The Farm
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Soil Science At The Farm
We’re going to break format here with the first-ever Thursday post. I was a bit exhausted after a 14-hour day yesterday which, frustratingly, ended in sprayer nozzles plugging up from a compost extract while trying to do a foliar nutrition trial as the sun was setting. But I still wanted to write about something exciting Continue reading
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One Month: Greenhouse Update
We passed the one-month mark since transplanting in the new greenhouse and the results are totally blowing our minds. It seems like each day we go in there you can see visible growth. The cherry toms are stretching up to their 3rd truss, the beefsteaks are setting fruit, the cucumbers have been trimmed and pruned Continue reading
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Cover Crop Update:
It’s hot, real hot, record-setting hot, and tinderbox conditions have fires popping up everywhere from inside the city to our provincial parks, while the wind blows uncovered topsoil around enough to reduce visibility. This would be a good time to have an update on our cover crop situation, whose soil is not blowing away. For Continue reading
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Greenhouse Full + Crazy Weather
July temps in early May is a bit scary, so the weather has accelerated all of the goings-on at the farm and we’ve entered Ludicrous Speed mode. That might not be the greatest thing for our spinach and broccoli, but it has meant that we’ve fired everything into the new greenhouse and we are, finally, Continue reading
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New Greenhouse! Now What?
The weather finally aligned and with a bunch of people helping wrangle a massive piece of plastic, we got the plastic up, locked in and inflated. That felt like a really big moment. This has been a few years in the planning and with the plastic up, it all felt finished. And then we realized Continue reading
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Greenhouse Rain Delay
Twice in a row we were thwarted by moisture trying to get the plastic up on the greenhouse. The tiniest bit of moisture on the ground would have made an absolute mess on the plastic, so we’ve had to punt for sunnier days. Cloudiness or rain can gum up the works sometimes. So the end Continue reading
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New Greenhouse Coming Up
The snow has finally melted and we’re still waiting for it to warm up, waiting for the chance to get some carrots in, and waiting for all the mud to go away. On the upside there I invested in some very nice rubber boots, which are super comfy. Most of the days here lately have Continue reading
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Managing Chaos: Creating a Schedule
I’ve been working at it for awhile now, but within the next week I will finalize the schedule for the entire farming season. It includes seeding dates, transplanting targets, and all sorts of reminders. I started building this about 5 years ago and I’m not sure I remember how to run a farm without it! Continue reading
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Grower Success II: Cover Crop
After going through last year’s photos again I realized one of our most solid crop installations was actually our cover crop. We put more forethought and action into prepping the site than we did our nearly-failed onion crop, which really goes to show what you can accomplish if you prepare and what chaos you will Continue reading
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Grower Success
What does it look like when everything goes well? Last week I detailed everything that went wrong with our onions. When you run into problems like that, it’s almost comical how many Grower Errors can stack on top of each other, compounding all the issues. On the other side of the coin, the side all Continue reading
About Graham
Graham is an ecologist-farmer from Canada working on educating about the wonders and beauty of the natural world, and how we can design biodiverse food production systems.
Complimentary Blueberry Juice 