Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Mulch, Tilling and Pepper Spray

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Marie Kamphefner <kampy AT netins.net>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Mulch, Tilling and Pepper Spray
  • Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 11:27:06 -0600


Thanks very much to everyone for all the information, especially to the
ones who have responded to my questions. I've learned so much in just a
few days.

We bought wheat straw last summer for $1.00 per bale here in north central
Missouri. We used it to mulch strawberries, for bedding in the chicken
house and the emu sheds. Some of it will be used for temporary maternity
shelters for the sheep and the rest will be used as mulch for potatoes.
The hens LOVE to scratch through loose straw and eat the seeds.

We use a tractor for plowing, disking, planting and cultivating the grain
fields. For the truck garden, we use the tractor for plowing and disking
and then have a couple of aged TroyBilts that we got at auctions. One of
them is a "horse" and the other is a 4hp Junior. The horse has a
hiller/furrower attachment that we prepare raised beds with. We plant
strawberries, sweet potatoes, carrots and most root crops in raised beds.
Go down the row with the furrower, then come back so it throws the dirt up
against the other hill and presto! raised bed. We use lawn clippings,
straw, hay and leaves that we collected in town the fall before to mulch
with. The straw from the chicken and emu shelters, we use as side dress
fertilizer for the corn and tomatoes after it spends time in the compost pile.

I use the 4 horse TroyBilt to weed with sometimes if things get ahead of
me. It starts easily and I can manage it with no trouble. The horse is a
handful for me, but my husband likes it best. My favorite thing is hoeing.
I know, I know, I'm crazy, but I love to get out in the garden early and
hoe around the plants. I could do it for hours. It seems like I draw
energy from being in the dirt and with the plants. I have a new high tech
hoe from Wal Mart. It has a fiberglass handle, it's lightweight and I get
fewer blisters. I see that Johnny's has a little pocket hoe sharpener and
I'm going to order that! Cut down on trips to the garage and the grinder.
Anyway, if I can keep the weeds at bay early in the season when they're
small, get the mulch on after the soil warms up, then it seems like it's
easier to keep up the rest of the year. If I can enjoy myself in the
process, so much to the good.

We grew habanero peppers year before last and had tons left over. I dried
them and last summer cooked a handful of the dried peppers in a large pot
of water. I used the resulting "soup" to spray the green beans and it
killed the little white bugs. Then, later, I noticed rabbits coming to
feast on the tender leaves would take one bite then do flip flops and never
come back (it didn't kill them). On our organic certification application
I have put "rifle" in answer to the question about what we use to control
pests, but don't think I'll need the rifle any more. I'd just as soon not
kill the rabbits anyway. I plan to expand the use of the home made pepper
spray this year. My sister read in an article somewhere that habanero
pepper juice would kill termites.

Marie Kamphefner
Strawberry Lane Farm





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page