Two Feet in the Dirt

While we watch our little garden of fall greens begin to sprout and grow, our major focus is on getting the farm fields set up for spring. There is no easing into the growing season on a farm. Once late winter hits, the work instantly goes into overdrive, so the goal is to be completely ready to go before then so that no catch-up work needs to be done. Additionally, getting the fields ready for planting now means that we can put in a cover crop over the winter, which will provide the soil protection from compaction caused by rain and snow as well as nutrients to feed the crops next year.

Our original plan was to hire someone with a tractor to come in and do the initial plowing of the field, but after talking with a farmer friend back in Philadelphia, we’ve decided to try out a different technique which will be more gentle on the soil and hopefully provide better longterm weed suppression. Because we are farming on a “micro” scale of under two acres, we have opted to forego the use of a full-sized tractor and instead will use what is known as a walk-behind tractor produced by BCS. Just like a regular tractor, the BCS works by hooking on various attachments, such as tillers, mowers, plows, etc., but instead of driving it, the operator walks behind it and controls it with handles similar to a snow blower or even lawn mower. 

The plan is to use a BCS attachment called a rotary plow, which works by stirring the soil up to depth of twelve inches. First, we are gradually covering all areas of the field that will be planted with enormous plastic tarps, which will hopefully begin the work of killing off the grass and other plants that are currently growing there and thereby help prevent these from becoming long-term weed problems. This will also make the soil easier to work. Next, we will come in with the rotary plow in order to turn in the grass. We will then leave that to break down for a few weeks before shaping the beds and putting in a cover crop. As with everything in farming, this is all at the mercy of the weather, so here’s hoping for sunny days to help the tarps kill the grass, dry weather for plowing, and warm weather to stick around long enough for us to finish everything up!