Whitsend Market Garden

Hello Everyone:  We hope you are all doing well and finding some fun and productivity in spite of everything.

Myself, I have had a bad day toiling over a very reluctant walk behind tractor.  Four years of machine shop lessons back in high school are not proving easy to access in the distant portions of my memory.

Most other days we are making some good headway at both farms.  Here, I am rehabilitating an old growing bed that was in an area inaccessible to the tractor.

After slicing through the turf, each square is getting turned over in preparation for field seeding.  Using some advice from Tom (my mentor from Elmtree), a lot of winter reading, and some plain logic, I'll be breaking this up using plants instead of machines.

Even if the tractor was working, using a tiller on this would have some negative results.  A tiller implement would break up the turf, but in doing so, would also compact the soil, kill frogs and other beneficial organisms, disrupt soil fungi networks and generally compact the soil.

Instead, I'll be planting annual field crops on the upturned sod.

Jackhammer radish:  A type of daikon that is not particularly edible but as the name suggests, will break though the clods of soil and loosen it up.  The roots will then decay and feed the soil with their nutrients.

Oats:  This crop is very effective at soaking up sunlight and converting it to nutrient that is useful for the soil biome. 

Peas:  This crop does both of the above, though not quite to the same effect.  It's tap roots will do some turf breaking and like all plants will also feed the soil.  In addition, peas (like beans and other leguminous plants) will fix nitrogen into a form that plants can use.

The rhubarb and asparagus beds are in a similar shape.  The plants are there, but the soil fertility is low and as a result the plants are barely producing leaves or stalks.

Unlike the garden pictured above, I have to work around the asparagus and rhubarb as I want to keep what is already there.

I'll be sowing the cover crops around the plants, using the broadfork to do some aerating, and applying some compost around the plants themselves.


For the final step, I'll place thick mulch around the rhubarb to suppress the remaining turf grass.  If all goes well, this bed will be producing some nice red stalks next year.








First, we crawled about trying to locate the plants, and placed stakes to ensure we didn't inadvertently cut them.  The plants were started several years ago by the previous owners and have since migrated somewhat, so are not necessarily in straight lines or evenly spaced anymore.

If you look carefully, you can see the outline of the original bed, directly in front of me and continuing beyond the bottom of the picture.

On the left side of the photo, you can see the main growing field that was plowed last fall.  A bit too big to do by hand...







And then more turn cutting, this time around the rhubarb plants - you can see the stake and a stick but the plant is not easily seen in this photo.

One thing I noticed as I flipped the turn are nematode worms.  I had never seen so many per square foot before and a quick check of our available literature did not indicate the visible differences between the good nematodes and the bad ones.

Either way, the daikon radish - as with many brassica crops - will give off a chemical which suppresses nematodes.

Eight hours of work, for approximately 20 of 60 rhubarb plants.  We'll stop at twenty for this season and continue this project next spring.

If I have time later this year, I might continue, but in my experience, cutting turf gets harder as the soil dries out into the summer and there are other tasks which require my attention in spring as well.

The A-frame was an acceptable place to overwinter the chickens, but as the days warmed, we wanted a safe place to allow outdoor access.

Uncertain of our permanent chicken arrangement, I opted for a temporary arrangement that could easily be dismantled and reassembled in a different location.

Using some old logs, chicken wire, nails removed from old fence posts, I fashioned five frames, fit them together and lashed them with rope.

The chickens favorite time of day is evening.  Julia lets them out and takes them for a walk.

They wander about pecking for seeds, weed and grass shoots and insects.  Lately, they typically head for the base of an old crab apple tree.

They are very perceptive, giving alarm calls and huddling together when large birds fly overhead, be it a pair of geese or one of the hawk species that frequent this area - red tailed hawks and the rare red shouldered hawk.

For no reason apparent to us, they will abruptly return to the A-frame and settle around the feed tray to eat.

During this time of social isolation, we have had a pair of visitors drop in.

Great source of manure, I wish an entire flock were here for a few days.  This photo was taken from way back by the house, through the fence.

This growing field will also get the cover crop treatment of peas, radish, and oats.  I'll speak more about this interesting project as he year progresses as there are a few other steps in the process and many interesting details.












Another long distance shot.  As I worked my way along the rhubarb bed, I noticed that a male robin was getting increasingly agitated.  After a bit of polite nosing about, I finally spotted the nest, tucked into the crook of a pine tree.

Fortunately, Cayley seems to be very busy supervising my work - just see the pictures - to be any bother to the birds.  Just in case, we make sure to provide lots of petting and attention when she gets mice and on the one occasion when she caught a sparrow, I took the bird, spoke to her with a scornful voice, and made that "expression" that cats seem to use to convey dislike, sort of a turned up nose look.


I wish tractors were that easy to train.