Thinking Ahead

One of the joys of farming is the mental exercise. Whether it’s fashioning a fence from leftover wood scraps, investigating pest damage to plants, or coming up with creative ways to use leftovers from the harvest, there is a decidedly intellectual aspect to this enterprise.

As summer draws to a close and the vines start to whither, I can say we have amassed a trove of data to use to prepare for next season. Collecting data for analysis is right up my alley 😉.

We’re in the process of preparing approximately 2500 sq ft. for planting next spring. This is fully half of the area enclosed by our fence, which by the way successfully kept the deer at bay this year (knock on wood for next year!). This is also about twice the area we farmed this year.

We’re laying down cardboard, six inches of compost, and another 3-6 inches of wood chips. Based on our garden plot preparation last year, which resulted in an atrocious weed situation, we’ve doubled the thickness of the soil and wood chip layers. God willing we’ll have fertile soil in which to plant, and minimal weeds.

We’ve also added four raised beds, which allows us to control the soil type better for crops that prefer different soil. In this case, we supplemented the beds with sand and are growing late summer / fall vegetables that prefer sandier soil: carrots, turnips, potatoes, red beets, lettuce, and broccoli.

Take a look at this video for the in-progress action. We’re hoping to see you at our farmstand in the near future; that is, as soon as I build it 😁.