Farm Update from Farm Educator Kathryn: Planting has begun!

Harvest Green, Houston’s first farm-centric community, will soon be sprouting with fall crops such as spinach, radishes, cabbage and more! Read our latest farm update, plus scroll down to the bottom for a tip on how to easily rid your tomato plants of leaf-footed stink bug nymphs.

From Farm Educator Kathryn: This week, farmers have been busy planting fall seeds using a pneumatic seeder. The implement uses a vacuum system to plant vegetable seeds at a precise spacing and depth. 

The entire South Farm in front of the model homes has been planted and watered to kickstart germination. In the next few weeks, we will begin to see the rows fill out with chard, beets, spinach, radishes, cabbage, mustard greens, and kale. We will most likely have a small first harvest in about a month!

Keep your eye on the South Farm planting chart (located at the west side entrance to the South Farm) for indications as to where each crop is planted.

Planting will continue through the next week on the North Farm as weather allows.

For the next few weeks, you may see sprinklers out watering the freshly planted seeds.

We have also sectioned off the Farm Club plots and created walkways. Things will begin to roll pretty fast as soon as the parking lot is completed, so if you are interested in becoming a member of the Farm Club you can find more information and sign up at http://www.harvestgreentexas.com/farmclub.

Gardening tip: Pest Control

The little red-orange bugs pictured above are the leaf-footed stink bug babies. The babies are called nymphs and will be found in clusters on your tomato plants. The adults will be flying, dark-brown insects with a white stripe across their shoulder and are much more difficult to catch. These little guys can do some serious damage to the fruits; however, if you can catch them at the nymph stage, they are relatively easy to control. 

Place a ziplock bag close, under the cluster and gently shake the tomato vine (they will fall off quite easily). Once they are in your bag you can crush them and kill them. Crisis averted!