Eighty percent of the work of enjoying a successful garden is in the soil preparation. We all have heard of the N-P-K numbers referring to the amount of nutrients in the soil, but the structure of the soil is just as important especially here in our arid High Desert Home. Creating humus in your soil by adding compost or growing cover crops you not only are adding nutrients, but you are also creating a spongy soil that will hold in water and distribute it evenly. The High Desert varies greatly from sandy soil where the water runs right through past the plants to clay soil that does not drain and clogs up the release of nutrients. In our previous home I had a small garden on one side of the yard, and the rest was grass. After five years of adding compost, manures and just burying my kitchen scraps into the rows each day the garden area stood almost a foot taller than the grass. This was all due to humus. It can be as easy as just burying your kitchen scraps each day in your garden plots.
The trees are ALL in bloom at Moonstruck, but I am very nervous about the fruit season. The Fall was very dry, and we really did not have much winter to provide chill requirements for a lot of our fruit. I am hoping we squeezed in enough hours for a good season, but only time will tell. The Spring flowers of course came on all at once due to the heat wave, and it was a battle to cut what we could before they burned up with many of the daffodils not making it due to the heat or simply going “blind” which means the flowers came up and then aborted not blooming due to the shock. I am following Mother Nature’s lead though and I have already started summer flowers which I would never imagined doing in March before. The weather forecasts are for a Super El Nino starting mid-summer, which means more humidity and rain, and that is great news for me and the flowers and plants.
Both local farmers markets are open year around. You will find the Phelan Certified Farmers Market inside and outside the Phelan Community Center at 4128 Warbler Road in Phelan and is currently open 2 pm to 6 pm. The Phelan Certified Farmers Market accepts EBT and is a Market Match partner gifting up to $15 in free farm fresh produce to our EBT customers each Monday. Watch The Phelan Farmers Market Instagram and Facebook pages for the monthly raffle and other events. The Wrightwood Certified Farmers Market is now outdoors in the Wrightwood Community Center Parking lot 3 pm to 6 pm.
