Category Archives: garden

Summer 2020

Summer has come and gone without a single post on this blog. That’s not too surprising, as summer is one of our busiest seasons and this summer seemed especially packed. We rearranged our business model, added in milk, took care of an elderly parent who had a fall and hosted our niece for two and a half months. All the while the garden grew, presented new challenges and fed our family. I decided to do a photo dump of our summer, since I don’t have the time to recapture it all. Summer 2020 will go down in the record books as strange and wonderful.

Pep

Preparing Spring Beds

Despite being February and technically still winter, it is spring here on the farm.
I love spring.
All summer long I am busy making compost, in “cold” piles and with the chickens but as much as I work to make as much compost as I can there is never enough.  Because of this and because we are adding 450 feet of market beds we purchased and had compost trucked in.
Last Fall we staked out the new garden.  Previous it had been a big pumpkin patch, but we needed to move it because of squash bug issue and I wanted my new market beds closer to the established garden area.  The pumpkins will go in the new, raw area, they are a good plant to break in a new place. We made each bed 30″ wide and 50′ long.
Not wanting to disturb the soil already there and not wanting to churn up weed seeds we are laying six inches of compost right on top of the soil and not mixing it in.  Well made compost can be planted directly in, it won’t be too hot. The isles will be planted with mini clover, that will help keep the weeds and dust down and when it is mowed we will rake the clippings right into the garden beds, and as the plants grow we will add mulch and cover crops.
I love this picture, it shows the steaming compost both in the pile and in the wheelbarrow.  This shows how well the microbe activity is, good healthy microbes mean good healthy soil. It is also nice on a cool morning to be able to warm up at the pile!

Our beds are all ready to go.  In about two weeks I will be starting seeds indoors to be planed out the first part of April.  The Peas will be direct seeded mid-march, carrots and beets will also be direct sown in April.

I am so excited for the season to begin!

Markers of Spring

For a lot of people crocuses, daffodils, blossoms, tulips are the first signs of spring.

Not me.
As soon as I can I am sticking my fingers in the dirt looking for two things:
Rhubarb and Comfrey.

Yes, Rhubarb and Comfrey are the very first plants that start showing themselves in my garden.  As soon as those red balls of crinkly rhubarb leaves start pushing up through the old, dead leaves of last summer I know that we have turned the corner. Sure we will have cold days and nights ahead, but the endless frozen days of winter are over.
And look what I found.
Rhubarb and Comfrey.
Welcome Spring.

The Joys of High Desert Farming

There are a couple of major hurdles we have when it comes to our Farming #realfarm in Eagle Mountain.  We are located in what is classified as the high desert.  The main native plants are sage brush, rabbit brush, and juniper trees.  We have to constantly fight water and soil fertility.

The vistas and views are breath taking, but trying to grow no native plants can be an issue.  The valley at one point was one of the largest producers of grain for the Lehi Roller Mills.  Farming can be done, but it does take some work and soil prep.

We recently started going to the farmers market in Eagle Mountain.   And we plan on doing it again next year, but want to increase our produce and product offering.  To accomplish this, we cleared almost another acre of our property to get ready to increase our production next year.

So we started the task of expanding our growing area as well as increasing soil fertility.  In the middle of it, we had an equipment issue.  Big Blue our trusty tractor had a tire issue.  Basically the rim on one of the big tires rusted through.  I was able to weld the rim, but now the tire will not take a seal.  There are a few options we have to get it fixed, but we also would like to buy different equipment.  So the repair is on hold while we figure out if we want to pay for repairing big blue, or buy new equipment.  Big blue is after all is almost as old as I am, he was born in 1972. (Side note, I think we will just buy a tube for this tire and use it instead of worrying about the seal.)

So we now need a different way to move manure from our neighbors property to ours.  We would run big blue between our property and theirs in the past.  That was an option that was not available right now.  We also need to get the manure and other things to help with soil fertility before the snow falls.

So, we rented a dump trailer (another one of the things we would like to purchase), hooked it up to the van and then started the process of loading it by hand and then dumping it in an area so we could use it to work the soil for the expansion for next year.

So I loaded the farm boys up in the van, hooked up the dump trailer and went over to the neighbors to move as much manure as possible.

We then spent a good chunk of the day loading the dump trailer, pulling it back to the farm and dumping it.  We were able to get 4 loads of manure.  One of our daughters helps the neighbor by mucking out their horse stalls every day.  So I left the trailer there and she filled it during her regular mucking activities.  We were able to get an additional 2 loads of manure using this method as well.

We will post later to let you know what exactly we are doing with 18 Cubic Yards of horse manure as we try to increase soil fertility and prepare for next years Farmers Market.

Bedding the Pumpkin Patch


We were really excited about our pumpkins this year.  I for one, love pumpkins and all their various shapes and sizes, I can never have to many.  They did fairly well at the farmers market this year, however we are planning a different marketing strategy for next season.

One of the biggest struggles with pumpkins, or any squash for that matter, is the squash bug.  It will take out a whole squash plant in one day and once you see the all too familiar wilting on your vine the plant is gone and so are all the pumpkins on that vine.  Then the buggers march on over to the next plant and before you know it your patch is ruined.  There are a few things you can do, but nothing is one hundred percent effective and the best plan is to be proactive from the very beginning, meaning the fall before you sow your pumpkins.

The year before we lost about half our pumpkins, this season we maybe lost a third and next season will be even better.  This year I was very vigilant, I would get up around 5:00 am and check under every leaf for eggs and bugs, scraping the eggs and destroying the bugs.  Any vines that showed the least bit of wilt were cut off at the base and thrown away, not composted, not fed to the animals, they were removed from the property.  I couldn’t chance a squash bug escaping back to the patch.
Our preparations for next season started this Saturday with a massive clean up. Squash bugs will hibernate in old plant debris, the spent vines, leaves and straw left on the garden.  This is problematic for me as a “compost in place, no-till, leave nature to do its job” kind of girl.  However the squash bugs had gotten so bad, it was time to re-think this philosophy a bit. We needed to pull up as many of the old vines as possible and dispose of them in a way that killed the over wintering bugs. We also needed to clean up the old plastic we used as a mulch for weeds.


Instead of composting or feeding them to animals all the vines were burned. There were too many vines to send out with the trash,  burning and then mixing the ashes in with the soil make me feel a little better about things.
Another thing that helps combat the hibernating bugs is a light till. I don’t loving tilling, in my research the soil does better when left to do what is does best, but I’ve also learned that a very light till can have some benefits and little of the draw backs. So Mike and the boys gave the whole patch a little fluffing, this brings the bugs up and exposes them to the elements and kills them.

And lastly, the pumpkin patch will be moved.  Rotation is very key and I am embarrassed to admit, I have never rotated pumpkins off this patch. This has always been a family garden so I didn’t manage it as carefully as I ought to have, but now that its a market garden rotation must be done with much thought and exactness. It is critical I get pumpkins off this bit of ground. The Pumpkin patch will be relocated and doubled in size to a new area that was cleared and prepared this summer.  The old pumpkin patch will have new market beds with some classics like peas, beans and carrots with a colorful twist, which I love.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Late this season, about the end of August I decided to experiment with a late planting of lettuce.  In the past I have kept my lettuce growing to the spring then quit when it got hot and the lettuce went bitter and bolted. If you live in a place where the summers get hot and you want lettuce throughout the summer you must do close succession planting. I just never bothered.  I was only planting a garden for my family, but my first summer as a market garden had me thinking a little differently about lettuce.

I wondered if I could plant a very late crop and be successful into October. At the end of August I planted seeds into soil blocks and tended and waited. after about two and a half weeks they were set out in the garden.  They did beautifully.  I was so excited watching them, anticipating sweet little heads of lettuce those last few weeks at market. We even successfully held them over through a hard freeze that took out the rest of the garden, by erecting temporarily tunnels covered with floating row cover and a thick blanket during the nights.

I had peeked at them a few times after they had been covered and everything looked so good. I felt my experiment had been successful and we would be able to do this again next season…fresh lettuce into October without a greenhouse.

Then I uncovered them and took a real close look. I first noticed it on the dark leaves and my heart sunk.  Little white exoskeletons, little aphids. Not only had my lettuce lived through the cold nights and hard freezes, but so had the aphids, and they thrived.
My beautiful crop of specialty romaine lettuce was a complete loss. While they will feed the rabbits and chickens, which in turn will feed the soil, I wanted them for market, and they are not fit to sell at market.

As always, everything is a learning experience.  I did learn that with a little effort we can grow lettuce into October and maybe even November in the garden without a greenhouse or hoop houses.  I also learned that pests will also extended their season in the nice warm shelters I create.  Next year we will experiment with organic pest control inside our mini hoop houses.

Cover Crops-Rye Grass

Using cover crops isn’t something I have done aggressively over the years.  I would use beans and peas in rotation and we’ve planted rye and clover in some areas. This will be the first season that we are going to be using cover crops extensively. I have had many hesitations, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to plant vigorous weed-like plants in the areas I am wanting to grow vegetables. Wouldn’t I just be creating a bigger mess? Why would I plant my own weeds?  The more I read and researched organic market gardening and regenerative agriculture it became clear to me that not only are cover crops beneficial, but in my situation they are essential.

“Green-manure crops help protect against erosion, retain nutrients that might other wise be leached from the soil, suppress the germination  and growth of weeds, cycle nutrients from the lower to the upper layers of the soil, and–in the case of legumes–leave to the following crop a considerable quantity of nitrogen.  Other contributions of a green manure are improved soil structure, additional organic matter, enhanced drought tolerance, and increased nutrient availability of plants” Eliot Coleman “New Organic Grower” p.63

So I tentatively took the plunge into cover cropping at the end of this season.  I began with planting clover in the rows between the beds.  Pretty simple and safe.  Then as I’ve posted about before I planed annual rye grass in the empty beds after they had been harvested.  Yes, I planted grass.  In my garden beds. Grass.  On purpose. I even under planted my winter kale with rye grass. I would be lying if I didn’t’ admit that every time I walk out into the garden my heart leaps a little as I see the grass  coming up and then have to remind myself I did that on purpose and this is a good thing.
So what do I do in the spring when it comes to planting time with beds full of rye?  It’s actually pretty simple. The rye gets mowed before it goes to seed.  I used an annual rye grass, meaning it only lives one season.  This next spring when we are ready to prepare the beds for planting the rye will be mowed down low and lightly turned in to the soil. This will add a lot of organic matter and create humus in the soil.

“Humus, the end product of organic-matter decay in the soil, is the key to good soil structure, nutrient availability, moisture supply, and the biological vitality of the soil.” Eliot Coleman “New Organic Gardner” p.64

I am excited to learn how to work cover crops into the market garden, this next season I will be adding more varieties and playing around with under sowing, something I will talk about more later.

Producing healthy food for my neighbors, food that nourishes them at the same time protecting, building and nourishing the land is very important to me and Mike. We hope and pray we will be able to do this well and for many years to come.

Putting the Garden to Bed

About a week ago we got one of our first really cold nights.  Technically we didn’t get below freezing, but I’ve come to learn over the years that our farm is in a little micro climate that is a few degrees cooler than homes that are only six hundred or so feet west of us or a couple miles north and south. That means when the night time temperatures are predicted to be in the low 40’s we can easily flirt with freezing temperatures. We didn’t have a hard freeze that night, other wise the whole garden would be black and dead, but we did get low enough to zap some of the pumpkin vines, the cucumbers and the green beans. I am sad about the cucumbers, we could have had a few more weeks with them, but I didn’t pay close enough attention and get them covered.  The green beans were on their way out already, the generally cooler temperatures had slowed production to almost nothing.  With that being the case it was time to put that bed to sleep for the winter.  I don’t like my beds to sit empty for long, I like quick turn around to give all the time I can to preparing for the next crop. (Sorry the pictures aren’t that great, the lighting was terrible and we were working quickly to get done before dark)

You can see the tops of the bushes are yellow and dead, those leaves got cold enough it killed them, the plant underneath are still alive, but all the blossoms dropped, indicating we are done with green beans for the season.

A close up of the frost zapped plants.

The first step to preparing the bed for the winter is to mow down the plants. Unless I find evidence of disease or insect infestation I never pull plants up, they are mowed down and left to compost in place. The roots will compost under the ground, nourishing it and feeding beneficial soil bacteria.

On the farm we use a “low” till method. We don’t regularly  till the soil and if we do its very light and shallow. Tilling disrupts the soils ecosystem, which is fragile and necessary, especially with organic gardening. Instead of tiling I will lightly aerate with a broad fork, pushing it in the soil and lifting slightly, I don’t dig anything up or turn it over. This allows oxygen, water and compost to filter a little more easily down into the soil and helps combat compaction. Ideally a healthy soil ecosystem accounts for those things, but we are still working on that!

After working the bed with a broad fork we add a nice layer of organic matter. I happened to use old leaves from last year. I have used old hay and straw, it doesn’t matter so much what it is, what matters is that organic matter is getting put down. Very soon the earthworms, rolly-pollies and other insects and microorganisms will get to work on those leaves, breaking them down and leaving a nice humus layer. This will help the soil retain water, stay fluffy for oxygenation and feed next years crop.

Over all the leaves we spread between 2-3 inches of compost. This black gold is home grown Quail Run compost made from old hay and bedding from the goats and rabbits, horse manure, leaves, grass clippings, comfrey, kitchen scraps and chickens. These were all piled in the chicken yard and the chicken spend about three weeks working it over, turning it and adding their contribution. This is the best compost, so rich and healthy. I’m always amazed that a few weeks ago this looked like a pile of dirty hay and now it looks and smells like rich soil. The compost will add to the richness of the soil and also aid in breaking down the leaf layer.

Finally after mowing, going over with the broad fork, adding organic matter and compost I was ready to seed for the cover crop. Leaving a bed bare could potentially make all my hard work go to waste. Wind, freezing tempratures, heavy rain can all wash away and break down the soil layers. A cover crop keeps that all in place. A cover crop will also add to the organic matter in the bed come spring time when it is mowed and lightly tilled in, cover crops will also add certain nutrients to the soil. I am planting rye grass and winter rye, both will germinate and grow until everything freezes soil for several days, it will then stay dormant until the early spring and then pick right back up, it will be ready for mowing just before planting time. I finished raking the compost and sowing the cover crop by head lamp.

Here is the bed a day or two later. Now the fun part: watching for little rye sprouts!

 

Pumpkins

Autumn is one of my most favorite times of the year.  I most likely say that at the beginning of every new season, I am glad to live in an area of the world where I get to have four seasons, I like the variety and anticipation that each season brings. That being said, Autumn is one of my favorites, I don’t tire of it quickly and I love the cool nights, the harvest, the fall colors, snuggling in front of the first fire of the season.  Its such a lovely time of year. I must confess another reason I love autumn is my love affair with pumpkins. Seriously they are the mostly beautiful and interesting of all vegetables.  I love the typical jack-o-lantern style and I love the old heirloom varieties, the kind that people have been growing in France for five hundred years.  I love them all.  I have to restrain myself every spring as I plan and plant my garden so I don’t plant too    many.  I so enjoy pumpkins.

 

This year I didn’t feel  as bad about  all the pumpkins I planted, we were able to share them with people at market, and let them enjoy the variety and take them home to love too. How can you not love a pumpkin that is green and pinky/orange mottled? Or one whose ridges are so deep and defined it looks like it came right out of mid evil Europe?

Having a nice harvest of good pumpkins speaks to an old part of my soul, the lingering part from my ancestors that would have looked upon those pumpkins and known they would be eating well over the cold winter. That the bright oranges and greens would have been refreshing for the eyes during the dark winter months. As these beautiful pumpkins adore my table, my front porch and eventually feed my family and farm animals I can’t help but feel as if I’m tapping into days long past.

Cover Crops


Using cover crops is an important part of regenerative agriculture, permaculture and organic gardening. Winter rye is an excellent cover crop this time of year, it loves the cold and will contunie to grow, even when temperatures reach below freezing. Its growth slows down considerably when the days get shorter, and goes into a hibernation mode, then picks right back up as the spring days get longer and warmer, completing its life cycle in time for market crops to be planted.

Rye has several advantages beyond its ability to grow in the cool fall and spring weather.  It creates considerable biomass, I always love the biomass, and mowed in the spring acts as a mulch, keeping in moisture and making it harder for weed seeds to germinate. Once the rye is mowed down the roots will start to decompose adding organic matter and nutrients right into the soil, where it is needed.  Rye can bind nitrogen, making it harder for market crops to access, but adding a legume with the rye helps that.  This year we aren’t set up to add clover or vetch, instead we will add blood meal or fish emulsion come spring to help with nitrogen deficiency, we will also sow clover this spring.

Rye can easily take over other, small seeded plants when planted at the same time.  This is one advantage to starting seeds separately. The kale shown at the top was planted before the carrots were harvested, able to grown nice and big and then given a week in the ground before the rye was planted.  That gave the kale three weeks head start before the rye needed to be sown and we didn’t have to rush the carrots. The kale will have no problem growing among the rye, where as if they had started as seeds at the same time the rye would have quickly over taken the smaller and slower rye.