Tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings heading out from the Milkhouse (seedling room) to the unheated hoophouse for some real sunlight and a taste of the harsher field conditions, before transplant time in a couple of weeks. The small riding mower does double duty, mowing the paths and ferrying around seedlings, tools, harvests.
Fieldwork
Compost tea
Here’s something easy that could come as a kit: a compost tea maker. One 55-gallon barrel, one strong, porous bag (this one’s a woven plastic grain sack) full of compost, some heavy twine, a strong stick, and water. Tie the sack to the stick, place the stick across the top of the barrel so that the sack is suspended, and add water. In a couple of days, a natural, healthy snack for selected seedlings. Apply by watering can.
Sprinklers in action
Two sprinklers in action. Morning and evening are usually good for watering: less wind, less evaporation… Still, sprinklers (a necessary evil at this point) are hardly efficient.
Rototilling
Tilling in compost with the trusty Kubota compact tractor. Frequent tilling eventually pounds the soil to dust, and driving the tractor over the garden beds compacts the soil, neither of which are good when taken to extremes. Most things in moderation are just fine (except, of course, SYNTHETIC CHEMICALS on the organic farm), and the tractor saves a ton of time.