When doing a task on the farm that can require long hours and repetitive motions, it’s essential to factor in the toll it will take on your body, and also how you can eliminate unnecessary steps or movements in your system. When designing my nursery space back at Winding Road Farms in Petaluma, California, I made it a personal goal to think of a more ergonomic and efficient system for filling...
How to Use Worm-Powered Composting for Improved Soil Health, Stronger Seedlings & Higher Yields on the Farm – By Jordan MacPhee of Maple Bloom Farm in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Simplifying the Journey to Soil Health We all want healthy living soil to make our job easier as farmers. Living soil makes it easier to grow plants that are more resilient to pest and disease pressure and...
When you are leasing land, or on a tighter budget, constructing an adequate nursery space can be a challenging prospect. While a beautiful high tunnel with cement floors, a drainage system, permanent plumbing, polycarbonate end walls, and automated heating and cooling systems would be IDEAL, it’s often not within reach–at least when starting out. When I was faced with this dilemma at the...
Is it worth the effort to make your own compost on a small-scale farm? If you decide that it’s not, what do you do with your old crop residue? Most would agree that it’s often not feasible to create enough compost to meet all the fertility needs of your farm, especially on a small piece of land. This is especially true for those trying to increase the organic matter in their soil, or for...
After exploring what the deep compost mulch system is, looking at the pros and cons, and how to source your compost, it’s time to get into the details of building deep compost beds from start to finish. The ideal progression of steps is as follows: 1. Leveling the Ground & Ensuring Good Drainage2. Test & Amend the Soil3. Preparing Soil with Silage TarpsOccultationWater Before...
Deep Compost Mulch: A No-Till Approach The deep compost mulch system has been most used and promoted by many well-known farmers in the no-till farming space. Jesse Frost of Rough Draft Farmstead and the No-Till Podcast, Richard Perkins of Ridgedale Farm in Sweden (author of Regenerative Agriculture), and Josh Sattin of Sattin Hill Farm have all provided fantastic models of successfully...
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