Farm Report: April 2005
by Robert Miner, Assistant Research Farm Manager

Ready, get set, let's grow! Well almost time to grow. If you are in the South you have already started. Most likely you have planted quite a bit by now and even have potatoes coming up and azaleas in bloom. Here in northern New Mexico, this has been an extended winter, wetter and cooler than in the recent past, which has helped to break a lingering drought. The increased snow pack will help replenish the Rio Grande, which has its beginnings north of the Farm and is our primary source for irrigation.

We are currently installing a new irrigation system that will allow us to apply water more efficiently and effectively while expanding our operations. This is the last major construction project from this winter and should be completed just in time for the majority of our plantings. Plans are in the works for integrating a water catchment into the system, utilizing runoff from the seed cleaning building's roof for producing transplants in the greenhouses.

The construction and remodeling of our seed cleaning building is finished. What a difference this has made to the old building, which had originally been built as a greenhouse. Many thanks go out to our engineer Robert Treadwell for all his hard work on the upgrade projects. Without his help I don't believe we could have gotten any of these off the ground, let alone finished before the start of the growing season.

With the building complete, all we lack now is some landscaping. Emily Gatch, our Greenhouse Specialist, is drawing up plans for the south side of the building, which we call the "kitchen garden." This area will be used for demonstrating garden design techniques and specialty crop production that you can explore in your own gardens. Emily will be writing about and photographing this design throughout the season and sharing it with you in our eNewsletters.

Kelle Carter is the jack-of-all-trades around here. Her capacities extend from seed cleaning to our phone and email Gardening Help line; Kelle was also a big help in setting up and running this spring's annual seconds seed giveaway. After cleaning seeds all winter, we share the "second" seeds that do not reach our quality standards for the marketplace with local growers. This year's event attracted a great turnout and everyone was very appreciative and grateful for the free seed. The leftover seed potatoes and dry beans from the giveaway were donated to a local food bank. One of the unique advantages of growing organic is that you can either plant or eat a lot of the products.

The danger of last frost here at the Research Farm doesn't pass until June 1st. We are almost done compiling and arranging our grow-out list for the season of more than 1,400 varieties, including more than 90 peppers, 60 tomatoes, and 50 types of squash. Our zinnia and sunflower trials will be expansive as well, including many promising varieties for possible addition to our catalog. If you are in the New Mexico area this summer be sure to visit us for one of our Farm Tours on August 28th or September 10th.

I hope all your plans are coming together for the season as well. Now let's go grow something!

Robert Miner
Assistant Research Farm Manager

Photo captions: 1) Seed Cleaning building "before" 2) Seed Cleaning Building "after" 3) Annual 2nds Seed Giveaway