February 10th, 2024 Farm Planning

2024 Farm Planting Plan
(Click for a larger image)

 January is a time for planning; the weather is horrid. It is cold, and mud is the normal condition of our soils, the days are short, and it is hard to get out of bed before eight in the morning. By the time we're ready to work it is ten A.M. and daylight ends at three-thirty. Not much gets done once you sneek an afternoon nap in.  The world doesn't lend itself to doing things, so we don't. If we were Daoist, this would be a Wu Wei thing. To bring about action without acting; an effect without a cause, without any reaction. 

Wu Wei means a great deal more.  Most people simple say "Wu" to mean the natural way, or in accordance with nature's mandate. Our farm uses completely natural processes to bring produce into the world wherever it can. No-till gardening, despite having large inputs of labor in the beginning phases, uses the least amount of labor over time so as to minimalize the negative effects of labor on the land. If we were to try working the land in the depths of Winter, we'd only make things worse. Mud would get deeper and soils more compact.

Despite all of this philosophy stuff, when there's a break in the weather we wind up doing something to clean up the apparent mess on the Farm, even if it is going in the wrong direction. We move carefully and try not to over-do.  We leave most of the plants in the dirt in late Fall as part of our organic no-till plan. We also leave whatever weeds springing up to grow as much root material as we can in the dirt. Things get to looking pretty bad by the end of January. It's hard to sit back and wait for Spring to come. It has rained nearly every day since early December. So a lot of naps . . .

Last year's Farm planning was the fourth year of planning to make a dollar on farming, but the first year of our no-till plan in action. We spent the Spring building new rows and laying things out. Our greenhouse plan, buying seeds and making planting soil, was not going to change much from the previous year. Our Greenhouse was already in place and the stuff we needed to do early planting already bought.  This year we will add ten feet to the Greenhouse and move it to better ground once we shrink the chicken run and move it to better ground.  We knew how to make soil and plant seeds going into last Spring and we got great responce, so all we need to do is scale it up a bit.  

Last year we made a map of our planting plan using what we knew from experience. But as we went along in building rows we found that our building plan was quite a bit more in size and diversity than we could maintain. The plants did well, but the produce wasn't as successful than in the previous year. We expected the change in method might take a bit to settle in, but we didn't get the results we expected and the weeding was awful. In 2024 we will concentrate on fewer varieties of plants.  The new image (above) shows more melons, less corn. and a change from bush beans to pole beans.  We're adding Russet potatoes to the spud line-up. We eat more potatoes than we sell and, despite  our wonderfully flavorful potato crop, standard bakers are a good thing. 

2023 Strawberries

The pest control plan we used last year worked very well and will largely stay in place. I am adding onions to our barrier plant plan. Though we don't really want to get into frowing onions we can use them and we're told that onions might keep the rabbits and squirrels away. Our crop rotation schedule will change only in locations used. Crop rotation is part of the pest control plan since no-till replaces soil nutrient faster than it can be used.

Last year we added some trellising when it became necessary and the one effective style we found last year will be used everywhere we need trellising this year.  We are removing a few of the rows to allow better access to some of the plants that need more constant care, more sunlight, or that need picking more often. There will be many more flowers in our rows this year, fewer varieties. We sold a lot of flowers last year and this was suprizing.

Getting ready to inprove our Produce Stand operations is part of the planning this Winter. I have a good trailer to build a new Produce Stand on and a place where it can go. The new stand won't be mobile, will have refridgeration, and a roof. There will be a parking area off road and a gate that can close, but this will take some time to put together. There's no rush, but we will try to get this stuff done by next Fall.  

649 baby berries

We've had a few days of partial sunshine this past week so some of our rows have been cleaned up. Our two fifty-six foot strawberry rows are cleaned up and the six hundred baby plants we took out are planted in flats in the Greenhouse will allow us to increase out strawberry planting by five rows. Eventually we might have enough to operate a Upick patch for five months of the year.  The Farm will be much easier to plant and pick this year. Soil, pest, and planting, plans are mostly made. All that is left to do is the doing. 

In other news:
Our chickens are producing enough eggs now. We did not heat their coop this year, opting to let them rest their egg makers a bit. We only had to buy eggs once this Winter, they were organic, from Costco, and fairly dissappointing. We're getting a half dozen a day now. 

Our kennel plans are made and we have quite a bit of it done. The Dog House still has a ways to go. . .  We're planning two or three litters in 2024 and have females in season today. Lilly is first up to breed. Then it will be Abba Zabba's turn. We are letting Taffee do her own thing and hope for one more litter from her which is not as well planned except that it will be Clarke's last turn as well. Breeding is a big part of our income, but boarding is becoming a helpful part of our farm business too. Dog coats are done for the year, but our dog coat plan is in place and did fairly well last year so we're hoping for better next Fall. 

All in all things are going along as they should. There are still a few issues needing resolved, but all things happen in their own time here at Creekside Farm.