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  • From: "Dori Green" <dorigreen00 AT hotmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: market-farming No Till & Progress Report
  • Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 05:31:15 -0500


X-OriginalArrivalTime: 14 Mar 2001 10:31:16.0029 (UTC)
FILETIME=[E63B1ED0:01C0AC71]

Good Morning!

I've been using a no-till method for three years now, starting with sixteen 8'x200' beds hilled by a bulldozer in 1999. The project was started with a SARE agroforestry grant, and covers two of my six acres now in production.

I cut weeds with a scythe or DR trimmer depending on my mood and bursitis. I walk along the depressed paths between beds or on the paths that run down the middle of the beds. Then I put down 4-6" of finished compost. Sometimes I cut it in a little bit with a garden claw. I plant directly into that compost and cover the seeds with another two inches of compost.

My hardworking earthworms come up for the compost and work it in very nicely within a few weeks. As soon as seedlings are up (or a week or two after transplanting), I mulch heavily with a mix of straw and chipped leaves.

My on-farm compost comes from kitchen scraps, garden cleanups, weed mowings, and our animal rescue programs (goats, chickens, and a pony -- cow and calf coming next week, two Jacob sheep within a month, and a couple of PMU or nurse mare foals by May). My compost is at least two years old when I put it on the garden. I also buy in compost by the tractor-trailer load from a racing stable. That's supposed to be finished but it's pretty raw when it arrives, so I always let it sit for a year.

Trees are scattered throughout the raised beds. Deer became a problem after some trespassing yahoo shot and killed my livestock guardian dog; I'm working on adding some serious electric fencing this year before I add more trees. And I'm getting an estimate on bull fencing for that lower section where the hunters seem to think they can play for free.

Rocks are accumulated at the bed heads. One of our planned workshops for this summer is the building of rock heat sink towers throughout the garden. Most of the rocks were raked from the top layers of the beds (by hand) and pressed into the sides. They are now very effective raised bed walls. We don't get more rocks each year because we aren't plowing them up. Weed pressure is less and less each year because we don't plow seeds up into the viability zone.

If anybody would like free access to my farm egroup (now a yahoogroup I guess), drop me a line and I'll sign you up. My reports, ongoing journals, and pictures are all posted there.

If the paths between the beds flood badly again this year, I'm just going to raise a crop of Tilapia and cry all the way to the bank. I have knee-high gum boots so planting isn't actually a problem when we have a wet spring. Some day I guess I should install drainage tile in the paths, but it isn't a huge difficulty for me and I actually like to keep the water as close to the beds as possible rather than draining it off. Between the loose friable soil of the beds enabling roots to dive deep, and the heavy mulch, I don't have to irrigate (or haul a bunch of water) in dry months.

Incidentally, I'm managing this six acres mostly alone with hand tools and with a full-time off-farm job and with all of the animal care. I've improved my systems to the point that my housework doesn't suffer, either. The sheep are coming in to move around the lawn with a portable Premier fence and thereby free me from mowing duty. They'll be supported by a hand-spinners co-op.

Winter resting time has been over for a couple of weeks now. The neighbor's cow freshened last week and I'm heavily into cheesemaking duty. She and her calf are moving in here next week; he's going back to New York City to work at the end of this month. He was going to enjoy the kid I saved for Easter, but I've convinced him instead to cull the yearling doe with three teats who rejected her kid so that it died, and get this buckling dehorned. I'll keep him and his mother; he isn't related to any of my girls so he'll be busy and happy next breeding season. He's a purebred Alpine without papers. I'd take his dad, but he's wild and fully horned -- not a good prospect for a teaching farm. I fear that "Billy" is also going to end up as an Easter dinner. Sigh, can't save 'em all.

I've been starting ten flats of seedlings every day, and hand-sculpting soaps for summer market sales. And yes, I'm still looking for a job, and studying C++ and JavaScript, and preparing the mailing materials to recruit general and CSA members for the coming season. Right now I'm making cheese and doing laundry while we're on the 1/3 night electric rate -- wow do I covet a gas stove -- and I'm still on pygmy goat baby watch (trips to the barn every two hours all night every night).

I've got people lined up to care for the animals if and when I get another tech writing gig off-site. It's just a darned shame that I don't expect farming ever to pay me what I can earn doing my other beloved work. Sigh. So I donate the use of my land and my time to the community farm. Some day maybe it will at least cover its own operating expenses. The good news is that by being very organized and very flexible I can have it all! <G>

I generally try to grab a nap from noon until two or three in the afternoon. Sometimes people stop by without calling first, and they make some nasty comments about "gee, they wish they could be unemployed and sleep the day away".

But there are the grand upsides, too. The pony has been here for just about five weeks now. After two weeks of taking her out from her 8x8 stall twice a day for a walk on the lead line, I took the risk of turning her loose in the pasture. Haven't put my hands on her since then, LOL! She came in to the goat paddock and can come and go as she likes in their large run-in. Yesterday we had a grand breakthrough; she came up to the fence and took carrots right from my hand, played with my fingers and let me stroke her nose. I probably could have grabbed her halter if it wasn't more important to me to build her trust.

She's 18, was on her way to a meat auction, might be bred, is broke to ride and drive. She was handled very roughly at two auctions and the meat dealer's barn. I've got time to spend with her, and I think it'll be worth it in the long run. She's going to be a terrific babysitter for the PMU and nurse farm rescue foals I'm working to add to our programs.

Such work will never pay a salary to match that of a technical writer. But I can't ever see myself giving it up, either.

One last thought -- I'm still seeking apprentices/interns/partners to share all this nonsense. Drop a line if interested.

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm & Center for Sustainable Living
Corning, NY

http://www.ic.org/agrove/index.htm

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  • Re: market-farming No Till & Progress Report, Dori Green, 03/14/2001

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