Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Blessed are the tools of the trade -- human-powered, more precise
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/view/columns/6834880.html

The tools of the trade at Long Meadow Farm are those that are operated by 
humans using their own muscle power. Last spring, we traded our only 
gasoline-driven farm tool -- an aging Agway rotary tiller -- to a friend for 
two gallons of maple syrup.

The big three in our arsenal of human-powered implements are the wheel hoe, 
the scythe and the pick-mattock.

Then comes an assortment of rakes (hay, bed-making and leaf rakers); hoes 
(stirrup, broad and narrow; circle, trapezoid, square, triangular and more), 
shovels (barn and digger varieties); forks (hay), spades (four-tined), 
trowels and a variety of small hand cultivators, including our favorite, a 
hand hoe we call "homies" (a sharp-edged tool that cuts weeds at close range).

None of these tools is cheap, but together they are all cheaper than a farm 
tractor with all needed attachments. Plus, they come without the noise, fumes 
and petroleum consumption. While they require muscle power, they save wear 
and tear on the old buttinsky. Tractors force you to sit down all day as you 
"work" and we know the large-scale results that occur from that.

Even better, human feet don't compact garden beds like tractors tires do, 
although it is pretty verboten here to walk in the raised beds, even by 
mistake.

And you can have human-scale conversations at any time during the day -- 
about anything that comes to mind.

So the "back-breaking" work associated with human-power farming has a very 
enjoyable conversational side to it. Personally, I've never yet seen a back 
break from the kind of work we do -- backs tend to get stronger, along with 
arms, legs and hands. Most people I know with "bad backs" have never done 
sustained work that involves using your back. Mostly, they can't.

OK, one of our three precious wheel hoes got broken in the process last week. 
This is about the fourth time we have cracked an arm of a Valley Oak wheel 
hoe over the last six years.

The company has been trying hard to strengthen its tool, largely, we believe, 
because we have complained bitterly about their fragility (perhaps others 
have, as well). As a result, it has done a credible job strengthening the 
long "arms" of the tool, and we think they are the best designed wheel hoes 
in the business. We have just used them very hard in our clay soil.

They are our rototillers and our tractors but better than either because they 
don't grind the soil into a dusty puff. They can coax the long quackgrass 
rhizomes out of a bed instead of chopping the rhizome into a hundred new 
plants that must then be tilled or handpicked out of the bed. Eventually, the 
quackgrass loses against the wheelhoe, I swear.

And wheel hoes are powered by a notoriously low-emission sources: humans.

We have actually broken two scythes over the last four years -- the Austrian 
design does not relate well to our heavy grass cutting. We've also learned 
that cutting in early morning when the grass is tender prolongs the life of a 
scythe. Thankfully, Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow has replaced the 
scythes without cost.

The stone used to sharpen them is also breakable. We found that out when an 
apprentice of two years ago dropped it on the concrete floor in our shed. It 
shattered into a half-dozen unusable pieces.

During the early mornings this week, we had three or four scythes going on 
the perimeter of the garden, with one person raking the mown grass. Besides 
helping with appearances, the cuttings are used to provide heavy mulch over 
rough beds for the coming winter.

The pick mattock is another version of a pick axe that has one arm flattened 
out and the other pointed. When a bed has sodded over -- as happens in 
spring, or this year, during the heavy rains of June and July, as well -- the 
pick mattock comes to the rescue. The wide blade can skim the sod off to be 
carted away, making way for the next steps: wheelhoeing and re-building the 
beds.

Over the past few years, we have built a few sod mounds that would have 
caused envy among some Midwestern Indian tribes. Over time, the sod breaks 
down and can be returned to the garden as soil. Of course, the mound is 
covered with sod that needs to be pick-mattocked until the soil is revealed 
underneath the surface. A good sweat can be had by all.

Forks and four-tined spades are pretty straightforward. Hay forks do hay very 
well but little else. Spades don't do hay well, but they are great for 
lifting matted compost, digging potatoes and carrots and loosening the soil 
in beds.

Hoes are the most varied of our tools. Big square ones are good for bedding 
up; cute little circle hoes work well in tight spaces; triangular hoes can 
make a very nice furrow for planting or watering.

Rakes? Good for bedding up (using a regular garden rake) and moving hay 
(using, of course, a hay rake). Our old style wooden-toothed hay rakes become 
broken messes over the summer, but I have begun to appreciate our 
steeled-toothed hay rake with its long handle and curved teeth. The curved 
teeth make it difficult to handle since the hay won't let go. So I give the 
pile a strong stroke over the top and then it comes free.

Finally, the small hand tools are about the only way to get weeds out of 
planted beds without injuring the plants.

The only really dangerous tool in the bunch is the scythe and it is virtually 
impossible to hit yourself with it. People in the field, however, are warned 
to stay out of the "circle of death" of another scyther. We had one 
unfortunate incident two years ago when an apprentice was holding a bull frog 
when it abruptly jumped out of his hand and landed on his scythe blade on the 
ground. Instant evisceration.

So, blessed are the tools, the tool makers and those who help us do what we 
do.

Denis Thoet, with his partner Michele Roy, own and manage Long Meadow Farm in 
West Gardiner, www.longmeadowfarmmaine.com.