Dog Days of Summer

August 31, 2021

The long, hot, busy summer on the Rural Studio Farm is finally starting to wind down toward autumn.

A student uses an oscillating hoe to weed between rows of pinkeye purple hull peas

With several of our recent graduates once again spending their summers here in Hale County, we have been experimenting with the timing and varieties for multiple crop cycles of summer favorites: tomatoes, squash, eggplant, sweet corn, and cherry tomatoes. The Sun Gold cherry tomatoes have been the biggest hit of the summer!

  • A female student harvest ripe Asian eggplant
  • A view of green looseleaf lettuce growing in a greenhouse bed
  • Watermelon vines winding across landscape fabric with ripening melons
  • A long shot of the greenhouse, showing several beds of multicolored salanova lettuce heads
  • Two students thin out pinkeye purple hull seedlings
  • A detailed shot of alternating red and green salanova lettuce heads in the greenhouse
  • Two students plant seeds into flats
  • Two students use the broadfork to prepare beds in spring for planting
  • A long shot of the farm with the distant figures of students bent over at various jobs
  • Three female students build concrete block-lined raised beds

We’ve been able to provide fresh produce for those students working over the summer (with extra to be preserved for the future) and still have some fresh for the students whose semester has just begun. We have also harvested mountains of pinkeye purple hull peas, garlic, onions, zucchini, peppers, melons, butternut squash, and many leafy brassicas.

  • Ripe blackberries dangle from the vine
  • Students arrange and process garlic heads
  • A view of green looseleaf lettuce growing in a greenhouse bed
  • A student mulches around newly transplanted onion seedlings with pine straw
  • Students dig up hard neck garlic plants and collect in a large tub
  • Students hand weed around some of the perennial herbs and flowers
  • A student rinses and processes newly harvest garlic
  • A crouching student digs up a mature garlic head
  • A view of the row of Asian eggplants which have just begun to fruit and flower
  • A student looks mock reverent as he clutches a recently harvested ripe tomato
  • A student picks the dirt off of a recently pulled garlic plant

This summer we added sweet corn and sweet potatoes to the crop rotation (more on these in future posts). The fresh sweet corn was a big success with two crops of fresh juicy corn. The sweet potatoes have also proven to be a great choice because we have been growing them in the greenhouse where few other crops are able to thrive during the long hot summers. They have performed so well that there is no longer any room to walk!

A long shot of the sea of sweet potato vines that has blanketed the inside of the greenhouse in palmate leaves
  • A close-up of celosia flower spikes
  • A close-up of an orange African marigold flower
  • A close-up of yellow canna flowers
  • A view of yarrow and other beneficial flowers and herbs in bloom
  • A close-up of pink yarrow flowers
  • A close-up of a pink gladiolus flower spike
Tags: , , , , , ,