Old Otter Holler Farm

Late Summer Update for OOHF

Well...the official end of summer is here at OOHF and what a summer it has been.  For starters, we are so thankful that we did not raise any lambs or beef this year because of the lack of rain, which meant no grass this year.  Not that I like to mow lawn, but I haven't mown any grass here at OOHF since early July and the only reason I mowed it then was to even out the weeds and what was left of the grass.  The little rain we've had since late June combined with dry winds and scorching summer temperatures have taken their toll.  Wind Creek, which is classified as a perennial creek that flows year round, quite flowing in July and dried up in early August.  Consequently, I've had to carry water for our hogs for going on four weeks now, which is the longest ever.  In fact, this is the first year that I've also had to carry water for our chickens since it did not rain enough to keep a roof-fed 60-gallon barrel full enough.  We thought last summer was dry and hot, but this year has already surpassed last in terms of heat and dryness.  Maybe it hasn't if you compare it year for year, but the year over year trend here has been hotter and dryer.  In fact, the spring that I have wanted to develop for many years has weakened to the point that I'm not sure it's worth the risk to invest money in it.  Another couple of years like the last three or four and it will probably cease to flow.  Enough of our water woes.

Despite the water deficit here at OOHF, we had a bumper crop of tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, garlic, and potatoes in the market garden.  Many people have asked how we managed to pull that off since we do not water our garden.  The answer my friends lies in the soil.  Here at OOHF we are anal about adding organic matter, compost, and aged animal manure to our soil and practicing no and low-till techniques.  I essence, we try to "build" our soil up which in turn holds more moisture. I won't go into all or our techniques here since I've talked about them in other posts listed under the Soil and Market  Garden categories.   On a sadder note, the orchard did not do well this year due in part to the lack of water and it just being an off year for the apples.  Even the mature apple trees, which have reliably produced a good crop of apples nearly every year, decided to not produce this year.  That is probably best since the fruit trees that did produce often dropped their fruit prematurely to conserve water.   All of our nectarines, which looked beautiful in mid-June, dried up on the tree from lack of rain.  Even our blueberries and elderberries did not do well this year.  In fact, it was just an all-around bad year here for fruit here at OOHF with the exception of blackberries which did really well this year.

On a more positive note, all of our firewood is seasoned, stacked, and ready to go this year.  No more hauling firewood to the house and carrying downstairs thanks to our new wood chute and woodpile beside the house.  We could not make it any easier than that.  We also had a good year so far with the hogs and chickens, although I did lose a hog earlier in the year when it choked on an old walnut it rooted up in the pig pen.   The hogs have reached about 250 pounds and have an appointment with the abattoir in mid-September.  Our broilers are doing well in the chicken tractors that I move daily over our pasture.  We made the decision in late winter last year to not have any ruminants this year and give our pastures a rest and a dose of fertilization from the chickens.  We'll be butchering our 25 broilers in late October.  Our laying hens are doing well too.  We're currently getting about a dozen eggs a day and have no problem selling them.  What we don't sell or eat ourselves goes to the hogs, which love them.

It doesn't seem like we have many accomplishments over the summer other than maintaining the farm. It was just too darn hot to do much of anything this summer.  Now that the weather appears to have broke to the cooler side, we're gearing up to tear down two of our hoophouses and replace them with a super-insulated (triple wall polycarbonate and low-E double-pane windows)  wood frame greenhouse that is designed to passively heat and cool itself.  I already have plans for the two hoophouses that we're taking down; one I have already bartered away for construction help on the new greenhouse, and the other I plan to reconstruct with a soil floor and use it as a season extender for growing a variety of vegetables.

It is almost apple pressing time at OOHF.  Using what apples we do have and some from a neighboring orchard, we plan to press apples for at least four weekends this year starting in late September and running through mid-November.  I'll post more on this as the plans firm up.

Food preservation has went well this year.  We have many quarts of tomato sauce and juice already stored as well as sweet and hot pickled peppers.  We also used our dehydrator to dry lots of tomatoes this year and store them in plastic ziplock baggies and quart jars.  They are delicious and will be good on winter salads.  Finally, we have lots of potatoes and garlic for the winter and a freezer full of chicken, pork, venison, and beef.  We'll be planting our winter spinach and other greens shortly.

That's about it for our late summer update.  I hope your growing season went well and you had more rain than we did.  Take care and drop us a line anytime.  

Gearing Up for the Growing Season

With the official first day of spring just under two months away, the farm is beginning to come alive with activity as we gear up for another growing season here at OOHF.  We have already ordered our annual flower plugs, herb and vegetable seeds, growing  supplies, and some replacement parts for a few of our hand pruners and saws.  I also picked up our first load of lime over the weekend and am making preparations to apply it to our pastures, garden areas, and raised beds in early February.  Our chicken manure pile is also doing well.  We've been cleaning out the chicken coop (drop board) every week since late fall and have been alternating layers of manure and straw in a pile, which is growing quite large.  We'll use this well-rotted mixture to side dress our tomato plants in the spring giving them  a boost of phosphorous (as well as nitrogen and potassium) when they need it most (during fruit set).  I've also contacted a neighbor to put in an order for a couple of 1-ton dump truck loads of well aged horse manure and sawdust.  We will use this mixture in our gardens, raised beds, flower beds, and around our fruit trees in early spring.  Speaking of fruit trees, pruning season is coming up fast and will consume quite a bit of my time starting in mid to late February as I prune several hundred fruit trees (and other deciduous trees and shrubs) around the farm.  Pruning season involves much more than pruning.  It is a time to get up close and personal with each tree assessing the form, growth, health, and removing egg masses of undesirable insects.  Inevitably though, I always have to prune off several limbs that contain preying mantis egg cases, which breaks my heart to do, but has to be done.  Whenever this happens, I always attach the limb with egg case to a fence post or other structure near the site allowing the insects to emerge in the spring and do their magic.

To increase the odds of a successful growing season and to keep the farm running smoothly, each week brings new tasks that need to be completed, each one building on the previous one.  I'll be posting more about what we're doing in the weeks to come and hope that you are gearing up for another growing season too!

Leaf Mulch and Leaf Mold?

In response to my previous post where I talked about improving your soil to help control garden pests, a couple of readers have contacted me for clarification on leaf mulch versus leaf mold.  I'm certainly not an expert, but the difference to me is that leaf mulch is the application of unprocessed leaves to the top of the soil whereas leaf mold are leaves that have partially decomposed making a black, friable compost that still contains visible leaf particles. This partial decomposition usually takes about six to eight months in our leaf bin, which is turned regularly over the winter and spring.

There are a few drawbacks to applying unprocessed leaves (leaf mulch) to your soil.  First, decaying leaves take nutrients from the soil, particularly nitrogen, which can negatively affect your crop yield.  Second, depending on the species of tree, the leaves can compact over your soil creating an anaerobic environment, which is also unproductive.  Lastly, leaf mulch is acidic and can upset the pH balance in your soil making it difficult to grow many garden crops that depend on soil slightly on the alkaline side.  Have I scared you yet?

So exactly how do we use leaf mulch since it has so many drawbacks?  The secret is to minimize the negative effects and capitalize on the positive.  Here at OOHF, we only use leaf mulch for our garlic and potatoes. Here's how we do it.  In the fall, we shallowly till our planting beds after the first frost to help expose any insect larvae to the killing frost and to eliminate any late weeds that have sprouted.  Next, we add a layer of Green Ash leaves about a foot thick to the beds, apply a generous amount of lime, then add about three inches of aged manure. The beds are then tilled again to make better contact with the original planting bed soil and partially chew up the leaves.  For the potatoes, these beds are left as is until planting time in the spring.  For garlic, we wait for a few fall rains to wet the soil, then plant the garlic cloves into the strips.  That's all there is to it.  So what are the benefits of doing this?   Adding the leaf mulch in the fall and partially incorporating it into the soil allows the decomposers to immediately begin their work.  It also adds organic matter to the soil and serves as a weed barrier in the early spring by blocking the sun from the soil surface.  Because of these properties, we have never had to weed or water our garlic.

The leaves we do not use for leaf mulch in the fall will gradually turn to leaf mold by the next summer.  Leaf mold is alive with mold, fungi, bacteria, and microbes that are necessary for productive soil.  Like our chicken manure, leaf mold is like gold and is used in a number of ways here at OOHF.  Although we have applied pure leaf mold as a side dressing to all or our garden crops, we usually create a mixture of  compost, leaf mold, and manure to increase our quality and quantity since we have quite a bit of ground to cover.  Our mixture works wonders!  The compost/leaf mold mixutre improves the soil tilth and water-holding capacity of the soil, is rich in calcium and magnesium, and is easy to make with raw materials right here on the farm.  Although leaf mold and compost do not contain much nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, adding the manure makes up for this shortcoming creating a valuable and renewable resource that is essential for growing healthy crops.  Best of all, it is all free!   

Organic Insect and Pest Control

Here at OOHF, we don't use any herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, or synthetic fertilizer to grow our crops.  I have to say that it is very difficult and requires more work, but the benefits of not using these products far outweigh the extra yield or unblemished fruits or vegetables.  Here are some of the methods we use to control insects and pests in our gardens and orchards:

Garden Cleanliness:  Making sure the garden or orchard is clean in an excellent preventative measure to break the life-cycle of many insect pests.  Pick up all windfall fruit from the orchard, and remove garden debris from the garden in the fall.

Garden and Crop Rotation:  This is another preventative measure used with garden cleanliness to break the life-cycle of garden pests.  Growing the same type of crops in the same place  year after year usually results in an overabundance of a particular garden pest since they will overwinter near their primary food supply.  Rotating your crops  works really well, especially for harmful insects that live in the soil since they will not travel far to find their food.

Polycultures:  Never grow just one crop (monoculture) over large areas.  Plant a mixture of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and other plants to give your garden diversity and draw a mixture of beneficial insects and creatures to your garden. 

 Permanent Planting and Grass/Clover Strips:  In our market garden we have four feet wide planting strips (essentially raised beds) separated by four feet wide walkways of grass and white clover.  These walkways are mown several times over the summer and the clippings mulched in place or blown over the planting strips as mulch.  By having this grass/clover strip between each row of crops, we provide a home for all kinds of spiders, ground beetles, and other beneficial insects that move into the planting strips to feed on the harmful insects.  Spiders, although generalists, or some of the best predators of insects that do harm to your crops.

Attract and Keep Birds and Bats:  Feeding wild birds will keep them around your garden where they will feed on many harmful insects.  The important thing here is to not feed the birds at regular intervals since they will get lazy and rely on your handouts for all their food.  Another method we use is to provide bird houses and habitats for bluebirds, swallows, bats, and martins, which all eat prodigious amounts of harmful insects.

Homemade Insecticides:  Some homemade concoctions that we've successfully used include dish washing liquid diluted 40:1 with water and garlic and/or hot pepper sprays.  These types of sprays must be sprayed directly on the insect or its eggs for the best results.

Manual Insect Control: A effective method of insect control, particularly for potato bugs and bean beetles and their larvae, is to hand-pick them off the crop and either squish them or drop them in a can of water.  We find that a couple of well-timed pickings of potato bugs is all we need to ensure a nice crop of potatoes (same with beans too).

Wood Stove Ashes:  Sprinkling a thin coat of wood ashes over crops such as cabbage, potatoes, and broccoli will control a number of chewing insects, and it sweetens your soil to boot.

Beer and Salt:  Slugs sometimes become a problem here at OOHF, especially since we add lots of organic matter to our soil which is prime habitat for snails and slugs.  We generally don't do anything unless it is really bad, but a couple of ways to control an outbreak include sprinkling salt on the creatures, or placing a dish of beer at soil level that attracts the slugs and other harmful grubs and caterpillars, which end up drowning.  Another method is just to avoid planting those early garden crops such as cabbage and peas in those locations that are prone to slug infestations. 

Farmscaping: Provide diverse habitats around your garden or orchard by ensuring there are adjacent "wild areas" that contain a mixture of native plants that will support populations of beneficial creatures such as toads, frogs, birds, bats, snakes, etc., and insects like beetles, spiders, praying mantis, predatory wasps, flies, bees, butterflies, lady bugs, etc.

Baking Soda as Fungicide:  Sodium Bicarbonate, a.k.a. baking soda, mixed at a ratio of 200 parts water to one part baking soda will help control powdery mildew and blackspot.

Chickens:  Our chickens will find and eat many insects and insect larvae in our garden areas as well as provide valuable manure to the soil.  Incorporate the flock into  your crop rotations and use them to help clean the garden in the fall.

High Pressure Water Hose:  Using a high pressure water stream will dislodge aphids to slow down or stop their damage.

Well-timed Tillage:  Another trick we use is to shallowly till our planting strips after the first frost in the fall, and again before the last frost in the spring to expose any insect larvae that have overwintered in the soil.  Exposing them to the frost will often kill them. 

Soil Improvements:  Having soil that is healthy and alive with bacteria, mold, fungi, microbes, worms, and other living creatures is one of the best things you can do to promote a healthy insect balance in your garden.  We add lots of leaf mulch and mold, compost, animal manure, and other organic matter to our garden soil every year.  Keeping the pH of the soil in the right range is also important.  We sprinkle wood ashes and lime in our compost and planting strips every year to sweeten the soil and counteract the acidic effects of the leaf mulch and animal manure. 

These are some of the methods we use here at OOHF to control harmful insect infestations and damage.  Used together, they work wonders and allow us to grow our crops in a way that is alligned with our philosophy of farming and healthy food.   I would be interested in hearing how others are using alternative methods to help control insect damage to their crops.

 

       

 

Why Do We Garden?

Everyone who gardens has their own reasons.  Some folks do it for the excercise, to become more self-sufficient, or to have a few fresh vegetables and fruits over the growing season.  Here at OOHF, we garden for many reasons, not just to be more self-sufficient.  If you are contemplating gardening next year, here are some compelling reasons to start planning now.

• Grow the vegetables, fruits, and nuts you want.  Don't be a slave to the small selection and bland taste of the commercially grown vegetables, fruits, and nuts you find in the grocery store.  Grow varieties that are more nutritious, healthier, tastier, store longer, or for whatever characteristic you desire.
• Gardening is exercise.  In fact, it is not only a good aerobic exercise, it is also good for the mind and spirit.
• Create an edible landscape around your home.  Instead of planting traditional landscape ornamental trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, go ahead and plant something that you can eat or use.
• Gardening improves your property value.  A nice garden with good soil is like money in the bank as is a well-planned edible landscape that provides beauty, utility, and food for you and wildlife.
• Plan and prolong the harvest.  Growing your own vegetable, fruits, and nuts allows you to plan your harvest. For example, you can plant early, mid, and late varieties of certain vegetables or fruits.  In addition, you can extend your growing season using many inexpensive season-extending techniques.  This gives you more control over your food supply and food security.
• Supplement your livestock's diet with garden waste.  Nothing from the garden should go to waste.  Overripe or blemished fruits and vegetables make a fine meal for your livestock.
• Sell or barter the surplus.  Most of us grown too much on purpose, or maybe we just had our best year ever for a given crop.  Regardless, sell the surplus for a little extra income, or trade with a neighbor.
• Add value to your garden bounty.  Vegetables and fruits can be made into other products such as wine, vinegar, canned foods, insecticides, juice, etc.
• Propagate or grow your own stock from seed.  We're sort of in a unique position here at OOHF since we grow and sell bedding plants from the greenhouses in the spring.  We grow most of these plants from seed and end up planting our garden with the leftovers.
• Grow heiroom varieties and save your own seeds.  Open-pollinated varieties of fruits and vegetables often taste superior to hybrids and will come back true to seed.  You can also carefully select the vegetables and fruits you want to save based on a number of characteristics you wish to continue.
• Plant trees in your forest garden to serve many purposes.  For example, we plant trees for windbreaks, firewood, wildlife value, erosion control, shade, food, animal feed, fiber, etc.
• Grow a garden for craft supplies. Almost all of the perennial plants we grow, sell, and plant at OOHF can be used for dried flowers, fresh cut flowers, natural dyes, wreaths, etc.
• Reduce the size of your lawn.  Since moving to OOHF, we have reduced the lawn size by at least 50% by making pasture, chicken areas, gardens, flower beds, naturalized areas, and orchards.  We still have a long way to go, but as the lawn trees we have planted grow and mature, we'll be able to fill in under them with shade-tolerant species such as elderberry, blueberries, etc.  Besides food, the next best thing will be less grass to mow!

I'm sure I could think of a few more reasons why we garden, but I am interested in hearing from others on why you garden.