June Newsletter 7/2020 Edition #2   We hope you enjoyed our first newsletter. As always for the newest news and information visit us at www.root2seedonline.com . Here is what we have been up to and what to look forward to in July.   

Shop is Open The shop is open and we had our first customers! Thanks to all of you who have been shopping with us! Stay tuned for more items that will be added seasonally.   Summer Planning- What’s in store? We secured a certified kitchen and made our first batch of Strawberry Lavender Jam (for sale soon in the Root2Seed store). In July we will make two more jam varieties, and continue to harvest, harvest, harvest!  A Light Switch The Root2Seed team completed the planning for summer soap varieties (both citrus and floral varieties made with our own herbs). The summer blends are (Wake Up) La La Lemon, Perky Pink Grapefruit, Soothing Sweet Orange; (Calm Down) Lulling Lavender; (Be Well) Renaissance Rose, Jezebel Jasmine. For July, we will continue to release summer bath and body products.  The Hen Headlines: Delores, Harriette, and Penelope provided us with 8 square feet of chicken compost. That is about 4 large garden bags of soil. This will last us until fall when we may be ready to “cook” another batch.  

 

How is the garden growing: Of the 2 patches of garlic we had, we pulled up one to make room for what should be a large watermelon and a few pepper plants. That garlic is curing, and our hardneck garlic provided us with beautiful delicious scapes (pictured). Everyone got a good dose of the chicken compost and we mulched everything with shredded leaves from last fall. We have been growing some things in pots (hard sided and soft sided) to determine how they fair. So far the plants in the 

hard sided pots are doing well. The 1 gallon soft sided pots (mostly herbs) are not doing well, and we will not be using those again. However, our green beans in a 5 gallon soft sided pot are doing well. Our potager is growing as planned. Stay tuned for updates and please feel free to share your pictures on social media if you purchased our seedlings. We would love to see them!   Making Jam: We made multiple harvests of strawberries, and they are still coming, so we made jam. As you will see we were accompanied by Jimmy, The Jam Making Supervisor (pictured in each of the 3 photos, can you find him?) who helped us along the way.  

   Mystery Crop:  The acorn squash and lumina pumpkins are doing well. The first attempt at dwarf moringa ( in a large hard sided pot) did not go well, we replanted in the ground and haven’t given up.   

   What we are liking right now:  Each month we will point you in the direction of something we recommend or are liking. This month we chose harvesting our own local honey, which we use in many of our products. If you are interested in beekeeping check out our favorites page and learn more about Little Rhody Beekeeping.   This months to do list: 

● Be aware of the rainfall, plants need an inch of water per week.  ● Use preventative pest control. Be checking under leaves for signs of larva, keep 

the garden area weeded and free from debris, water appropriately.  ● Review problematic insects and plant disease pages in order to be preventative. ● Apply sunscreen, check for ticks, and be patient.  ● If you planted tomatoes, especially if you have a small growing area, it is 

important to trim suckers (pictured) from your plants to prevent unruly growth.    

   

Happy Growing!