Tiny Farm Blog - A photo journal from the market garden

Butterfly man

10 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

[From 30-May-2026] Sure, I know it’s there to suck up the minerals from my sweat. That doesn’t stop my moment of irrational wonder, feeling in harmony with all of Nature. Butterflies land on me!

These guys are always around the wet soil after watering in. They descend in a flutter of half a dozen or more, and land on the wet ground. Today, hand damp from the hose, I slowly stuck it out toward them. And that’s when I was given this sign that I’m one with the universe. To prove its intention, it gave me all the time in the world to get my camera and capture the moment using my wrong hand!

As far as names for things, I’ll go with it’s a Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus), from my generally accurate or at least ballpark iNaturalist app. I looked into it at some point: they’re apparently after minerals and other nutrients they don’t get from nectar, and the behavior is called “puddling”. Hm.

Flashback: 2025

Leek moth invasion update!

2 Jul 202526 Jun 2025 by Mike (tfb)

Here we are, a week after leek moths invaded the garlic, gazing at a healthy scape. If you’re not familiar, scapes are the curling tips that emerge as the garlic gets close to harvest. They’re also clearly a favorite target of the moth larvae: they chew their way in and start tunneling down. All of the attacked scapes had to be snapped off, right as they were emerging. Happily, many also survived. Snipped when tender—they get woody if left too long—scapes are filled with a full, delicious garlic flavor, a preview of the garlic to come. Let your imagination decide how to use them! (It’s also said that removing the scapes directs more plant energy to making the bulbs bigger, though I haven’t seen that for myself.) As for the bulbs and the leek moths, this is my first encounter, so we’ll only know for sure if all that hand-picking and scape snipping worked when the garlic comes out next month.

On the right side of the fence

10 Jun 202610 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

Wonder who spent the night here in the tall grass, so close to all those veggies. At least they stayed on the right side of the fence! It’s endlessly satisfying how that single white line and its steady pulse of intense electrical jolts have managed to keep the veg plot clear of deer. I can’t say for sure that’s what’s doing it, but deer are definitely all around, traveling through these fields, and they were a big garden forager before and during various lighter-weight fencing attempts. They only completely stopped devouring after that single line of defense went up. No electric fence guides I’ve read suggest just a single line, and yet, the plot’s been deer-free for years now. Can’t say the same for groundhogs, that extension of the electrical defense was a fair bit of work and a fail. But, still no deer!

Potatoes settle in

9 Jun 20269 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

The volunteer potatoes from elsewhere in the garden, dug up and transplanted a couple of days ago, sit side by side with the original settlers in these trenches. Guess which! The transplants seem to be doing fine, but the directly overhead high-noon view is the harshest. They do look a little huddled and scrunched, not like the expansive riot of green growth of their neighbors. The roots of the new guys haven’t reestablished enough to pump a full measure of water to the stems and leaves, that’s my simple guess. Give them time to settle in.

Morning dew

10 Jun 20269 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

It’s around 6 a.m. and I’m out in the field, in a grassy meadow that hasn’t been cut in years. At this hour on a sunny June morning, it’s wet out here! The sun is low but fully risen, backlighting the dew. The light is intensely glittering but without glare, like millions of tiny droplet-sized lightbulbs, each nearly as bright as the sun. To get to the tool shed, I’m walking a well-trodden single-file path through the unchecked grass. Weighed down blades lean in and soak a line in my jeans as I brush by. Rubber boots for sure. It’s almost mind-blowing when you think about how much water is gathered out there, all in single drops. Then the sun burns it off in an hour or two, and it’s back to the regular day.

Looking for leaks

10 Jun 20267 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

Drip tape is a really fantastic way to irrigate: low-pressure, drop by drop, straight into the ground leaves no room for being blown off target or evaporated by a hot sun. Slow and steady. Peaceful. For years now, I’ve been set up with the tape and fittings to fully drip-ify an acre or two. And it’s really not expensive. Yet somehow, it’s never gone all the way. Whose loss, if anyone’s, I wonder. Instead, the crops have gotten by with natural rain, and in desperately dry times, it’s been dragging around hoses to water by hand, or deploy the water-wasting but quick and easy sprinklers. I have used drip for melons, because they really don’t seem to grow well without the extra ground heat of black plastic mulch, and drip tape underneath waterproof plastic is a perfect pairing. Still, haven’t always used it even there. This year, for the tiniest melon row, it’s drip tape deluxe. Eliminate leaks, then turn the water valves to low!

“It’s flea beetles on radish, baby!”

7 Jun 20266 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

Flea beetles munching on radish seedlings in the field

Yes, the flea beetles are back! They’re the size of a pinhead or less. In the photo, they’re at work on the first pairs of radish leaves that’re smaller than a fingernail. The action is all quite tiny-scaled. With the radishes, I’m not concerned about the damage. In the large veg-garden brassica family that the FBs favor, unlike the rest, radish grows so fast, the flea beetles can continuously feast and their damage is outgrown. Outcompeted in the veg garden arena. The leaves are scattershot with holes and dents, but the radishes themselves are fine, and…no need for row cover!

Grabbing this photo, getting as close as possible without making them flee, I notice how my relationship with the FBs has changed over the years. Even though they’re a scourge on the brassicas, meaning lots of row cover expense and labor right through the summer, they’re no longer an enemy, more like fellow travelers. Welcome, even—on the first radishes, they’re a sign that all is still in order this new season. They arrive, I row cover, except for radishes. They do their thing, I do mine. “Hey guys, how’s it going?” “Good, good. Just getting to work on these radish leaves.”

Thirstier and thirstier

4 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

Watering in seedlings as they harden off

The seedlings are filling out fast now, with full days in the sun. Feels like they’re raring to break out! Stuck in their little pots, they could be being called to by their siblings already transplanted out in the field. Who knows?! One thing for sure is how fast they’re soaking up water now. Of course, it makes sense, it’s no surprise—but the little routine meter in my head sees that a good watering lasted a couple of days just a week ago, and now, especially in the tiny plug sheet cells, the surface is dry in hours and the trays feel light. There’s the sun and the wind to help evaporation, but still—thirstier and thirstier as they wait for the field!

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