by Briscoe White | Nov 23, 2009 | Exploring, Gardening, Life on the Farm, Miscellaneous |
Tunnels are a greenhouse type structure used to protect high value crops such strawberries, raspberries, and cherries. A roof, raised beds, and drip irrigation allow growers to raise crops in a more controlled environment. Many times high tunnels pay for themselves by saving a crop from late a freeze, heavy rain, hail, etc. Tunnels were first used in Spain; then, later redesigned as High Tunnels in the UK. By making them higher and wider, tractors can be used in soil and bed preparation; rolling carts can be used for harvest, adding up to huge cost savings, greater reliability, and unblemished fruit.
Another way tunnels add crop value is with season extension. By closing doors at night, summer produce can be grown for several months earlier and later each season, using trapped solar heat. This allows a grower to produce more common vegetables such as squash and tomatoes earlier and later than those grown outdoors. For customers, supplies of fresh local produce are not interrupted by late freezes, storms, or rain. Pickers always have access, so things get to market as planned. And fresh fruit and vegetables are available locally for many more months than is possible with outdoor growing. And because plants are not exposed to uncontrolled moisture from rain and dew, pest and disease problems are minimal. In six years of growing strawberries in tunnels, we have never sprayed anything on them. This could be luck or it could be the results of covered growing, ether way, we eat strawberries from the field with out any cares about pesticide residue.
The Growers Exchange operates one acre of high tunnels. In them he grow a varying array of crops for the local market. We were the first in Virginia to use high tunnels, they are used widely in areas north of us, but are just catching on here. Supplying local farmer markets, super markets, and CSA’s, we grow strawberries, selected seasonal vegetables, and cut flowers. The Growers Exchange ships plants all over the U.S.; but because we are also a farm, we feel strongly about being apart of to “ loca-vore” movement. Our high tunnels allow us to be a reliable supplier with only top quality produce, with out that roof we are vulnerable to anything the weather sends our way. Tunnels can and do get knocked down sometimes, but for the most part have allowed us to grow thing not possible with out them. We see them a very important tool in securing local sources, allowing local growers to compete with the reliability of grocery stores.
Learn more about high tunnels..
by Briscoe White | Nov 5, 2009 | Basics, Gardening |
Here it is a rainy, kind of nasty day outside; a Sunday and I had hoped to work on my latest yard project: a little rock wall and 6 steps on my woodland path garden. The neighborhood I live in was first built in the 1920’s and the builder used my lot to bury the debris of the several houses he built here. What was considered leftovers in 1920 are what any gardener today would consider treasures. Our town is built on granite, so cobblestones and curbstone of early Richmond roadways were built out of cheap and plentiful granite blocks of all sizes. My supply seems endless, no matter how many are actually buried there. I am limited by the time and effort it takes to excavate and relocate the blocks.
Whatever the task I am working on, transplanting to excavating rocks, I always have one tool with me. I have a box with all of my cool little garden helpers. Most have been gifts and are sentimental as well as practical. But there is one tool I would feel truly handicapped with out. That one indispensable tool to me is the plain old short handled spade. The difference between a spade and a shovel is that the spade is a cutting tool. It is only marginally successful at cleaning loose dirt from a hole. That lowly task is best left to the shovel; which it is very good at that job! No, the spade is a specialist that cleanly cuts the soil more like a knife than a shovel.
I have several spades, and can proudly claim to have broken in the act of gardening, several of the more famous imported brands of very handsome spades. The one I will never wear out began its gardening career long before me. Nothing fancy, just built to last: a circa 1950 True Temper garden spade, available at any self respecting hardware store. With a real Ash handle and good old American made steel. Between the gardener I inherited it from and myself, it has dug and planted just about anything imaginable. And even though it is a rainy day, the spade and I did manage to slip a few Ajuga out of some Mondo Grass and plant it in the new rock garden.
And once again the spade was proven in invaluable garden tool. With a cutting tool I can slip a few plants out of the ground, plant a tree, or dig up a huge rock. Sometimes I do switch to a shovel, but only to clean away loose soil. So the spade can get back to work.
by Briscoe White | Oct 28, 2009 | Flowers, Gardening |
Without ever thinking much about it, we were mowing several acres of grass all summer, mainly because it was done that way before we inherited farm management. Being gardeners and growers of garden plants, we were more than happy to replace a grass lawn with anything, especially if we could plant more flowers.
The solution for most of these areas was as simple as moving some fences and let the cows and horses graze the same grass we had been mowing. But the area along the road to the house was not a place we wanted livestock roaming. So, that winter, I tilled the grass and let nature kill the unwanted grass. In early spring I used a seed drill to plant the area with a few pounds of cosmos seed. Cosmos was chosen for several reasons; the seed is inexpensive and gives a huge return for very little effort. It grows tall fast and forms a canopy, which inhibits weed growth. And best of all it blooms from spring until a killing frost ends it for the year. This patch of color can be seen for a long ways off; and the drive itself became a tunnel of color everyone enjoys. We get regular calls from neighbors searching for pink flowers for baby showers, weddings, etc. And because there is so much from so little seed, we can always say, help yourself to all you want.
Being familiar with cosmos, this was all well and good, but held few surprises. It wasn’t until the stand had been killed by frost that we discovered cosmos’s hidden treasure. The patch looked pretty bad, all dead and starting to blow down when I decided to mow it for winter. As I approached the stand on a tractor, a sudden burst of activity and color stopped me from cutting. If there was one, there were two hundred goldfinches fleeing what to them was a bountiful banquet. It turned out that they highly favor cosmos seed and there were several hundred pounds of it on the hoof.
It is true we love flowers for their own sake, but we have always felt birds are an important component of any garden. What we had here was the largest concentration of goldfinches any of us had ever seen. So now, after frost, those dead plants are not so unsightly. We adjust to the changing season and instead of looking for a wall of color, we look for a sudden burst of yellow as the finches dart to the safety of trees. The birds are every bit as exciting as the flowers; and we do enjoy sharing the farms bounty with the birds! While quietly contemplating this garden one realizes how given the chance, life will move in and find something of value, even if we did not see it without a little help from our friends, the goldfinches. I would never mow that patch until it is picked cleaned of seed, it just wouldn’t be neighborly. And we do love our little neighbors, the goldfinches.
by Briscoe White | Oct 5, 2009 | Gardening |
Copperhead Snake
At The Grower’s Exchange, we like to peacefully share our space with the critters that live around us. We pride ourselves on using natural methods of growing that also encourage the growth of allies in the fight against pests: tree frogs, toads, skinks, black snakes and lizards. We use methods that don’t bother these guys, they in turn feast on pests that get in our way, and it all works pretty well.
Our “open door policy” does occasionally invite a few unwelcomed visitors; last week, this copperhead came calling, and got far too close for comfort. This has been the summer for copperheads – our neighbors have all had them, and one even got “snake bit” and is still suffering. Not life threatening, but pretty darn close. It’s been the talk of the county. And, while away at the Independent Garden Center convention in Chicago, my 15-year-old texted me a picture of a really large copperhead – you have to get pretty close to get a clear picture with a cell phone. Of all the things you worry about when you are away from your teenagers, copperheads were not on my list. Besides that, he’s a bit like his dear old dad, and I knew he’d be way too close for my comfort!
Well, back to the Unwelcomed Visitor. As much as we love nature and want to work in harmony with all the creatures around us, this guy had to go. There are two types of personalities on staff – “terrified of snakes” and “snake handlers.” I fit the last category and I simply escorted my visitor to the door, so to speak. He was deposited at a remote location on the farm, about 500 acres from the greenhouse!
