The days are slowly growing longer, and I am sure many of you are getting that gardening itch. This is the perfect time to dig your hands into the soil, but indoors!! With a simple shelving set up and shop lights, you can start your tomatoes, peppers, basil, and other “summer only” plants that require a long growing period. After planting the trays, make sure to place the shop light hanging just above the soil and slowly raise these lights as the plants grow. This will stop your plants from stretching and becoming too skinny and tall and thus failing due to a lack of strength in their main trunk. By slowly raising the lights, your plants will grow nice thick trunks that will stand tall in your gardens later in the season.
At Moonstruck Farms, we are doing the same as you, starting all our tomatoes and basil. We have decided to concentrate on the crops that grow strong here on our High Desert farm in the foothills of Phelan. Tomatoes, though late in the season, are a gorgeous crop for us in late summer and Fall, and basil, when grown under protection, provides us with gorgeous live basil plants to sell locally. In addition, of course, all the flowers seem to love it here, but we are narrowing down to the popular varieties that grow strong here, including all our bulb flowers such as daffodils, tulips, lilies, and more. In addition, sunflowers are a gorgeous crop for us, providing you with a variety of long-lasting sunflowers that come in colors you have never seen before. We also have multiple trays of hydroponic tulips rooting in the cool room to mimic winter in hopes of having gorgeous tulips in pots and cut flowers for the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday.
We are looking forward to a fantastic 2024 with you at the farmers markets! At the Phelan Farmers Market, the Market Match grant will continue throughout the 2024 year at $15 and then return to the $10 fruit and vegetable bonus to EBT customers starting in 2025. In addition, Phelan now has a new fruit farm providing a gorgeous line of citrus, including your favorite avocados. Both markets are still inside and outside the community centers, and you can find the Wrightwood Farmers Market every Friday, 3 pm to 6 pm, and the Phelan Farmers Market every Monday, 2 pm to 5 pm, at 4128 Warbler Road in Phelan. Thank you for your fantastic support in 2023, and we look forward to an even greater 2024!
