In the video Planning Your Garden learn about High Performance Garden characteristic #7 A Well Planned Garden. Finding out which zone you live in to determine your last average frost date is key to your gardening success.

The first Red Robin tomatoes are starting to turn red!!! The first harvest day was on March 20! This is the earliest that I have ever harvested a tomato in the spring. And it was not even a sunny or warm winter. I think it was the most cloudy February that we have ever had.

I have a friend who has a solar array and she said February was the lowest month of energy collection that they have had in the 5 years that they have lived in her house. What this means is that I can possibly beat my record next year. I planted the tomatoes on Nov. 27th, which means it took 114 days to get the first ripe tomato.

Lynn

Waiting, waiting, waiting! We are waiting for the first tomatoes to turn red. I always find this time between the first flower and the first ripe tomato a long, long wait. It takes 8 weeks from blossom to tomato juice running down your chin. The first tomatoes blossomed mid January so we should see the first ones ripen in the next 2 weeks.

Also, Red Robin tomatoes have moved up to their final pot size. They can crop all summer in the 2 gallon pots. The key will be to feed them every month to make sure they have enough nutrients to produce the most optimal fruit. What I love about this plant is its compact size. It will stay small so I can cover it at night. We still have a few more cold nights and will need to protect them.

Lynn

We had a busy week at the farm. One of our ewes, Jan gave birth to 2 healthy big baby boy lambs. She was 5 weeks early but we did have a ram bust down a gate in September and get into the ewes, 5 weeks before the breeding season. Lucky for us he only bred one ewe. Their names are Sampson and Finn.

Another exciting event on the farm was our Small Space, Big Production workshop sponsored by the Valley Organic Growers Association. We expected about 50 people and the turnout was around 70 people. It is so exciting to see people wanting to grow their own food! Growing your own food can be as simple as 15 minutes a day if done in the right system. Gardening does not have to be hard or frustrating. It can be one of the best parts of your day and it can really help cut your food budget.

Tomato Challenge

The weather has been very cold, like early January temperatures. We have had nights in the single digits again. The tomatoes are hanging in there. I am pleased that I can keep them from freezing. The cucumbers, on the other hand, are not freezing but are struggling with the cold nights. They like night temperatures above 60 deg. F. I will need to feed the tomatoes this week or move them up in pot size, they are looking a bit hungry but are still blooming.

One more thing…… I did see a robin this week! Now there is hope that winter will end!

Special Reminder

For all you local folks, our 40-week CSA starts this week! Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is the best way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer and the best way to get the lowest cost on the best produce. We offer 10 different categories of food and you can choose your preference range. This is our 17th year, so we have a well design system in place by now. There are Two sizes available, a small box at $250 for 10 weeks and a large box at $350 for 10 weeks. Pick-up or Delivery. Email us if you are interested.

Home Grown Food Summit

More exciting news! I will be sharing my expertise on How to Set-Up your Greenhouse for Success along with 36 other garden experts at Marjory Wildcraft’s 3rd annual Home Grown Food Summit!

Registration is open and FREE Tickets are now available. The Summit kicks off Monday, March 18th. And will run 24 hours a day, for 7 full days with 2 encore days. Get the BEST secrets for growing all your own food & medicine.

Sign-Up: Home Grown Food Summit – It’s Free and Online!

Educational Outreach Program

Are you ready to have some fresh greens in your life? One of the easiest and most tasty greens you can create right at home, in just a week is pea shoots. They are one of my favorites and are so easy to grow. Watch the instructional video How to Sprout Peas.

Great Deals!

We had such a great response to our High Performance Garden eBook Bundle sale last month. I am so glad that we have so many people wanting to grow their own food! We heard from some folks that they missed out because they were out of the country so we are repeating this sale one more time so you can get your ebook bundle before we start up the High Performance Garden show in a few weeks! This bundle will help you to understand more of what we are demonstrating in the High Performance Garden Show. All of us want our garden to be easy, fun, productive and the envy of the neighborhood. We dream of a garden full of beautiful vegetables, vine-ripened tomatoes, and aromatic basil.

In this ebook you will discover:

• How to grow like Mother Nature
• How to have a small but very productive garden
• How to grow disease and bug resistant plants
• How to plan your garden to get the food you want
• How to have a weed free garden
• How to have the garden of your dreams

Also included in this bundle:

Bonus #1 Gardener’s Guide to Perfect Soil: Learn to create the perfect garden soil that the plants love and will thrive in.

Bonus #2 Organic Bug & Critter Control Guide: This is the beginning of the end of those bugs and critters taking control of your garden. In this guide, you will learn the 8 techniques to diagnose problems in your garden and how to get rid of them.

Bonus #3 Easy Trellis & Cold Frame Guide: This is the best, easy to build, no tools, trellis system you will ever have. It is the one that we use in the High Performance Garden.

The ebook by itself is $19.95. We are offering the eBook plus 3 Bonuses for $14.95. Use this coupon code: START5 to get $5 off. The Coupon expires at midnight March 5, 2019. Go to eBook Bundle to get started!

High Performance Garden Show Countdown!

We are getting excited about the start of the new season of the High Performance Garden Show!

Here is what people are saying about it…

“This Garden Show is so amazing and helpful, thank you so much for doing it!! 🙂 Love to watch every week. Thanks for all your help and guidance always!” Morgan B.

“I am SO enjoying this class! Thank you so much. I have learned so much. I harvested 1.6# of the most awesome greens this morning!” Gretchen B.

The new Season Starts on March 20th! Very soon we will have our hands back in the dirt! Winter is a great time to watch the last 3 seasons to get your 2019 season started off right! You can watch the last 3 seasons right now. Go to the High Performance Garden Show page.

If you are already signed up, log into your account to watch.

See you in the garden!

Lynn

Do you like to start your own seeds? We would like to share with you some of our professional secrets for starting seeds indoors easily.

This is video 4 of “The Secret of Seeds Series” available for you watch for free!

Spring has officially started and so has the High Performance Garden Show 2018! Sign up for the show if you have not done so already.

It is free and online. Once you are there you can follow along with us in 2018 and you can watch the 2016 and 2017 years as well.

If you are signed up log in to you account to watch the first episode.

We have a fun and delicious line up for you this year. If this is the year you want to grow the garden of your dreams, join us as we show you everything that we do in our high performance garden.

Until next time may your garden be easy, fun productive and always organic.

Lynn

Spring is just around the corner and it is time to think about getting your garden started. Is this the year you are going to have your best garden ever? Most gardens fail and most gardeners struggle because they don’t have the fundamentals down. It is your education that prevents you from having amazing gardens. Once you learn the core fundamentals, you could grow a garden anywhere, anytime and be successful.  Set your goal on learning the fundamentals and watch your garden thrive.

In a High Performance Garden we have 12 garden characteristics that we strive for to have the most easy, fun and productive garden. These are the fundamentals that we use everyday to get the results that we want from our garden.

Here are the fundamentals that we work with in a High Performance Garden:

• In harmony with nature
• disease and insect resistant
• weed free
• very little time
• very little input
• few tools
• well planned
• succession planting
• extend the growing season
• utilize all the space
• creates huge yields
• fun

If you are wanting to elevate your gardening skills and learn the fundamentals sign up for our High Performance Garden Show.

It is FREE!

Next step is to get the High Performance ebook. It explains the 12 characteristics of the garden and how to apply them.

When considering growing a kids’ garden you will first need to find a good growing plan. Visit the library, or search online for a plan that is easy, doable, and enjoyable. As you and your child plan the garden, keep in mind your growing zone. Knowing this key information will help you to know what to plant and when to plant, according to the length of your growing season. Find your growing zone and plan accordingly with How to Plan Your Garden According to Your Region article. Once you have an idea of what you can grow and when to start, sit down with your kids and look at what they might want to grow.

To make it easy, I’ve included a list of some of the easiest (and most kid friendly) vegetables to grow, as well as some garden plans geared towards kids. Try these on for size!

The best vegetables to grow in a child’s garden are:

• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Lettuce
• Green beans
• Kale
• Swiss chard (we like rainbow chard!)
• Zucchini squash
• Summer squash
• Butternut squash
• Pumpkin

When looking at these gardening plans it is very important that your child has ownership of the project. This is their garden. Involve them in all of the planning and in the garden chores. It will make a garden victory that much more exciting when they have earned it themselves. To make sure that they don’t feel overwhelmed by the garden, keep it to 4 feet by 8 feet. This is big enough to grow 5 different plants but not so big that they grow tired taking care of it.

Kids’ Garden Plan #1

Kids’ Garden Plan #2

Kids’ Garden Plan #3

This basic garden plan is great for a kids’ garden plan. There are lots of colored vegetables that are sure to inspire them to eat their veggies.

Now that you have an idea of a plan, I want you to know the most critical step in developing your child’s garden. It’s finding an easy, fun and successful growing system.

You need a system that is productive and takes little effort. There are gardening systems that are easy and gardening systems that are hard. You want to get your kids into the easy gardening system. I start all my kids in a High Performance Garden System. This system is easy for parents who don’t have any gardening skills, either. This is a container garden system that starts with the perfect soil for vegetable plants; it is weed free and requires no rototiller.

To develop a High Performance Garden you will need just a little education. It took me decades to learn how to grow in a High Performance Garden System. I want to make learning easy and fast. I would love to invite you to the Abundance Garden Course; this online video course is the perfect tool for building a successful kid garden and a garden for the entire family.

In this video course get all of the support and education you need to have a successful garden. Learn more about what you get in the Abundance Garden Course in the video below or read more about it.

Another available resource is the High Performance Garden Show, which can be watched online, for free, any time. There are many tips and secrets that can be applied in your kids’ garden.

There are small decisions that we make every day that don’t affect the rest of our lives and then there are the big decisions that can affect the rest of our lives. Learning to grow a garden can be a big decision that can affect the rest of your child’s life. Learning to eat vegetables, grow something and being able to feed your family are all lifelong skills that can change the course of a life. Maybe it is time for you and your kids to get out in the dirt.