
Long Days Preparing Rows At McVean Farm
We were out visiting one of our organic farmers Bob Baloch last night, less than 7 kilometers from our Vegquartes! Talk about local. He was working away at his rows. As proof of his long days, you can see the moon coming up over his right shoulder!
Bob's approach to preparing for planting is to disturb the soil and the bacterial life in the soil as little as possible. But he wants to make space for rain water and air, which the bacteria thrive on. So he puts a fork in the ground every foot or so and rocks the handle back and forth no more than a foot either way. If there are large weeds like dandelion or thistle he pulls them out, making sure to get the entire root. When he's done he applies a light top coating of top soil. Once all that's done, he makes a light pass with a garden rake.
The start of the season has been slowed a couple of weeks with all the recent rain. But we are expecting to be packing salad mix in our Wanigans by the end of the month!