Making
the Most of All Your Resources (Using Whatcha Got!)
July 31, 2007
For all intents and purposes, my land is
really not suitable for farming. It is terrible. It wasn't always quite this
bad, but I have had years of really nasty stuff happen. The energy seemed to
get sucked out of everything. My soil is dead, hard clay, even though I have
poured organic material into my fields for almost two decades. Years of
drought, alternating with floods, plus all the other metaphysical stuff that
has gone on, took its toll. But, I am happy to report, all the perseverance I
have poured into my work of creating this farm is finally paying off, as the
planet's own energy has shifted, and I completed my spiritual goals.
And I have done things somewhat differently
this year, too. For one thing, I didn't plant anything before the beginning of
May (I start everything from seed.) I usually start kales, broccoli, cabbage—the
heartier stuff—much earlier, but then it sits in the greenhouse and either
bakes or freezes, while outside, the conditions are just not right until May or
June.
My farm is in a valley in a swamp. It is the
last to dry out and warm up. If I put plants out too early, they either rot or
just die, or, at best, don’t grow.
For several years in a row, I lost all my
tomato plants because I had a killing freeze on May 23. For several years in a
row, I replanted (from seed) my tomatoes, and amazingly, I found that the ones
I planted so late, actually grew faster, bigger, and healthier, than the ones I
started much earlier. Lesson learned. I now plant tomatoes in May and June. I
get a later crop than other farms, but I have healthy, productive plants, and
it works here, in my space. Go with
what works, I always say.
I have been continuously transplanting all
summer, so I will have a constant supply of produce, and it won't all come at
once. The first of my kohlrabi should be ready late this week. My Japanese
salad kales have been ready for about a week now, and all of my cooking kales
are also ready, along with collards, chard, and chicory. Mustard will come
next, so my cooking and salad greens will have different components each week.
I planted some new lettuces, and they will be ready when the others are done.
As I mentioned in a previous article, I decided
to use up all the old packets of leftover seed I have had from past years.
Because I plant so many varieties, I usually don't plant a large quantity of
any individual one, and, contrary to popular belief, seeds really do store
well. Even though some of these were very old, I got some pleasant surprises.
Cucumbers were one of them, and the first of
the harvest should be ready by the end of the week. I have lots of the very
popular French cornichons, Cool Breeze, plus a few Yellow Submarines germinated,
along with some Orient Express, Wisconsin SMR, and the novel Painted Serpent.
One of my big projects for the year has been
to build raised beds for my perennial herbs, flowers, and vegetables. I have
been hauling blocks from the foundation of the old barn, and there are still
tons to unearth. So far, I have dill and borage (which are self-seeding annual
herbs), parsley (a biennial), salad burnet and chives, both perennials, in
their permanent beds. I have one ready for lemon mint, a perennial, and I just
transplanted Florida Broadleaf mustard. Mustard is an annual, but self-seeds
profusely. It is actually hard to keep contained—I have it coming up all over
the place. The same with the Wild Garden Chicories, which I bought from
Territorial Seeds. They have become almost invasive, so I am preparing a
permanent bed for them, too. I also transferred my horseradish from a tub to a
permanent bed. If anyone needs fresh horseradish, or a plant, let me know. I
have tons of it.
One of the other reasons I am doing this is
for weeds control, and as a means to make my own soil. As I said, I have no
usable soil at this point on this farm. I grow everything by piling grass
clippings on the ground, and covering it with composted horse manure. The
plants go directly into that. While I can get away with direct-seeding large
seeded crops (like squash and sunflowers) using this method, it has been a
number of years since I have been able to plant stuff like carrots or turnips.
But the raised beds are allowing me to once
again grow a greater variety of crops. They actually begin as a tightly packed
area of grass clippings covered with a layer of compost or manure. The bed I
have in front of the greenhouse began that way, and after a few years of adding
leaves, kitchen garbage, and wood shavings from the cats' litter pans (no poop,
only urine), I now have rich loam that is virtually weed free. This year it
supports my gorgeous Orange Fantasia chard, plus a few beets, but next year,
the soil will be fine enough for carrots or another tiny-seeded crop. I am also
creating a similar environment using galvanized tubs and old wheel barrows to
grow lettuce, herbs, and other greens, plus some radishes. For more on that click here. For photos,
click here.
For the first time in several years, I am
tidying up my greenhouse so it is back in full production. I am in the process
of planting it now, as another season extender. Unless we have an unusually
cold fall, I can keep peppers and other tender crops going without artificial
heat until December. This year, I have two varieties of eggplant, four of
peppers, and burgundy okra, along with many different tomatoes, morning
glories, and herbs, plus some odds and ends.
The burgundy okra was another surprise
germination. The seed was quite old but the plants are healthy. Okra, by the
way, is in the same family as hibiscus. It is a similarly beautiful plant and
flower as hibiscus, with the added benefit of bearing a tasty fruit.
An even bigger surprise is the
Years ago, I did put in 100 rhubarb plants I
grew from seed. That was one of the years we had those terrible wash-out rains,
and my north field sat under water for weeks, killing almost every plant, and I
never replaced them. Now I plan to build a permanent raised bed for them.
Another problem I seem to have solved is the
weeds. One of the reasons I have had such a difficult time maintaining fertile
soil is because weeding, especially weeds with thick root balls, will pull up
the soil with the weeds. This year, I am not weeding, but thickly layering
grass clippings and other organic material directly on top of the weeds. It
smothers them, or at least slows them down, while creating more organic
material as the grass decomposes. If I do weed, the weeds get thrown onto one
of the many compost piles I have beside each of my fields. I began doing that
about three years ago, and now I have a rich supply of potting soil. I just
keep recycling what I can't use, and it all eventually breaks down into loam.
The tomato blocks is a project I started last
year. I am building rows of concrete blocks from the barn, in between which I
plant tomatoes. As they get laden with fruit, they rest on the blocks rather
than on the ground (with 700 tomato plants, I don't stake them). This worked very well last year, and I had much
less rot, slug and other critter damage, plus very good production. I also have
three varieties of container tomatoes growing in plastic pots. Container
tomatoes are compact, thick-stemmed plants.
I have made a point to water stuff nearly
every day during this dry period. Watering breaks down the organic nutrients in
the grass clipping and manure, and makes it readily available for the plants.
By using this method, crops will often grow two or three times faster than
normal.
While many of my crops are long term
producers, like kale, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes, other crops like
kohlrabi only produce one edible, then they are done. As they get harvested, I
have other stuff to go in their place, and what doesn't get replanted will get
organic material piled on top of it. I never have a shortage of grass clipping
and wood shavings. By next year, I hope to have much more useable loam.
None of these methods are particularly new to
me. I have been using creative methods to farm this land from day one. But what
is different this year is that everything seems to finally be coming together
in a productive way. And that equals a great harvest.
I hope many of you can come out to the farm
to see all that is going on, and to purchase some fresh, delicious organic
produce.
Copyright© 2007 by Laughing
Crow