Whitsend Market Garden

 Hello Everyone:

Apologies for not making time for news about your food and how it is growing...

There are no end of details to relate about the farm that many of you will find interesting.

Most plans are proceeding as expected.  Some slower than others.  A couple of setbacks, and a few unexpected successes.

Our sales are closed...we have enough CSA customers for the season.  There may be surplus produce and or products as the summer continues.  More details to follow, 

Double checking the plans...this was taken very early in spring as I was making my final plans for a last seed purchase for the year.

Julia and I are planting extra flowers for the bees.  

At some point, Cayley found the seat vacated and gave our planning a final check as well.  More catnip.

Opening up the beehives and removing their winter insulation.

This past season was very good for mites.  Many bee keepers lost hives this past winter.  We were lucky.  

We lost one hive in late winter apparently due to too much moisture in the hive.  

We ordered two more hives but with the increased demand caused by professionals loosing hives and many new hobbyists starting hives, we were unable to get our new queens.

Dandelions are the first spring flower to grow profusely around here, and so one of the most important sources of early spring food for bees and other pollinators in general.  PLEASE consider leaving dandelions on your lawn.  Grass is not as important as food.

The conditioning crop in our 2022 growing field survived the frost.

Having the field worked last fall opened up the soil, allowing heat and moisture to get in.

When we had a sharp frost (around here there was rain the night before and the grass froze over night.  However, it seems that there was enough heat absorbed by the soil in the growing field, and so the ground (and the cover crop on it) stayed ice free overnight.

Last fall this field was plowed and disked for a second time, and this spring, I ran the tiller lightly over the surface to prepare a conditioning crop.

As with last year, the spring cover crop is a mix of peas, oats, and jackhammer radish.

The rain has given our grass a lot of lush growth, and allowed us to start making a lot of compost for next years food.

There are a few areas I can mow around here, so we use this for "green manure" to add to the compost.  The grass provides nitrogen and the chicken bedding provides carbon (from the wood shavings and straw) and a bit of nitrogen from the chicken manure.  

These are layered into a pile (known as a windrow) and allowed to heat up to kill pathogens and weed seeds.  Every five days for about 5 weeks, the pile will get turned to keep injecting air into the pile, and ensure that the contents are evenly cooked.  

When running properly, I an get the pile above 40 degrees and sometimes over 50 degrees.

Seen in the background are last years windrow (probably ready for next fall) and the windrow from two years ago (ready to use now).

The plastic tarp is used to control how much moisture is getting into the compost.  Too little and the composting shuts down; too much and the compost will go anaerobic - giving off methane compounds from slow acting, low temperature bacteria.  

Despite having 6 acres, the amount of mowable grass is limited.  Many areas are simply too bumpy for a mower.  Areas that are thick with dandelions are left for the bees.  

We have many mature black walnut trees here.  These trees are notorious for containing a substance that stunts or kills other broadleaf plants.  Mowing these areas risks pulling up leaf litter and pieces of branch, which would not be helpful if added to the compost and then later to the soil of the vegetable beds.

So despite mowing vigorously before the seed head sets in on the grass, our yard by no means looks like a golf course.

Mushrooms are starting to emerge from our logs...another benefit of our cool, wet spring.

I'm still not certain how well we are doing (this is our first crop of shiitakes).  It seems to be quite slow compared to some of the photographs I have seen from professionals and experienced mushroom gardeners.

Time will tell; in the meantime, I am keeping these as wet as possible.

Forking the beds for some of this season's food.  This year we will be growing one round of beans and a few squashes at the Lanark site.  

I hope to produce some mangles - a variety of beets for livestock fodder - for our pigs this season.

In the fall, I will plant next years garlic in these beds.

The broad fork is used for aerating the soil.  This stimulates biological activity in the soil, and creates space for water to seep in instead of pooling on the surface.

I love using this tool.  It is very ergonomic, and gives a similar workout to a treadmill with the "ski-pole" handles.  (I've never used one of those but I suspect the same muscles are getting worked out).

If the soil is very compacted, this can be a tough bit of work, but these beds have now been forked about 5 times over the past couple of years and so is becoming very to work.

After forking the field, I survey the area and start working up the beds.  First once again with the fork and once again with the wheel hoe.

The wheel hoe has curved tines with break up the soil further and pull grass rhizomes up to the surface.

The next task is raking the surface with a lawn rake, to pull the rhizomes down to the end of the bed.

I gather these up and place them in a pile that I keep covered so they can dry out and die.  Once they are thoroughly killed, I can put them in the compost and turn them into food for the bed.  

The grass in this are is very thick, and will take a number of years to fully remove.  Bluegrass is a very tough weed to fully eradicate from a garden, in my books it is the worst as is spreads easily in the understory of a crop.

Next, the amendments are added to the soil.  In this case, ash and compost.

In about a week, the first weeds will start to sprout, so I'll use the wheel hoe to disturb them before they establish while simultaneously incorporating the amendments.  Two tasks for the effort of one.

A week after that, I'll disturb the next round of sprouting weeds with a third pass with the wheel hoe.  The three hoe repetitions should prevent eighty per cent of the weed coverage on this bed for the next summer.

Typically at this stage I would add the rock mineral greensand and possible another rock mineral, calcium phosphate.  However, calphos is already sold out and suppliers are telling me that the local greensand is now mined out.

I will have to forgo the greensand and search for a new (and probably more expensive) source of greensand this coming winter.

New additions to the farm.  No more lugging one straw bale at a time to the chicken shed.

This is going to give a big boost to productivity and reduce or eliminate the need to rent a van to move the last items from the old farm when it closes for good this fall.

Much much more to follow and watch for....