Farm Update 12/26/2019

Farm Update 12/26/2019

Christmas has come and gone and with the closing of December we have seen record rain.  While temperatures have been moderate the amount of rainfall has been extraordinary.

What this means is the seasonal creek is flowing with a tremendous amount of water, the tea plants are sitting in a bit too much water and the ground in the garden is saturated. 

Yvonne transplanted a number of the tea plants to drier locations and with a few days of dry weather a significant amount of the surface water has abated.  It is my theory that when we drilled the holes and replaced the packed clay soil with more organic loam we gave the ground water avenues of escape.  The hope is that by the time the spring weather warms enough to bring the plants out of dormancy, the soil will have drained and dried out enough to not adversely affect the tea plants.

I have done some pruning on the maples and cherry trees and monitored the Japanese Garden for any possible problems.  So far all seems well in that area.  Starting today the day lengths are getting longer and it won’t be long before we are back to our northern long summer days.

Work on the torii gates will resume soon and I hope to have them installed by early spring. 

Both us wish all of you a grand holiday season and all the best in the coming year.