Top Left Moving Clockwise: Spring greens, beds planted and aisles sown with cover crops, plant starts and early lettuce, tomato flowering in the high tunnel.
Spring in Colorado. A slow unfolding of plant and animal life. Cold nights and sunny days make for intense temperature swings. Our annual garden crops start slower than usual as the soil biology awakens with warming ground.
Planting is the name of the game. Days are filled with seeding flats in the greenhouse, transplanting crops, sowing seeds, and cultivating. The trick is to plant the right amount, leaving space for successions to come.
Our fields are home to 10s of thousands of plants including garlic, onions, leeks, peas, lettuce, kale, chard, arugula, radishes, turnips, broccoli, and cauliflower. This week marks the 3rd round of lettuce being planted, celery, and the 2nd round of spring greens meeting the Earth.
As the crops tap into the soil, tractors are running to incorporate cover crops, prepare beds, stale seed bedding, and brace for the imminent arrival of ditch water. Once the ditches are flowing, we can plant larger rounds of carrots, beets, lettuce, and even summer crops.
While waiting for water our team preps the farm store. The store will have many new products this season with the goal of providing customers with a complete selection of local products. We look forward to our soft opening coming this Mother’s Day where we will have retail plants, spring veggies, seeds, and more.
Speaking of Mother’s Day and spring planting, our plant sale crops are coming into their own. Strawberry hanging baskets are laden with ripe fruit, flowers are blooming, and the veggies are filling their containers. This year has been a big push on plant starts and we are looking forward to sharing in the abundance with gardeners throughout Fort Collins.
Time is tight. Instead of a daily writing practice I am grateful to sit down once a week. The thing is, all this is transitory. Spring will fade to summer, the baby will grow, writing will return. It is humbling to recognize the impermanence of our place in this world and refreshing to know that, without fear, a fresh start is always possible. Peace with the chaos allows for more presence in enjoying the fleeting days of life.
Spring marks the beginning of a new growing season. One full of inevitable challenges and incredible highs. A fresh start that allows a new year of production to unfold. What seeds are you sowing into the future? What prayers, intentions, and changes are you making?
I am personally trusting my intuition from this winter’s planning and executing that plan, recognizing change and adaptation are crucial to success. As the garden, both of farming and life, unfolds I am noticing the voids created as crops are planted. Noting these gaps and readily filling them maximizes our production with expanding our foot print.
Grow more plants, better. Grow Better. Connecting to those and that which matter most, this is the true name of the game.