Laughing Stock Farm, Freeport, Maine

April 2003

April is the first full month of spring.  Because it is still early, it shows a mix of winter and summer activities. These photos were taken during the last week of April. 

Indoors

The indoor activities are a mix of starting seedlings for the farm, finishing the winter greens, and setting the tomatoes for the summer. 

Seedlings - We begin starting the seedlings for our farm in February.  The process continues until July so that we have what we need, when we need it, to keep all our customers well supplied with what they need.

Greenhouse Greens - The winter growing continues until the greens are well established outside, usually in June.  During this time we have a mix of older stands and new plantings as shown below.  We start to see the weeds again during April.  It's usually too cold for most them to germinate during winter.

Tomatoes - We grow most of our tomatoes in the greenhouses during the summer.  These are some of the first seedlings we start.  As the greens wind down, we begin transplanting the tomatoes into the empty rows.  As you can see below, some of the cherry tomatoes already have flowers, but this is really a time for the plants to get established in their new home.

Outdoors

The outdoor activities depend on keeping a close eye on the weather.  The ground is still full of moisture left over from the winter, so the "April Showers" tend to make the fields too wet to drive on and till.  If you are careful, though, you can always find dry times that allow the first applications of soil amendments, tilling, seeding, or setting seedlings.

Herbs - The perennial herbs worried us a bit after the extended and extreme cold of this past winter.  As you can see the chives and sage came through wonderfully.  Almost everything did fine, although we did lose some thyme and rosemary where it was more exposed to the cold.

Field Crops - April is when the outdoor planting starts.  We transplant about 3000 lettuce plants of different varieties every two weeks from the middle of April through the beginning of September.  These are harvested twice a week all summer.  This planting schedule allows us to have lettuce in its peak condition from the middle of June until the middle of October.   

Killdeer - This is one of our spring friends.  We usually have one or two nesting pairs of killdeer somewhere on the farm in the spring.  This picture doesn't show it well, but she is guarding four eggs which will hatch sometime in May.  Although they are classified as a "shorebird" they like plowed fields, golf courses, and grasslands from coast to coast.  We have enough acreage that we can avoid the nest area until later in the summer when the chicks are fully mobile.  To guard the nest, one of the adults will feign injury as we approach to lead us away from the nest, but once the chicks are hatched and on their own they get used to us.  By early summer they look forward to the tilling and cultivating so they can follow us around and feast on what turns up.  When they hear the tractor start, they come running.  The family will spend the whole summer with us. 

Peonies - We grow peonies for cut flowers.  At present we have roughly 1,100 producing plants and another 1,000 or so coming along.  Most of these plants are red, pink, and white heirloom varieties that were collected by Ralph's grandfather from all over New England from the 1920's until his death in 1968.  The peonies start to emerge in mid April, but don't get serious until mid May.  This is a good time to cultivate in between the rows to prevent the early weeds from getting too strong a hold.  Growing peonies organically is very labor intensive.  We cultivate a lot in both directions where most commercial growers use herbicides to keep the stand open.  There will be a page dedicated to our peonies by late May. 

Send mail to lisa@laughingstockfarm.com with questions or comments about our farm

Send to ralph@rturner.com with questions or comments about our energy project. 

Copyright 2008, Laughing Stock Farm
Last modified: February 01, 2008