Updates from the New Farm: Cover Cropping the Land

These April days are some of the most beautiful days I have ever seen! I was at the new farm and happy to take some photos of the progress.

Above, you can see our future peony field up against the treeline. The little piles are old high tunnels that were there when we got the property. They were in bad shape, so we took them down. We’ll salvage the pieces that are still good and rebuild them somewhere else.

As you can see, there’s a good bit of grade change on the property. For flowers, that’s OK. It means we’ll plant annuals and other labor intensive production crops in the flat spots and use the slopes for perennials, shrubs and other crops that don’t need as much access. For example, our hydrangeas will love a bed on a slope with lots of room to spread out.

Slopes can also be terraced. These terraces were already in place when we got the property, and after some handwringing from me because they could be so much better, we decided to use them as is. Yes, I sometimes make the perfect the enemy of the good. I have to break the habit because there’s a lot on this property that isn’t perfect!

On these terraces, we’ll install our unheated high tunnels. They are very long — 600 feet long in fact. We’ll probably use the first 400 feet for tunnels, and we’ll work to remediate the back part, where there are erosion and soil issues.

Our primary annual field, above, has been plowed, disced and cover cropped in clover. The clover is beginning to germinate, and it will help us build healthy soil this summer!

We’ll begin planting this field in fall, but we’ll still have space here in the spring. It’s a spacious field! About 2.5 acres.

I know the plants below don’t look like much now, but for me, it’s really exciting to see them growing. These are our first plantings at the new farm! Soon, they’ll be lush and full, holding soil in place, increasing nutrient availability and crowding out weeds.

I’ve done very little of this work myself, which kills me. I’m so happy we can have a crew who can handle it, and of course, I’m with them every step of the way. I’m just physically doing other things.

We got a couple of new tractor implements this month, and I haven’t used them. I’m not even that proficient in them. I was telling the farmers, Melissa, Jeffrey and Wren, how weird that felt to get these tools without knowing how they work. I said, “Jeffrey is using them. Melissa purchased them, and I, what do I do?”

“You pay for them,” Jeffrey said.

And it’s true. I figure out how to make sales, stay on budget and pay the bills. Ah, the life of the small business owner. Success means creating the job you wanted for other people.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m very happy with what I do for a living. This new project fills me with hope and excitement! However, I think it’s important to adequately represent how many people are needed to pull off a project this big! I’m just one of many.