Time to Mulch!

As we start the week of with some mulching, it's important to understand this concept: the reason of mulching and why it's important for our small trees in our growing garden. Some background information on mulch: Mulch is basically compost mixed in with bark and/or wood. Mulching is used to improve a trees health. It is a layer spread around our trees at a certain diameter in order to help stop weeds from growing. In a way, mulch is a protector for the soil. Mulch is needed in order to prevent any root competition, it holds moisture in and prevents soil compaction as well. As it breaks down, the nutrients from the mulch transfers to the soil and adds nutrients which is a big help to the trees. It is very important not to let the mulch come in contact with the trunk or else it will kill the tree instead of allowing it to grow. When the mulch touches the trunk, the roots growing upwards will cause stem girdling roots and eventually kill the tree, which is something we don't want for our tree! You should never let a layer become deeper than 3, or even worse, 4 inches inches. Spread the mulch wide enough to cover the root system and remember to mulch on newly planted trees. We started to sheep mulch near our beds, but take a turn in mulching a tree sometime! The trees will thank you for giving them a boost of life!

Geraldin Hernandez

One Bed Crop Plan and Calculations

As we get closer and closer to finishing our preparation for our one bed projects, one of our final prep jobs is to decide what crops we want to grow over the course of the fall season. This week students were given the opportunity to choose any five crops they wanted to grow this fall season. Choices ranged from a head of lettuce, to bunches of bell beans. With these choices, came requirements and expectations. On top of choosing what crops we wanted to grow this season, we were also asked to complete a empty table full of listed calculations and data values. The data table included things from the total square feet you needed from your bed to actually grow the crops, to how many pounds of the crops your expected to grow during the season. Although the calculations took a bit to complete and fully understand, the actual numbers we get from these calculations are important because they help guide us what we're going to grow this season as well as what we need to do in order to meet these data expectations. These calculations aren't only just used exclusively for the fall season, they're also used for all the other seasons we grow in class, including both winter and spring. We not only use these numbers to help gauge how much were going to grow of each crop, but are also used to check back upon the end of each season in order to see whether or not our designated group for the one bed project actually met the required amount of pounds of both calorie and compost, calorie being 30 lbs and compost being 18-20 lbs. Without these calculations, we wouldn't be able to determine whether or not our group actually would meet the given requirements of the actual one bed project as well as how much of each crop we needed to grow in order to meet those given requirements.   

- Matthew Pollock

*below is a picture of a student working on the one bed calculations for plant bed A1 for the fall planting season

Dibble Boards

This week we focused on placing our seedlings from the flats, into our beds. This is a process called transplanting. A few weeks ago we planted seeds into the flats that turned into the seedings we used for transplanting. The plants were brought out to the farm, from the classroom, a day before planting to let them acclimate to their new environment. We carefully took trowels and loosened the soil around the seedlings to be able to remove the plants. Without touching the roots, the seedlings were placed in clear plastic bins for easy transportation to the beds. The How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons informed us how far apart the plants needed to be for ideal growth; the information starts on page 134. An example of a plant that most groups planted is Bell Beans. Bell Beans need eight inches in between one another. A dibble board (pictured below) or spacing bar was used to get the correct distance. A dibble board is a piece of wood with small wooden pegs poking out creating the correct spacing and distance. A spacing bar has various lengths depending on how far away the plants are supposed to be placed. The plants also need to be in offset rows, in a triangular pattern. After transplanting we watered, making sure the water got a least one inch below the surface. Lastly, for a successful growth, we need to continue to water our beds every day for the next two weeks. 

- Hannah

   

 

What does 60/30/10 mean?

When growing in a sustainable farm, using the method of 60/30/10 can be quite useful when deciding what to plant and when. The How to Grow More Vegetables book states that, "A 60/30/10 ratio for a year of crops has been shown to produce sustainable food and soil fertility." What do these ratios stand for? The 60 represents Carbon and Calorie crops, chosen for maximum carbon and significant calories. The 30 stands for Calorie and Specific Root Crops, chosen for maximum calories. Lastly, the 10 represents vegetation crops for vitamins and minerals. The target amount per person is 13,200 calories per 60 square feet, the amount of space we have in one bed on the farm. This translates to about 30 lbs of food harvested in one bed in a year.  In addition, the goal for compost, which is air-dry biomass, is about 18 lbs per bed. These numbers have been proven to assist with higher yields in less space, what sustainable farming is all about.

Why do we use it?

We use this method because it is a sustainable way to produce crops that we can eat, are good for the soil, as well as generating material for compost. The 60/30/10 ratio does leave room for choice, especially if there is one certain crop, like tomatoes for example, I want to include in my bed. While I know that tomatoes are heavy feeders, I can still incorporate nutrients elsewhere in my bed. Having sufficient calorie crops are especially important when planting in a sustainable farm, in order to produce enough food to eat for a whole year. Composting is also essential and having enough compost, including acquiring compost from plants that have already been harvested, is key to having healthy soil especially between growing seasons.

Why is it sustainable?

This ratio of 60/30/10 was taken from the book we refer to often in class, How to Grow More Vegetables. This book talks about methods for growing sustainably. In general, their Grow Biointensive plan uses 99% less energy than commercial agriculture while using a fraction of the resources. 60/30/10 is a major part of that sustainability because it can produce carbon and calorie crops, crops for vitamins and minerals, while still generating enough compost to keep the soil healthy and fertilized. For this reason, the 60/30/10 ratio is very sustainable and helps reinforce farming habits that are good for you and the soil.

When do we use this method in class?

I am in charge of the A12 bed on the farm, along with 3 other students. We used this method when deciding what to plant in our bed, as many other groups in class did as well. It was especially helpful to refer to when our bed wasn't balanced, with too many heavy feeders and not enough crops that generate compost. The 60/30/10 ratio helped our group determine what could and couldn't be planted while still keeping in mind our original plan of what we wanted to be harvesting when the end of the growing season came. —Noe C

Planting Overview

This week we learned about planting seeds and transplanting. One of the main focuses of Biointensive gardening is how you plant. In John Jeavons, How to Grow More Vegetables, it describes the prefered method for planting on a Grow Biointensive farm, which is the intensive planting method. The intensive planting method focuses on planting as many plants as possible in a single bed. In class, we used spacing sticks to measure the right space between each hole before planting the seeds in the hole. The key to intensive planting is to stagger your holes so that you maximize space. Depending on how wide your bed is you may be able to make 3-4 holes across the width of your bed. The next row you stagger so that the holes become arranged in a octagon pattern.

Another tool that will help you to plant your plants with proper spacing is a spacing board. A spacing board has pegs that are all an equal distance from each other. To use the spacing board you put the peg side down into the soil and push down on the top in order to create a bunch of holes in your soil all at once, rather than doing it individually with a spacing stick.

The main purpose for using the intensive planting method is to use your bed's space as efficiently as possible. Also, using this method will allow the plant's leaves to touch once they grow, which creates an important mini-climate under the plant's leaves. This touching of the plants retains moisture in the soil, which is important to help aid in the growing of plants. Using these techniques will help to plant more plants in your bed than planting in rows.

Maggie Robison

Keep Invasive Species Out!

As we wrapped up our double digging this week and finished preparing our beds for planting, one of our duties was to get rid of any invasive species growing near our space. One of the plants we kept an eye out for was Spotted Cat's Ear. Although Spotted Cat's Ear (pictured below) looks like a harmless yellow flower, it is in fact an invasive weed that should be removed completely and properly. Invasive plants use up resources and space that would've otherwise been used to nourish native plants, or in our case, veggies and flowers. They are known to grow quickly and aggressively by either spreading their roots or dispersing their seeds. This kills off other plants and creates a monoculture in the surrounding environment that exhausts the soil, making it hard for anything other than that invasive plant to grow. Furthermore, invasive plants mature quickly which in turn produces more seeds and roots and causes the plants to multiply. 

So how do we keep invasive species out? It's important to be vigilant and remove these weeds and their roots when they are small, before they can mature and spread. Additionally, you can plant native or noninvasive plants if there is bare soil around, as weeds thrive in bare and undisturbed areas. Lastly, be conscious of the amount of fertilizer you use and where you put it. Fertilizers can be an advantage for invasive plants because they provide lots of nutrients which allows them to grow even more rapidly. It is imperative to control invasive populations to maintain the health of native species as well as allow other plants to have access to needed resources. 

Kotone Berreman

More on... Double Digging on the Farm

In our first two weeks of Sustainable Agriculture, we learned about the various tools we will use, the rules of the farm, and how to prepare the soil for planting. After choosing our garden groups and garden beds, we started deep soil prep, which we learned is the first part of the bio-intensive "three-legged stool". Double digging is a good method for deep soil prep because the soil will hold more water through aeration, it enhances nutrient availability, and facilitates root penetration while minimizing erosion. To double dig, each garden bed needed shovels, buckets of compost, a spading fork, and a pick. With the spade and flat shovels, we dug a trench the width of the shovel and about one foot deep, transferring that soil to the end of the bed to be added to the last trench. Then, we started to fill the trench with soil from where the next trench would be, as well as aerating with the spading fork and adding in compost halfway. This pattern was repeated for the whole length of the garden bed, in which we occasionally removed invasive weeds and plastic. The last step was evenly raking the soil, distributing some organic fertilizer, and thoroughly watering the garden bed. Next week, we will choose types of plants we want to grow for the semester. 

- Sarah Dougherty