Market Farming

[KAKerby AT aol.com]

Maybe a third option?  We've been long-term fans of landscape fabric to suppress weeds without a need to mulch or till in the walkways.  And just in case you're thinking "yea, that would be nice, but I have 1500' to cover!  That would cost too much!"  I have a possibility there for you too.  We have partnered with a local non-profit environmental restoration group who's main activity is laying down landscaping fabric along streambanks to stabilize the banks, then doing permanent plantings through the fabric to provide long-term stabilization.  Problem is, they have to go back a few years later and rip up the landscaping fabric itself.  They had been landfilling that fabric and no one liked that part of the equation.  They went looking for someone to recycle it, and we said "we'll take all you can give us".  So we get slightly used, sometimes cut-into, landscaping fabric for free. 

 

The fabric itself is typically 12' wide by however many feet long.  A typical jobsite for them will give me hundreds of linear feet worth of fabric - as much landscaping fabric as I can stuff into my Ranger pickup with a canopy.  Sometimes two or three loads' worth on the bigger jobs.  We have thousands of linear feet of this stuff now, typically about 12' wide, stockpiled and ready for use.  We'll have to double-up or triple-up the layers given that it's been cut into, but we can build on-farm roads and walkways and livestock aisles now with that stuff.  We never would have been able to afford that otherwise.  They love knowing it won't be landfilled, we love knowing that we can put it down anywhere we need it, in almost luxury amounts, for either weed or mud control. 

 

I don't know what part of the country you're in, but look around because I'll bet someone, somewhere nearby, is doing similar work and would love to have an outlet.   Just a possibility.

Kathryn Kerby

frogchorusfarm.com

Snohomish, WA

Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html

 

In a message dated 2/21/2011 5:26:28 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, campedersen AT gmail.com writes:

We are looking for the most suitable way, at our scale of about 3 cultivated acres, to control weeds in the pathways between raised plastic mulch beds. For several reasons, we don't want to cultivate, which leaves us (as we see it) with 2 options: seeding the pathways with grass and mowing several times in the summer, or mulching once with straw or hay. Last year, we tried seeding grass, but because of the hot/dry summer much of it didn't germinate (but the weeds still did!) We are going to try seeding some rows again this year, but also wanted to give mulching a try. However, the expense and time of mulching 15000+ row feet by hand seems somewhat daunting! One of those nifty mulching implements would be great, but at our scale I'm not sure it would be cost effective. Last year, straw was going for $150+/ton around here.

Does anyone have any experience with mulching pathways on a small market farm scale? Any tips or suggestions?

Thanks!
Cameron

--
Bending Bridge Farm
www.bendingbridgefarm.com



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