Tiny Farm Blog Organic micro-farming with two acres and some tools ~ a daily photo journal...

In smaller gardens (tinier farms!), hoses are generally a fact of life. On BIG veggie farms, “hoses” are usually pipes that’re 3-4″ inches (7.5-10cm) in diameter or more, and part of full-blown irrigation systems that suck up and spew MILLIONS of liters of water a season. Here on this tiny farm, I’m somewhere in the middle, but way closer to the garden hose end of the scale (in both water consumption and garden hose use!). The irrigation system itself is a work in progress, drip tape is the ultimate goal, but there are obstacles to work around, like the limited water available from the barn well, and the distance to and lack of electricity at the spring-fed pond. Right now, watering is about regular 5/8″ hoses, which are fed by a 1″ plastic pipe that runs from the barn well to the pond located WAY at the other end of the field, with taps at 100′ intervals. So, every spring, it’s time to check the fittings, uncoil the hoses, and get set to deliver water largely by hand. Actual watering is done with a combination of soaker hoses, sprinklers when there’s no wind, and various hand nozzles for watering in newly seeded beds. Quick connectors are a major convenience when hooking up the various combos of multiple hoses and other attachments. I try to find a balance between not too many hoses, because you can’t leave them lying around, and not too few that you’re moving around the same rig all over the plot. Accidentally tilling hoses that were left instead of being promptly put away has turned into a not rare occurrence, and a time-waster (untangling and splicing takes more than a minute). Just put away that 300′ of hose plus 500′ of soaker hose when you’re done! ;) It’s a bit tedious, but like everything else, you do get used to it, it’s part of the routine, and it gets the job done, which is satisfying in the end… That’s the state of the watering art around here as we head into a new season, and I’m promising myself advances on the drip side of things. Of course, it could happen to rain all the time, about an inch (2.5cm) once a week would be fine, and then hoses would largely vanish from the garden landscape. That’s not at all even remotely likely, but…YOU NEVER KNOW!

Another snowstorm, come and gone. It snowed steadily all of yesterday, with pretty high winds, but most of the accumulation seemed to be overnight. Today, azure skies, brilliant sun, tons of snow in drifts piled high. Looks like we’re one more heavy fall away from all-time records. I heard there’ve been over a dozen school snow days, compared to three or four a season in recent years. Here on the farm, no extreme hardship so far (knock on wood!). In the barnyard, we’re running out of room around the edges to pile up more snow, and in the field, it’s a couple of feet deep, but snow has kept off the Milkhouse roof, and the main worry, a flattened hoophouse, hasn’t come close to happening. The wind built up the drift on the south side (both photos), and just to be safe (and for the first time ever), I scooped off the new stuff, down to the harder-packed, more permanent base. Luckily, the side walls are inflated (a fan on a looong extension cord continually blows air between two layers of plastic), so the surface is quite taut and doesn’t sag or hold snow easily. And that’s it. Back to waiting for the snow to go…

The leeks are thriving, all straight up and down. Ten days from seeding, and some of ’em are nearly 3″ (7.5cm) tall. Clearly, the seed was more viable than expected, looks like practically every one popped up. The first parsley just appeared, and a second set of arugula is already blowing in the wind. Things are slowly getting…busier.

The fan is oscillating and the grow racks are slowly filling up. Parsley—curly and flat-leaf—are underway, and there’s more lettuce and some herbs… Fanning the seedlings is particularly satisfying because it does a lot for such a simple thing. I forget where I heard about it, probably from a book, and I’ve been doing it since Year 1 or 2. The idea is that plants develop differently when they have to deal with wind, or rain, or otherwise being pushed about. Seedlings raised indoors lead an extremely sheltered life; providing a bit of a breeze toughens them up, and this sort of mechanical stimulation (brushing is another approach) also encourages stockier growth instead of stretching. It makes sense to me—seedlings definitely wouldn’t be so coddled growing out in the field! I don’t follow a particular schedule, just give ‘em at least an hour or two a day, sometimes more, turn the fan on and move it around every once in a while. It’s easy, sounds good, hasn’t hurt! (I couldn’t remember the arcane term for this, so I hunted it down online and wasn’t disappointed: thigmomorphogenesis! While at it, found an interesting article as well.) The fanning also dries the soil surface, which helps prevent damping-off, so you can’t lose!

Spent about four hours out in the field. The feeling of calm satisfaction as you head in after doing some work in the garden never fails! I dug up about half a bushel of carrots to see how they’ve done. These are, I think, Nelson and Danvers Half Long (the BIG ones)—the label stakes were out, so I couldn’t immediately check the varieties, it’s not necessarily that easy to tell! They’re mostly in fine shape. On a few, the inch or two exposed above-ground had frozen and thawed, leaving the top tips spongy and mushy, but this didn’t affect too many. I can probably get a couple of bushels! This mid-January harvest is actually consistent with last year, except for the extra 6-7 weeks of RealWinter… I also mulched the garlic, leaving a couple of beds clear as a test (I’m not sure how useful an experiment that is, since I’ll mulch them for moisture and against weeds first thing in spring…). Anyhow, a bit of winter fieldwork… More »

Happily expecting heat, I stepped out into a sharp, nasty wind this morning. The weather’s taken a downward turn from the cheery short-term forecast. It’s still going to be above zero for the next couple of days, They say, but just, and the nights have plummeted below. Also, in the 15-day, that follow-up warm spell predicted for 10 days from now has evaporated. All this meaning: harvest and mulch now! Unfortunately, the heavy wind makes grass mulching nearly futile (the mulch blows away), so I’ve put it all off till tomorrow…

A last hold-out of snow is melting off a section of spinach. While the color is a bit odd, with two distinct shades of green going on (cold effects!), the taste and texture are good. Spinach lives in these conditions, so as long as the leaves haven’t been battered by cold wind, they’re still good eating. Just sort! More: the Big Puddle »