An exciting year for the gardens of HEEFS
/Growing much of our own fresh produce for our residents has always been the goal of our garden program, and each year we try to do a little bit more to be able to harvest a whole lot more! Because our pigs were introduced to forage feeding last summer, which means providing them with whole produce and reducing the amount of chopped fruit and veggies added to their meals, we are able to cut back the amount of garden space used to grow the produce for chopping and focus on whole fruit and veggies for our pigs to enjoy. (More on forage feeding to come in May’s newsletter!)
Go big!
New to the garden this year will be the addition of two large in-ground beds, which will enable us to add some larger items such as fall squash, pumpkin, and melons to our crop plan. These plants are BIG and need more space than the raised beds can provide. The in-ground beds, which use our automated irrigation system to save time and water, are the perfect home for these treats which our residents enjoy so much.
We are hoping to be able to harvest up to 2,000 pounds of produce this year from our planned crops of head lettuce, green and yellow zucchini, fall squash, cucumber, melons, swiss chard, carrots, bok choi, turnips and pumpkin. And, for our bunnies to enjoy we will also be planting leaf lettuce, kale, parsley, cress, and fennel.
