Last season we talked about removing the plastic from the hoop house. It had given us 6 great seasons and was showing wear and tear, plus I wanted to flush out the soil under plastic with a good soaking rain and a season of snow. The more we discussed it, the more we liked the […]
In 2011, we built a 12′ x 20′ hoop house. Over the years the plastic has weathered and at the end of this season we took the plastic off. Since we were doing that, we decided to move the entire structure to our house and extend it to make it bigger. Below are some pics […]
We thought it was a goner, but the kale came back (not quite) the very next day. Earlier this summer we had a beautiful kale bed. We started seeds in the spring, transplanted and covered with ProtekNet bug netting. Once mature, we uncovered it to facilitate weekly harvesting. We managed to get several harvests out […]
It’s starting to look a lot like fall here (even if it doesn’t feel like fall yet). In the spring, we started pumpkin seedlings in the basement. Almost 4 months later, we have legitimate pumpkins! We transplanted these into the hugelkultur beds and they took off. Despite some early warning signs of squash vine borer activity, […]
I’m not entirely sure what we did right this season, but the beets have been amazing. Somehow we got our succession planting down with this crop and have had a steady supply for markets since 4th of July. I’ve never been a huge fan of beets (I do love the greens, though), but this year […]
A couple years ago we put a hugelkultur bed in our backyard and last year we added another one. Hugelkultur is a raised bed made of wooden branches, logs, rotted wood, grass clippings, leaves and other natural debris. We covered ours with soil and planted right in it. So far so good! We usually plant […]
It’s been a hot and dry summer so far. June registered about an inch of rain all month and July so far has about the same with the average temperature being in the low 80s. That has meant a lot of watering and shade cloth over our lettuce. The jury is still out on this […]
After a couple weeks of high 70s to low 80s, we’re back to spring-like weather and I’m loving it! The farm looks really super after a recent rain. Everything, including the weeds, is growing. The weeds are more out of control than I’d have hoped and certainly more than I like, but my new part-time […]
This isn’t the first article I’ve read about the future of farm mechanization using smaller specialized robot systems, but I’m torn about the idea of robots on the farm. I’m encouraged by the smashing of the idea of “go big or go home” (or whatever Earl Lauer Butz said). My personal experience with farming leads me to believe […]
Despite snow last weekend, it is indeed spring and that can only mean one thing on the farm – time for bed prep! Last year we read The Market Gardener by Jean-Martin Fortier. One of the tips in that book involves covering the beds with black tarps to kill the weeds while maintaining all the beneficial microorganisms […]