Sprout Farm newsletter June 14th 2025 sproutfarm.net open 9-5 daily

Hello Everyone.

We're so glad you're here to enjoy this beautiful Cape Cod weather with us. Every time the sun shines it comes with its own symphony of cicadas. For the 75% of you that don't have tinnitus just imagine a slightly higher pitch of cicada song, inside your head, day and night, for the rest of your life. After a few years of that, the cicada song is a nice little variety. We're seeing the cicadas a little more and they're flying in from the woods but there's not a lot for them to land on. So they land on us, occasionally, and we try not to react too strongly. Once every seventeen years is just about the best interval for us to endure the novelty. They should have finished their business around the end of June. The tourists will be wondering what all the fuss was about.

From Farmer Jay:

We've entered the season of clearance sales. The big yellow signs are up on rte. 28. Some of our specials are: Hanging baskets now ½ price, our 6 pack annuals just $2.99 and perennials are 40% off. You'll find other items with the same great savings. Jay is harvesting bulb fennel, carrots, beets and lettuce (lots of lettuce). The plants don't seem to mind the hot to cool temperatures so we keep planting. The cut flowers are doing well but sometimes those strong winds can push some flowers over and you have to start again. The zinnias have a double net over them so as they grow we'll keep the stems well supported.

We have a customer who says she is going to bring us 5 baby Guinea pigs to re-home. They will come equipped with a cage and other items. They aren't here yet but they are cute animals who love to eat grass. The fish pond liner still has a hole from where the otters ripped it so the water level is way down. James couldn't resist and he put four small koi into the pond. We're still thinking of a way to provide a protected place inside the pond that doesn't rip the liner but will protect fish from otters. It was a lot easier when we just had the concrete pond. It's still there, just under the liner.

You still won't see me too often up front. I'm still chasing weeds and with the hot temperatures catching up to my schedule I've started evening gardening. I can accomplish a lot of bed weeding when the sun is low down but I can't do the delicate work of weeding carrots in twilight. When I can see the fireflies twinkling, it's time to go in.

I'm including a link to a gardening website that proves they know what they're talking about. The main photo is of sugar snap peas, nice and round. I wish our pea crop was as bountiful as last year but the germination was not good and the weeds just took over. I'll see what we can salvage but it doesn't look good. There is a big difference between those flat supermarket snap peas and fat homegrown snap peas. It turns out the produce people believe people only want flat snaps so the stores just won't carry the fat ones, even though they keep fresh in the refrigerator for a long time.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/garden-by-region/northeast/june-planting-in-the-northeast.htm We are in zone six.

The Kitten report: No kittens yet. I dreaded earlier this week's letter. I hate reporting bad news and I was worried about Wheezie. She's started taking off at night and not showing up for days. She showed up for breakfast this morning after being gone for two full days. This is not good for my heart. I worry about her. It's like she knows what's coming and she's going off on these mini vacations while she can. Can you put a curfew on a cat? Everyone else knows enough to be home at 5:00 am for breakfast, why is she such a problem? At least no one has fleas, yet. We treated the rugs with Fleas Buster last year and it is still working. It's safe around pets and humans. We forget to use it because it works so well and so later we get caught in the cycle of fighting the problem with our pets. https://. https://fleabusters.com/product/fleabusters-rx-for-fleas-plus/

That's all the news for now. Stop by and help us out with our clearance sale.

We'll see you soon,

Jay and Phyllis Sprout