Starting Seeds

In Eliot Coleman’s book “The New Organic Grower“, he describes an intriguing process of starting seeds. Instead of the traditional plastic containers and flats, he recommends using a tool called a soil blocker. The soil blocker is filled with “blocking mix” and presses out squares with an indent for planting your seed. I was immediately …

Tree Planting

We’ve been working on Orchard 2, the second of our two existing orchards, the past couple of weekends.  The soil is right for digging and our gypsum amendment has had some time to work into the soil, so although we trampled our still-infant cover crop a bit, the time was right to put in this …

That Was the Year that Was

My pickup truck has a shell on it, so it’s not good for hauling compost. We have the tiny John Deere for cutting grass for compost and the 18 cubic foot trailer it tows for hauling manure. While Dan picked out the last of the starthistle, I brought down load after load of manure (each …

What We Have Learned

We learned last year that rabbits do not eat basil. What we learned this year is that rabbits will eat basil if there is nothing else to eat. We learned that our corner of the world likes to grow tomatoes of these varieties: Sungold, Super Sweet, Black Cherry, and Stupice. It is not kind to …

But it’s a dry heat…

The tomatoes are starting to provide a return on the ridiculous amount of water they demand. In successive weeks we saw “harvests” of ½ lb, 1 lb, 1 lb, 4 ½ lbs, and 5 lbs. They’re coming in, and in the right order (we have about 7 varieties), but just slowly. We can see that …

Herb Spiral

An herb spiral is a unique permaculture technique that creates a bunch of microclimates in a small space. This allows for planting sun and shade loving herbs all together. I first heard about herb spirals last summer when Matt attended a permaculture course with Toby Hemenway. I knew I wanted to incorporate one into our …

Vegetable Rack

Vegetables are one of the biggest source for vitamins that will help us to live a healthy life. To keep those healthy food in a good condition you should care about where to store it. Sometimes, the fridge will not be the best place because some type of vegetables will goes bad fast. This is …

I ♥ Rowcover!

Floating rowcover, agribon, reemay… whatever you call it, this lightweight, translucent, water-permeable, spun-bonded plastic sheeting is awesome!  Though it is plastic that eventually gets shredded and ends up in the landfill, this material has a myriad of uses that help my crops succeed: 1) Warmth bonus – Even the lightweight version that I use manages …

Simple earwig traps – review

Not long after the earwigs went to town in the greenhouse, they started causing havoc in the rows.    As I’ve been looking for ways to control the damage, I’ve often read cautions that the insects are most often beneficial, or at least, harmless.  This includes the book I most often consult for organic ways to …

ALLium Aboard!

This weekend I received some help getting onions into the ground.  My neighbor, Jacob, and my girlfriend , Marcy, made the trek from Eureka to Orleans.  The conditions were great for our spirits (sunny and a cool breeze), altho a bit warmer than ideal for transplanting onions(around 70 degrees F). We started several waves of …