It’s been one full year now since I began preparing ground for fruit trees, blueberries, and raspberries.  In time these perennials will really help to round out my CSA offering, and I have close to an acre to devote to these crops.  I’ll probably write about the varieties I’m planting in another post, but I wanted first to talk about the ground preparation that has gone into it.

When you’re starting out with thick sod, it takes a lot to get to the point where those grasses are no longer going to compete with your perennials.  Some people recommend spending two or even three seasons getting this ground ready, but I’m feeling good about the one-year turn around.  Here’s what I’ve done:

Fall ‘08 - Initial disking (x2), plowing, rototilling, winter cover crop.

Spring ‘09 - Mow/disk cover crop, plow, rototill, irrigate, weed till, buckwheat/vetch cover crop.

Summer ‘09 - Irrigate, mow/disk cover crop, irrigate again to sprout weeds.

Fall ‘09 - Amend with rock phosphate (& lime for fruit trees), chisel plow, wait for rain, rototill, make beds for berries, establish dutch clover/forage herb ground cover in orchard area.

Winter ‘09/‘10 - Plant Berries & Trees!, mulch, set up irrigation.

October is a busy month!  The weather turns pretty quickly, and a lot needs to happen before the rains make it too wet.  Aside from clearing old crops to make way for cover crop, we are also planting next year’s strawberries, garlic, and over-winter onions.  These three crops will take up 2/3 of an acre on my farm this year.  I put my drop spreader to use spreading lime and rock phosphate, and used my manure spreader for cow and chicken manure.  Now I’ll finish the bed prep for these… Read the rest of this article »

Hey! Sara here. So I started out the day at the dog park with our border collie, abbey. I’ve been trying to get her there daily to get her 6 month-old wiggles out since she can’t run the field anymore. Jared was busy maintaining the tomatoes that are hardening off, and direct seeding two rows of carrots. We then took care of the chicks and ducks and finished a final till on the area where the berries will go(strawberries mostly and some blueberries!). We’re hoping to get the rows built within… Read the rest of this article »