The adventures of a Westcoast boy and a Midwestern Jewish girl as they discover the truth beneath the myths of the South, embrace rural life by starting a sustainable farm, and learn how to teach sociology.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Farm Update

As we've said, farming this year is about two things: 1) improving the soil and 2) learning about the soil, weather, bugs, etc in this area. As such, Phil has a lot of little things going on, all with those two goals in mind. For example, he's growing a lot of green manure--plants like crimson clover, vetch, and a rye-type grain that will get tilled into the soil later and add important nutrients and materials. He also has a pumpkin patch. Pumpkins come with a lot of green stuff that can get tilled into the soil. Plus, we may even have some pumpkins to carve or sell. Then there's the lasagna gardening--raised beds of layers of straw, manure, and other stuff.

To learn about bugs and get a baseline for what will grow in the soil he's also planted a variety of plants like herbs, tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, and okra. We don't think we'll get a lot to eat, but that's not the point of this year.

Right now it's a muddy mess out there (apparently when it rains in Mississippi it's always a torrential storm, never a pleasant sprinkling), but here are some pictures we've taken over the past few months.

Farm April and May 2010

2 comments:

  1. You have lots of things growing that weren't there a few weeks ago. Bravo, Phil!

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