We had a wonderful holiday season, and we got some collards from the garden for our New Year’s Day meals. The winter garden has exceeded our expectations. Brad shares updates in this post.
Another Christmas is in the books and 2015 is less than 12 hours away; is it just me or did this year totally fly by? I hope you got to spend time with family and friends over the holidays and don’t forget to cook your collard greens and black eyed peas on New Year’s Day.
Since last month, some of our fall crops have actually bounced back and we have been able to harvest Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, turnips and onions over the last few weeks. In the greenhouse, our raised beds full of lettuce and spinach continue to thrive and we have already harvested over 50 pounds from just three 8’x3’ beds. This just goes to show that it really doesn’t take much space to provide plenty of greens for the average-size family.
We received some heavy rains last week and thankfully we didn’t have much erosion in our fields due to our winter ground cover of rye and crimson clover. Some areas of southern Georgia received over 7 inches within 24 hours! It’s tough not to run into some problems when you get that much precipitation in such a short period of time.
We recently ordered a new batch of baby chicks and they should arrive in the next week or so. It is most important to provide adequate heating this time of year when raising young birds.
We pruned our thornless blackberries a couple of weeks ago and are in the process of securing the second year canes to the high tensile trellis wires that line our beds. This helps direct the growth pattern of the blackberry plants, make harvesting easier, and also boost berry production. Several options are available for trellis materials, but I have found that the green polyethylene trellis tape works well.
I hope you all have fun bringing in the New Year and I will talk to you in 2015! – Brad Kelly
That’s concludes this month’s update from our company garden. From our entire team at Kelly Products, we wish you a peaceful and prosperous New Year!
Warmest Regards,
Laura Rotroff
Marketing & Communications Manager
Kelly Products, Inc.