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Market Gardener

Started a blog for our Farm and update....

jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)

14 years ago

I am doing much better after my surgery on my foot. Everything is healing nicely, IMO!

Well my wife has been helping me plant everything during the last week. Since she is getting involved with my garden this year, she decided to start a blog. She wanted to get all the family involved. My oldest daughter has been taking the pictures, which she loves.

Check it out if you want.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: High Farming Blog

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Comments (9)

myfamilysfarm
14 years ago
I'm glad you're doing well and not going stark raving nuts.

It's good when the family gets involved, no matter what the age. I found out that the 2 older grandkids that live next door (just down the lane) remembered more than I expected them to do. We were transplanting peppers into 4" pots from plug trays. I asked if they remembered how to do it, and they said yes, so I let them transplant 1 and both of them done just fine. They're 5 and 8. the 2 year old is still learning, but she can transplant tomatoes without breaking them. She still needs to be supervised some.
berry-nut
14 years ago
Good for you Jay! Glad things are OK. Enjoy your posts and pics, I'll check out your blog.

Here's to a speedy recovery,
Jake
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tulsacityfarmer
14 years ago
A great place for farm blogs, is to register your farm with "Local Harvest" and do your blog for free.
boulderbelt
14 years ago
The local harvest blog is not nearly as good as Blogger or the others out there. The LH folk love to limit what we can post to their site as far as HTML, pictures, video, etc is concerned. I have had a listing (http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M330) the entire time LH has been around (okay I did not find them until they had been up and running for 2 weeks). I do have a blog at LH but I far prefer my "real" blog http://www.boulderbelt.blogspot.com.

The other thing I use is Face Book. I have a fan page and this is generating a lot of business for me. I find this far more effective than Local Harvest listings as I have a lot of interaction with the Boulder Belt Eco-Farm Fans
pitterpat_2009
14 years ago
Tell me more!
I have a web site and might like to do a blog to let folks know what we will be bringing to market.
I don't know how to set up a blog.
I have to do more research about face book.
PP
boulderbelt
14 years ago
PP

blogs are easy. I have mine via blogger (a Google company). There are others such as wordpress which a lot of people seem to love and there are other blog platforms out there. All are easy to deal with (you do not have to know html or anything).

I use my website to list what I have available and prices, among other things.

I use my blog to tell my story, post photos and video. I also use it for how too articles and other topics near and dear to me.

I use facebook to give subscribers/fans random updates about what is going such as planted 1000 onion seedling this afternoon...I also post photos and other things and engage with my fans, a lot. this is by far the newest platform I have used for marketing and it seems awful powerful. And it is free (as is the blog. The website costs $30 annually for the Domain name and $5 a month to keep it ad free)

I also have the local harvest page but I don't get a lot of business from LH, though some people do thousands of dollars a month via LH (but most do not). But it is free and a lot of people do look at my listing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blogspot sign-up/start page
brookw_gw
14 years ago
Jay and family,

Good to see you back. Hope your recovery is speedier than expected. Loved your blog. It is wonderful to see family helping out. Between school and work, my kids can't help much, but it sure is wonderful when they do.

I just registered last week with Local Harvest and already had a contact within one day. By next year, I hope to have a website. I also generate a lot of business by handing out lots of business cards.

Boy, I sure do envy that dry dirt. Hope you have a great year.

Brook
joe-il
14 years ago
Love the blog! Sorry to hear about your foot. Your blessed to have such a fine family!

You inspired me to build my own high tunnel. 18x44 ft. Have 55 toms in it 60 some peppers 3 zukes.Planted April 2. May 15 is my frost free date. We are having an exceptional spring here. Going down to 28 tonite, I put some row cover over them. I think/ hoping they will be ok. More zukes, cukes and a few melons going in next weekend.

Thanks again Jay for all the info and pics you put up!

Joe
jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author
14 years ago
Joe, I am so happy to hear you have made the jump! You won't regret it! 28 with row cover, you will be fine! It is around 25 when I start to get worried. Also watch the wind and clouds. A real windy night is worse than a calm still night.

I have 100 big tomatoes, 56 cherry tomatoes, 192 broccoli, potatoes, carrots, spinach, radishes, onions, beets, chard, lettuce all planted in tunnels. I will be putting out 200 peppers this weekend. I have another 35 tomatoes to plant in a small tunnel. I have 100 zucchini and 100 cucumbers to go out in 2 weeks. I will transplant my hanging baskets this weekend too! I am planning on another 100 of them. I also have 500 tomato starts and 200 peppers for sale.

I would love to see any pictures. If you have time, please share!

Jay

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