Underneath It All, Soil

Pollinator habitat expanding into seldomly mown waterway, accomplished on its own, through seed dispersal, with flowering buckwheat cover crop seen to the right.

Last week began with 2.5 inches of rain, most of it falling overnight Monday, which temporarily filled the lower pond for the first time since June. The 5 inches of rain that fell during the span of a week was about the same that fell in all of July and August. The deficit is still obvious as most of the areas around the farm soaked up the moisture pretty quickly, albeit not at exactly the same rate. Ample sunshine, low humidity, and wind helped dry out the ground so that by Thursday and Friday we were able to cultivate a few thousand feet of recent transplants, though one field was in perfect shape to be hoed whereas the other one remained a bit sticky.

We have two distinct soil types on the farm, basically split by the driveway. To the south, the soil has a high clay content, erodes easily, is susceptible to crusting, and dries out slowly. To the north, it's more of a sandy and rocky loam with a higher concentration of organic matter that drains well and dries more quickly. With optimal conditions, such as minimal rain, the south side performs incredibly during late summer and early fall. Crops grown there at this time of year are healthy and can achieve epic size. Trying to grow crops there in the early spring when the soil is colder and wetter is more challenging and is best avoided. The north side soil is much more forgiving during adverse conditions but probably requires more water, though the high amount of organic matter helps retain moisture.

The perfect type and amount of rainfall has helped establish the large areas of cover crops. This week we'll be flipping the rest of the u-pick area into oats and buckwheat. If you notice a strange smell on the farm, it's the buckwheat, currently flowering in a few locations around the farm. Buckwheat is great for beneficial insects and also makes phosphorous in the soil more available to subsequent crops. Maybe that's why it smells the way it does.

This coming week we'll transplant the last of the outdoor crops (didn't get to it last week due to wet soil and the need to prioritize cultivation). We'll also being planting inside the tunnels, with the first round of lettuce mix, spinach, and chard going in. Over the next 3-4 weeks we'll fill up each of our 6 tunnels for November and December harvests.

Happy incoming Autumn and the Equinox!