Market Farming

[Bitbybit <bitbybit AT eoni.com>]

Thank you to all who responded to my compost question. We bought this
ranch in Sept. 98 so I have only had 1 years garden. 1 garden I covered
in Oct. with newspaper and then a layer of straw. It did the best. I
tilled up a portion of the tall fescue hay field and that area performed
terrible for corn, squash, cukes. Tomatoes and Peppers did just ok. The
soil is sandy loam and my observation was that it dried out too quickly
and maybe did not have enough organic material so over the winter I have
been taking what I clean out of the barn and spreading it on the garden
without composting. I will till it in come spring. Please let me know
what you think of that plan.
There is a crisis problem here in this valley with diffuse knapweed. It
is a horrible plant that puts off a noxious substance that kills
everything around it. Furthermore it is toxic to some people to handle
without gloves- they have lost hands. When it goes to seed the seeds can
live in the soil for 14 years. The county will fine you if you don't get
it off your land. They want you to use tough chemical sprays on it. I
wanted to know if anyone knows organic solutions. Part of the 20 acres
we have that is covered it it are almost cliffs so it is very
inaccessible.
Thanks for any input,
Shirley Champion
Bit By Bit Farms