Irrigation lines

Jonathan rented a trencher to get a new irrigation line to the
greenhouses. Hand watering was taking over 2 hours of valuable
daylight. Since our water pressure occurs naturally (Whiskey Creek

is above the farm and the water is delivered at 80 psi) we have a
zero carbon footprint when we irrigate our crops.

A warm spring day...

It's hard to believe that it snowed earlier this week, but for now we will bask in the warm sunlight of spring. Jonathan and Christina have finished laying out the beds in both greenhouses and have been busy getting plants in the ground. The beautiful order of Eliot Coleman's farm layout is starting to be seen.

Propagation Station

Jonathan improved our seedling's world with these rails close to the
ground (the ground stays warmer at night than tables do) that have
complete drainage for the trays and a 5% tilt toward the sun (which
actually makes the sun's rays equal to 300 miles south.

Emerging Peas...

Each one of these blocks has 4 pea seeds in it. We will not thin them like most gardeners do, but will let all four grow. These were planted on March 31st.

Compost

We are fortunate to have an OMRI certified compost supplier in the
state. This is about 3 tons of the black gold that we will spread on
our seed beds right before planting or transplanting. We are in the

process of making our own compost from grasses on the farm, but it
will take two years before it is ready to use.

In the ground...

With some help from Amy (a friend who took time away from her Master's thesis in Organic Agriculture) we set out our first transplants of Kale in the coldhouse. Since we didn't have the tool mentioned in the previous post, we used the old fashioned string method.

Don't look for what you want...

There is no picture with this post, because we don't have what we need at this time. We are laying out the planting patterns in order to transplant the soil blocks into the beds, but even at this early stage we have five different transplant patterns... and almost 6,000 square feet of greenhouses to plant. Since there is no pre-made pattern makers, we will have to make our own. We'll look around the farm and figure something out. That's why I always say... "Don't look for what you want. Look for what will do what you want." - David

Organic Additives

The second greenhouse (or the first cold house depending on how you want to look at it) got it's initial dosage of lime, fish bone meal and feather meal. These are approved organic additives that we are adding to get the soil up to the proper pH level, as well as nitrogen and phosphorus. We determined the soil needs by having soil analysis done by a lab.

Soil blocks inside soil blocks

We transplanted the small soil blocks into bigger ones so their roots can keep expanding. This bunch of happy plants are kale plants that we started on Friday the 13th of March.

Second Greenhouse Covered!

With some help from some friends from Seattle... the second greenhouse is now covered! Technically this would be called a cold frame since we are not going to put endcaps on it. We are going to use it not necessarily for the captured heat, but instead as a place to get some early crops going during the rainy season.

Tomato seeds

When I was a kid, I always wanted to dig up the seeds in the garden to see if they were doing anything. Well, with our soil blocks, the seeds are (usually) not covered. They just sit on the soil block soaking up the sun and fresh Whiskey Creek water until... wow... just one week after they were dropped onto our mini blocks, the seeds have germinated on their toasty warm propogation pads.

Ventilation Test

Greenhouses are an artificial environment that can get their own special problems like pests or mold. In order to minimize that, we built our greenhouses with lots of ventilation options. This is our first test to see how well our design worked. Temperature control is also a concern because even in rainy Oregon, when the sun comes out, it is a powerful force. Yes, the temp inside the greenhouse was 92 degrees... before we opened the doors and side vents.

Kale Emergence

Our first mini blocks of Kale are emerging. The beauty of using soil
blocks is that unlike direct seeding, where you have to plant multiple
seeds in order to guarantee emergence - then thin out the extra if all
seeds emerge, we will only transplant the strongest emerged seeds...
and will not have to thin. These seeds were planted less than a week
before this picture was taken, and have been sitting on a propagation
pad that keeps the blocks warm to encourage emergence.

Our first soil blocks.

We couldn't use the organic compost we bought because even though it
was organic, the seller couldn't prove that they had kept it at the
right temperature for the necessary time. We used dirt from our greenhouse and sifted it down through a 1/4" screen. Eliot Coleman recommends using Greensand for soil blocks, but our dirt is already high in iron, potassium, and trace minerals so we didn't use it.

The bunkhouse

My home away from home on Duncan Island.

Greenhouse Dash?

No, we're not having races in the greenhouse, we're putting organic
limestone into the soil to raise the pH from 4.8 to over 6.

We're farming now

Well, sort of. We tilled up Greenhouse 1 with a hand tiller rather than
with the tractor so we wouldn't have wheel compaction.

Second greenhouse is ready for plastic.

The Plastic is on...

In our attempt to convert a cow pasture to an organic farm, we achieved a milestone of sorts with the covering of our first greenhouse.

The Plastic is on...

So how do you get a 96 x 30 foot greenhouse covered in plastic?  You pull it over the top like a bedsheet.  Four of us started the process and got quite the plastic over the top before some more help arrived to help finish it.

Greenhouse frame is up

We positioned the greenhouse on a true East/West line to maximize the limited sun during the early and late seasons.