Monday, June 8, 2015

Why I plow my rows parallel to the road.

I'm sure you've all had the experience of driving and seeing perfectly straight rows of crops or trees, all even and tidy. It's a stunning sight. But now one we have at the farm. We're a beginning teaching farm so I'm less worried about straight rows and more worried that people learn and have fun. Consequently, I plant all my rows
parallel to the road so that nobody knows how wonky they are but me. Here's the view from my bedroom window, they're are a great example. One of our wwoofers was learning how to use the single plow on the ride-on tractor and as you can see, they got better with each row, lol. The straight rows do actually serve a purpose. They're used for controlling run-off after a storm of for ease of tilling and weeding. But mine are straight enough and I'll keep letting people learn how to plow on the ride-on tractor. Even if my rows do look like someone was attacked by birds while driving, lol!

We're past the first full moon in June so now we're safe for above ground crops. The rows of potatoes pictured above should be covered in little leaves in another week or so and the beans, peas, carrots and other veggies will poke their first leaves through the soil so it actually looks like we've done work. There's a faint green haze all over the fields right now but I know it's just the annual weeds making themselves known. It will soon be time to get the hoe out and go to do battle. I still have a lot of planting to get done, and successions to plan. The tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse need constant care and re-potting too so there's never a dull moment. I think the next major crops to get in the ground are the melons, squash, carrots and marigolds, tomatoes and peppers. Maybe some cucumbers too. Oh, and Kerwin from the feed store gave me a huge sack of half rotten seed onions to salvage so I'll get as many of those planted as I can too. Plus I'm working on the flower garden at the moment as well. Too many chores, not enough time.

Right now I have to head out for a community meeting so I'll sign off for the day. Hope you're all having good weather.

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