most garden designs.  The Standard can take 5″ - 10″ stirrup hoe blades, center or offset.  The Professional can take 11″- 14″ stirrup hoe blades, center or offset, as well as hiller/furrower, goosefoot and 3-tine cultivator attachments.  This is one versatile tool.  Made of rust-protected steel hardware and galvanized tubular steel handles, which are exceptionally light and maneuverable.  If you are in the area stop by our store,  hold and touch one to see how it might feel out in your own field.   You’ll be surprised how light they are.  Happy Weeding!  I mean Happy Halloween!

This week from the Organic Consumers Association:

Quote of the Week

World Food Day - Organic Is the Answer to Food Security

“Organic agriculture puts the needs of rural people and the sustainable use of natural resources at the centre of the farming system. Locally adapted technologies create employment opportunities and income. Low external inputs minimize risk of indebtedness and intoxication of the environment. It increases harvests through practices that favor the optimization of biological processes and local resources over expensive, toxic and climate damaging agro-chemicals…in response to a frequently asked question: Yes, the world can be fed by the worldwide adoption of Organic agriculture. The slightly lower yields of Organic agriculture in favorable, temperate zones are compensated with approximately 10-20% higher yields in difficult environments such as arid areas.”

-International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements World Food Day, October 12, 2009

• Quote of the Week: World Food Day - Organic Is the Answer to Food Security
• Alert of the Week: Get Genetically Engineered Vaccines Out of Organic!
• Victory of the Week: Kucinich Secures Funding for Organic Farming Research
• Alert Update of the Week: Obama’s Biotech & Chemically Dependent Friends
• Movie of the Week: Meet the Farmer TV
• Book of the Week: The Raw Milk Revolution
• Organic News of the Week: MOOMilk Is Local and Organic
• Little Bytes: Go Locavore and Cool the World
• Planting Peace and Grassroots Netroots News

Read the full newsletter on their website.

A lot of our earliest and most vibrant reminders of Spring are bulbs.  But what happens after the flowers have gone and the leaf material has turned brown and wilted?  If they are inter-planted with other perennial plants or late blooming bulbs your beds will look wonderful through summer.  Then Winter hits and we sometimes wonder where the bulbs went and will they make it through our typical winter freezes?  The good news is that most of our favorite bulbs are in the hardy plant category that can over winter underground even where frost penetrates deeply into the soil.  Crocus, Daffodils, Tulips, Lillies and Hyacinths fall into this category.  Bulbs will benefit greatly from a 2-4″ deep mulch of shredded bark or hardwood, leaves or compost.  Mulch prevents the ground from alternately freezing and thawing, which can heave bulbs right out of the ground during winter.  In summer, mulch conserves moisture and keeps the weeds at bay.  Wait until the ground freezes to apply a winter mulch to fall planted bulbs.  Check your local Master Gardeners County Extension for more information in your area.

A PVFS Customer Email - With Staff Response

Question:
Hi,

I’m thinking of ordering a couple of fig trees (Desert king / Osborne Prolific), persimmon (Fuyu) and grapes (Interlaken). Do you know long it will take for them to start fruiting?

Thanks

Answer:

Regarding the Fig and Persimmon trees, it’s possible that they will fruit the 1st year for the Fig and 2nd for the Persimmon. It is better for the trees if you do not allow them to fully fruit out the first couple years so the tree will use it’s resources to establish a healthy root system. If they put out very much fruit the first couple years pick most of it off.

The grapes will possibly fruit by the 2nd year, again you want the first couple years focused on the root system for longevity and higher, healthier yields later on. Plus all this has variables related to the health of your soil and placement of the trees and vines. Southern exposure with full sun will fruit out the grapes faster.

Hope this helps. Thank you for your interest.

Here at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply it’s raining and raining quite hard.  Hopefully any cover crop seed that’s been planted in recent weeks has some roots holding those little guys down so they don’t wash down into your neighbors drainage ditch.  Otherwise, after this storm passes it should be prime time to put in that cover crop.  The soil should still be holding above 45 degrees being warm enough for the seeds to germinate and now that the ground will be nice and moist… PERFECT!  So don’t wait to get that soil builder mix in this month and you will be pleasantly surprised how well your vegies grow and produce next year.  Not to mention loaded with nutrients provided by all the cover crop goodies left after breaking down in your soil.

Read about it here:

Cover crops cover a lot of ground. They hold, shield and replenish soil. They also choke out weeds and attract beneficial insects.

Growing grasses, oats, vetches, buckwheats, peas, beans, mustards and other plants through the winter has long been a practice of organic farmers, but more home gardeners are catching onto the concept.

“It definitely applies to the backyard gardener,” said Mark Fenton, new product development manager for Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply, a retail and online organic business in Grass Valley. “It’s a real good way to build the soil.”

Read the rest of the article by Laura Christman at redding.com by clicking here.

If you haven’t been to Peaceful Valley Farm Supply nursery you really must come and check it out.  There is a plant here that is my new “favorite” plant!  They are carrying a Silverberry Fruitlandii (Elaeagnus pungens) that has the most surprising fragrance.  In fact it’s hard to tell where that smell is coming from!  It actually reminds me of Hawaii!  The flowers are small and somewhat hidden at the base of the shrub.. probably the last place you’d look for flowers, but that SMELL will keep you looking!  The leaves have the two tone leaf color, gray/silver undersides and olive green top.  It’s in it’s prime now so you have one last summer hold out that makes you lift your head and breathe deep… ummmmm!  It can be pruned to various bush type shapes or allowed to go wild and shoot up toward the sky, well anywhere from 6 - 12 feet high that is. This is a hardy shrub that stands up to very dry conditions.  So plant it in places your hose can’t reach.  Plant it now and the fall and winter rains will help get it established in it’s new home.

Of course, there’s lots more to see and choose from.  Native plants, vegetable starts, trees, bulbs, annual and perennial flowers even cacti.  Come see what’s growing here at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply just waiting for a happy home to live out it’s life.