Spring is one of my favorite times of year here at the farm. Usually because it leads up to my most favorite time which is summer harvest, but also because we can finally start to open the shop doors, let some winter air out of our bones and feel some sun on our face.
This is all a "usually" situation, because here in Oregon we don't take the term April Showers bring May flowers very lightly. Weather is tough to predict here in Oregon and a lot of that has to do with the fact that we are so close to the ocean. But the good news also is that if we do have a wet spring there are a lot of crops that will benefit, some that won't, but being as diversified as our state is (growing over 250 different crops) it's hard to say that any particular weather is just bad for everything and good for nothing. As they say, farmers have to be true optimists!
So what do we have coming up out here in Oregon? Well this spring we have some crops still to plant. Peas and spring wheat will be planted once the weather turns nicer and a bit dryer. For the crops that are perennial or were planted this fall however we will start to fertilize to "wake them up" from this past winter. This includes our hazelnuts, perennial ryegrass, tall fescue and crimsom clover. Add that to some weed control to keep our broadleaf weeds down in the seed crops, and you have yourself a pretty busy spring time in the near future.
Here is a photo of a perennial ryegrass field that was planted this past fall, eaten down to the ground by slugs, re-planted again right after Thanksgiving and now is finally growing! We're hoping we can get a crop off this still this summer, Yukon came out to help me take a look to check its progress.
So like I said, we aren't bored around here for very long once the sun comes out. But that again is one of the best parts about my job, right about the time you get sick of doing something the season changes and it's on to the next project.
