agriculture
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Our First Cover Crop
Today was the day we installed our first-ever cover crop. We’ve been talking about it for years but today was the day. It is likely to rain soon, and as such we were able to prepare an unused field for seeding. After numerous seasons of drought (and as farmers who largely farm without irrigation ),… Continue reading
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Re-Designing Our Zero Till Bed System
One of the infrastructure projects for this season is an on-the-fly re-design of our no-till experimental area. It’s a ton of work and it’s adding a lot of hours tot he weekly schedule, but on the whole so far it has been very rewarding and we’ve been able to keep up. For several years we… Continue reading
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Learn By Doing
It’s been two weeks, and our beekeeping mentor couldn’t make it. So, into the hive solo we go! My favourite (and preferred) way of learning is to just do it yourself. Go for it. Get in there. How else are you going to know? Books are great, YouTube is great. But there comes a point… Continue reading
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Rain, Heat, Choices, Repeat
We’ve spent many of the recent years in memory extremely stressed, – especially in springtime – with lack of moisture. Seeing nothing but suns and scorching heat in May and June coupled with wildfires and smoke from out-of-province gave a really grim feeling to most work days, running around trying to keep up with irrigating… Continue reading
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My First Beehive
On Monday, something super exciting happened…I got my first honeybee hive! I’m super excited to go on a new journey with an entirely new learning curve. The biggest reason I’ve wanted to keep bees is that I think it will connect me to nature and the surroundings in a much deeper way. Watching and listening… Continue reading
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Build It And They Will Come
I’m so excited! It took less than 24 hours since the Tree Swallows first returned and I put up the nest boxes. There have been several pairs flying around the field and checking out each box. It’s really a very satisfying feeling to plan to provide a home for a specific thing, build what will… Continue reading
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Tree Swallows and Anticipation
Lots going on and it’s a very busy time of year for us, in addition to seeding we have tens of thousands of transplants to go out. It’s a big three- week push and it gets our whole season underway. If that wasn’t enough for us we also have two major infrastructure projects on the… Continue reading
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Farming Requires Empathy
An errand for some supplies. The product we usually get was sold out, or awaiting delivery. We were offered a similar product as a replacement. Upon closer inspection, this “similar product” included some odd trademarked “additives,” which were of mysterious patented origins. The package also included this very helpful note: WEAR GLOVES WHILE HANDLING THIS… Continue reading
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Wetlands are Critical Agricultural Infrastructure
Like many other types of ecosystems, wetlands have had more-than-significant destruction and elimination over the past century. Where I live there was once a place called St Andrews Bog which covered some 116, 000 acres. It was nearly all drained, leaving only a small section of the south portion of Lake Winnipeg and, later, a… Continue reading
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Spring, Nature’s Best Teacher
There’s a whole world out there. If we’re willing, patient, and we listen, we might learn something. It might be the sound of birds signing, or the smell of leaves on a forest floor. Moss growing on the shaded side of a tree. A flower poking out from a sea of grass. Everywhere we can… 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.
