A No-Till Market Garden
No-till
Our gardening methods include minimal soil disruption, encouraging healthy soil microorganisms and fungi. The fungi and microorganism interactions allow our plants to get more nutrient dense and delicious.
Roto-tillers and shovels are replaced with silage tarps and compost in order to break new ground. Leaving the tarps in place for a few months kills off invasive perennial weeds.
After the tarps have cleared out the weeds and left the fungi and friends undisturbed, we add local compost on top and leave it. Tilling in compost can cause weed seeds to come to the surface, germinate and undo all our hard work. Tilling also cuts up the delicate fungal growth.
Rotating cover crops through all our beds allow us to continue to add organic matter and nutrients thoughout the year. These cover crops are not tilled in, we simply chop them down and leave them as mulch, protecting the soil and adding to its nutrient base. Seedlings are then planted into the mat of mulch or direct seed straight into our added local compost.
Natural pest control
It’s important to us to keep our land free of harmful chemicals. We use alternate methods to decrease pest pressure. We use insect netting over our beds. We encourage biological diversity and use our resident birds, frogs, snakes and beetles to eat our pests. We purchase beneficial nematodes and give these to the soil. Nematodes are tiny soil living “worms” which attack over 200 different kinds of pests.
If resident critters and introduced beneficial insects do not work, we will use diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth is a concentrated silica powder (fossilized algae). Diatomaceous earth is safe for humans, and harmful to insects. We hesitate to use this product because it isn’t picky, its a powder we put down where there is overwhelming pest pressure, and it will harm both good and bad bugs. So rest assured this is a last ditch effort, it is safe (for humans), natural and we rarely use it.
Our vegetables and Where you can find us
We are offering a variety of vegetables this year. After spending years growing a large amount of different vegetables for ourselves family and friends, we decided to pare it down. We want to get really good at growing certain crops and then add new vegetables every season as we learn and grow.
This summer we will be at the Vernon Farmers Market on Thursdays and Armstrong Farmers Market on Mondays. We would love to see you there! In coming years as our crops diversify we will offer other outlets, so please stay tuned, we have lots of dreams and ideas. Are you a restaurant owner/chef/grocery store buyer? Please reach out. Do you live in the area and are interested in a veggie box subscription service? Please let us know! These are all things we think about a lot and are interested in growing into.
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