This is our farm column from farmer Casey O’Neill. O’Neill is the owner operator of HappyDay Farms north of Laytonville, and a long time advocate for the cannabis community in Mendocino Co; more of his writing can be found here. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor feel free to write to [email protected].
I used to think of planting season and harvest time as two distinct parts of the farm year, the times of heaviest lift but also finite in nature. With the growth of the farm and the consistency of quick crop production, I’m learning that there is no end to planting season and that I need to pace myself to avoid burnout. I’m realizing that I need more consistency in scheduling, but it’s hard to get there with so many balls in the air.
I’ve always thought of April as the month to get going on bed prep, and May for irrigation, but this year I’m realizing that I need to start the heavy prep in March so that I can be working on irrigation in April. It’s so hard to do things ahead of time because the squeaky wheel always gets the grease, and it’s often still wet enough in April that who needs irrigation anyway?
We’re shifting our bed prep strategy based on some observations this week around moisture and decomposition of cover crops. We use old dep tarp plastic to kill weeds and support breakdown of all the biomass, but we’ve had problems with the soil being too dry when the plastic went down because we did the bed prep later in the spring. Our two solutions are to start earlier with prep, and also to lay out the drip and get the timer set to run on a lighter cycle while the plastic is down.
You never want to plant into dry soil if you can avoid it, and once things dry out you lose microbial life, and it takes a lot of irrigating to get things moist again. The cover crop tends to dry to a thatch on the soil surface rather than decomposing, and the soil organisms are driven further down into the undisturbed layers rather than being able to do their work close to the surface on the rich biomass. Figuring out the steps to running the farm is always an ongoing process, getting better each season as we modify and refine.
We also found that we let the cover crop go too long this year, and it was so tall that we had some trouble with the flail mower being able to handle it all, and with the harrow binding up on areas where it encountered longer plant material. Starting earlier solves this problem, so that we can mow, amend, compost, broadfork, harrow, irrigate and cover with plastic. Then the bed is in stasis, getting better with time and targeted irrigation depending on the season. When it’s cool and wet, decomposition doesn’t happen as fast, but the soil doesn’t dry out so irrigation isn’t necessary.
The downside to planting year-round is that I have to learn to pace myself and I never get the thrill of total completion, but the bright side is that there isn’t quite as much of a crunch in the spring. The more I spread things out the better, with smaller successions of crops rather than large plantings, regular bed prep of a few beds at a time rather than big pushes and consistent seeding and clearing of spent crops. Learning to be a step ahead rather than a step behind also requires that I not bite off too much, otherwise I find myself sacrificing self-care and working long hours to keep all the balls in the air.
This is the time of year when we burn the candle at both ends managing all of the maintenance of existing crops while making headway on the things to come. There is so much daily watering, feeding of animals and checking to make sure that nothing has gone awry in the various enterprises that it’s often almost midday by the time I start my new projects. Work runs into the evening, until we wrap up by pulling tarps on the light dep at 8. With the coming heat we’ve been scrambling to get things planted and ready, and we’ve been deeply grateful for the relative cool of the last few days to aid in planting.
Winter squash went in this week, along with the third succession of summer squash. Lettuce got paper-potted into the salad mix tunnel, though I still have to fill in spaces of previous plantings that didn’t survive or were eaten by ground squirrels. We’re still working our way through planting full-season cannabis, as we’ve shifted to a strategy of a larger number of smaller plants of some of the hot new varietals. The seed plants are rocking, some more than six feet tall already, and it feels funny to be planting small clones, but with the closer spacing we know they’ll fill the beds, and the shorter run will produce great herb with fewer inputs and less effort than dealing with large plants.
As we edge into summer and towards the real heat to come, I focus on water; making sure there is enough of it in the right places, cleaning filters, installing drip and setting timers. Water is the lifeblood of the farm, a sacred covenant with an elemental force that is the difference between life and death. I reflect with gratitude on the magic of soil, seed, water, sun and life. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
