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Trying Out Barley!

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This year for the first time Dave decided on planting Barley! He selected Thoroughbred Barley which is a 6-row barley know for its  its high yield qualities and its high straw strength. Thoroughbred Barley may be known in other parts of the country as winter barley because of its known suitability for the winter weather of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern Regions of the United States. The Plot we picked out for it was the old cut flowers plot next to the High Tunnel. This area is about 1,500 sq. ft. which is plenty of space for planting the barley. Over the course of the winter months here in Anne Arundel County we received moderate snowfall and cold temperatures but the barley was able to continue its growth through that time after ebing planted in October of 2024. Other than occasional fertilization for additional nutrients the Barley was left on its own accord to grow. Eventually towards the end of March and early April the barley began the most notable growth. It continued to ...
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From Young Rye to Big Vegetables

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Starting in the Winter of 2024, we have been quite busy. Dave and Brian worked on planting a Rye cover crop. They used a mix of techniques to plant the vegetables from using the tractor to strip till and seeding to using hand tools and hand spreading. In order to use te tractor Dave had to retrofit the tractor with the help of Brian so the tractor was able to pull a tiller that only tilled a small row of rye. After the plants were seeded they stayed dormant until late may when they really started to poke out of the ground. During that time we had some issues with the weather not cooperating and a groundhog eating some of our crops. But Dave and Mike were able to reseed the cantaloups, watermelons, and pumpkins that were struggling. The weather turned in our favor and the seedling exploded out of the ground with the help of rain and hot weather. Looking back we have had very good progess from when Dave was first tilling and planting the Rye cover crop to now with the vegetables and pump...
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A New Year and New Plans

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 A year has past and a new intern has arrived. The new Intern Mike Ribblett is a University of Maryland student studying Ornamental Horticulture. Mike is helping out Dave and learnering from Dave all there is to know about Urban Farming on the AAUFRC. Since Mike's arrival (and our last blog post) many things have been happening. We updated our plan for this years Planting experience and here is what we are working with so far! The first course of action for this year was moving our electric fence. We moved it to be around the entire planting area so it now covers the rows of mixed vegatables and pumpkinks and gourds. We had some issues with a not-so-friendly ground hog and a pack of deer which caused us to move our electric fence to keep out the pests. Here is Mike putting out and testing the new section of electric fence so that way we know it works.
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We planted the crops in our hightunnel for this year! We have Jalapenos, Poblanos, Habaneros, and Lunchbox Mix peppers. We also have different varieties of tomatoes, oregano, basil, dill, eggplant, and chamomile.
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