Spring Farm
I haven’t posted in a while! I had a series of projects that had to be prioritized before I could designate time for anything else and I’m finally on the other side of it all. Taxes, a seasonal cold, a poor commission quilt that had been languishing for too long, prep work for my upcoming workshop at Sanborn Mills Farm that’s creeping up, and taking photos and listing a quilt I finished months ago. Done done and all done I am proud and grateful to say. Spring farm work comes first before anything else though of course. Everything farm related is perishable and cannot be set aside for another time. There’s no option but to keep up with it, and to be thorough. I’ve taken a big deep dive the past several months intensely studying no-till farming. We’ve always been as minimal as possible with our tillage and have had a couple try’s at no-till with little success. I’m going for another try this season and feel more confident we’ll succeed thanks to the amazing authors and YouTubers who’ve shared their successes and failures. The Living Soil Handbook by Jesse Frost and his YouTube channel, and the book The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm by Daniel Mays have been particularly inspiring and helpful. Anyways, I wanted to take this time to share some peeks of spring on our farm. Tending to soil and plants is where my heart is. I hope to get back into the flow of posting regularly again now that the aforementioned tasks are complete.
Above is the one and a quarter acre field where we grow most of our crops. The entire field is currently sown to a cover crop of triticale with vetch in some plots. There are six sections within, all of which will be transformed to permanent beds this summer. We will grow crops in roughly half the field and various rotating cover crops in the other half. The triticale has hit the stage where it’s putting on noticeable growth every day. Soon I will mow my dye flower section and put a tarp over it to terminate the cover crop to make way for dye plants. I’m going big on transplants this year and pretty minimal on direct seeding as I learn the no-till ways.
The triticale cover crop doesn’t look very tall until I see the dogs standing in it. In a week it will likely be over their heads.
Tommy working on an irrigation project so we can move water with gravity instead of an expensive pump.
In late February I sowed cover crops of peas in the beds and oats in the walkways of my two small high tunnels. It’s normally dead-ville in the hoops at this time of year so it feels amazing to see these plants photosynthesizing and nourishing the soil. These cover crops will be terminated in June to make way for flowers.
This is slowly becoming my perennial dye garden. I love how mature perennials are self mulching. Between the strips of triticale cover crop on the right, you can see 3rd year madder root sprouting up through its own leaf mulch it dropped over the winter. On the left is a row of 3rd year dyer’s chamomile. I broke off last year’s branches and used them to mulch it. I’ll let the triticale grow to its milk stage and then crimp it, tarp it for a few days and transplant some rows of new perennial dye plants in it.
The spring greens I planted in late February are thriving. We’ve been enjoying eating them and hope to stock our farm stand really soon! Spread the word if you’re local. We will be back to stocking the farm stand with fresh produce regularly every Friday throughout this season.
Tommy is cooking up some big piles of compost. This one is almost finished and will be spread on many beds this season.
I often share images of the side view of my studio but this is the south facing front of it. I’m slowly working on expanding the cactus and xeriscaped garden to this side. The little cactus garden on the west side is so special.
Garlic! And a view from the back pond area looking west from the compost making area. Pond to the right (see photo below).
The irrigation pond. We planted all these willows as tiny saplings 20 years ago. This pond was nothing but a raw hole in the ground back then. After two decades of planting and tending this land and soil, every corner I turn I bear witness to the positive impact humans are capable of.
Our chile peppers and other plants that have outgrown our indoor grow space. This little insulated greenhouse will be filling up this week as I transplant all my flower starts to bigger pots.
This is where I’ll leave you for tonight. We’re working on a renovation project in the barn so we don’t currently have a potting bench. I’m making do with a pile of fans and an old door as a table in a corner of our greenhouse. It’s a fine enough set up to get the job done. I’ve spent many hours here planting and transplanting flower and food seedlings. I’m so excited to see everything grow this year but I’m also thoroughly enjoying being here now in this incredible season of ripe potential and fresh beginnings.
