The 2009 was a busy season for us. We added 1000 blackberries, more than 700
raspberries, over 85 fruit trees and the asparagus. We're looking forward to a
somewhat uneventful off-season.
The Rainwater harvesting system is the highest priority capital expense for this season.
Although we're experiencing a great year for water right now. it isn't always that way.
In the last 5 years we've experienced some very dry periods. It's for those times that
we're going to collect the waer running off the roof. Based on conservative
calculations, if we received avaerage rainfall, we could potentially collect more than
40,000 gallons of water. This ensures that even in drought conditions, we would have
enough water to keep fropm losing the plants. Between fall and spring, the initial system
will be built.
We are starting to prepare the soil for planting. We're starting to till the
existing grassy areas, add compost and using newspaper and straw, cover them to
sit until we're ready to plant.
The fruit trees were pruned over the last month and are looking well. Please pray with us that
our last freeze is no later than April 1st. The April 27th freeze last year took all of the tree fruit and quite alot of the berries with it.
We've been buying seed and planning the plantings. The hoop house, put up last fall will be covereed through the summer so that we can start our own seedlings next winter. Onions are going in, greens are being started in the house (our first time!) so that we're ready to put them
out as soon as it warms. The pussy willows were propaged successfully this year so there should be quite a few for cutting next year also. This is part o fthe cut flowers we're hoping to develop for our members.
Membership is going to be limited again this year so that we can work on taking some product to martket. We are planning to get to the Coppell Farmer's Market in April with something!
Be patient with us as we try this new marketing direction.
Plans are subject to change at our discretion. Many things can change our plans - climate,
emergency priorities, and so on. This is just to give you a feel for what takes place before
you arrive on the property to pick your berries!
