Early Summer on the Farm
I was going to make my July newsletter a farm update but then I realized that I want to publish that here on the blog for my own records. It doesn’t look like much at this point but the amount of work that has gone into this season so far is wild. Now that everything is planted I will be able to slow down a tiny bit and put my energy into tending to it all. The tending part is a lot of work but it’s also a slower pace than the mad dash of planting and the soon to be harvest season. For now I’m grateful to be on the other side of planting season.
Our field is about an acre and a half divided into six plots and I’m slowly, section by section, transitioning all six sections to no-till. Above is section 4 (9500 square feet) where I’m growing my annual dye crops this year. I marked out and broad-forked 24 permanent 75’ beds which have been heavily composted and mulched with wood chips. All of the plants were transplanted with the exception of sunflowers, safflower, and calendula. I wish I had transplanted the safflower and calendula because I had terrible germination in the compost. I felt super behind as I spent the whole month digging, prepping, and transplanting but once all the plants were in the ground I realized that I wasn’t so behind after all. My transplants were big and healthy and did great despite the heat wave of high 90° days we were dealt. I can’t wait to see these flowers fill in this space. How magical it will be!
I used our tractor to load 3 wheelbarrows at a time with compost and wood chips. The compost was spread about 3” deep on the permanent beds and the wood chips are at least 8” deep in the walkways. I’ve moved what feels like mountains of compost and wood chips.
Above is section 3 in it’s current state. The entire filed was sowed in a cover crop of triticale last fall. The triticale was shoulder high the other day and Tommy and I crimped it with a T-post. I’m grateful he agreed to manually crimp with me which was quite a work out on a super hot day. He reminded me how easy it would be to knock it down by driving a machine over it but I really wanted to stick to my crimping plan. I’ll probably pull the silage tarps over this for a couple weeks to kill the bind weed and then we’ll sow a summer cover crop here. Next spring I’ll establish some permanent no-till beds here.
This is section 2 which is planted in potatoes, chiles, brassicas, and onions. This section was tilled because we’re still figuring out how to grow no-till potatoes and we’re still working on establishing permanent no-till beds. We might just have to keep two 10 row sections rotating between cover crop and potatoes that get tilled every other year so we can continue to grow a large amount of potatoes. To the left is plot 1 which was sown in a lush cover crop of hairy vetch which Tommy recently mowed. That plot will be planted in a summer cover crop of buckwheat this week.
Above is section 5 which is becoming my perennial dye garden. I just finished getting all the transplants in and can’t wait to see them grow and fill in this space. I planted a row of fava beans early in the spring which you can see flourishing on the left. On the right is a hedgerow of gooseberries. I hope to plant hedgerows between each section in time.
Section 6 is also becoming a perennial dye plant plot. On the right is madder root which desperately needs attention at the moment. In the middle is a row of dyer’s chamomile which didn’t survive the winter so I’m working on getting some transplants in there to reestablish it. My two greenhouses are being composted and mulched and will be planted in food crops for the farm stand. I was really hoping to have the farm stand up and running strong this year but the dye garden expansion has been much more work than I expected. I’m so relieved that everything is just about planted now. I haven’t had a day off in months and I’m very much looking forward to slowing down and enjoying watching the gardens grow and become.
