Casey O’Neill is a farmer and owner of Happy Day Farms in Laytonville, Calif. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mendocino Voice. If you’d like to write your own column for The Mendocino Voice, send your idea to info@mendovoice.com.
From the kitchen window in the predawn light, I see the sky is clear, moon shining. I step out the door to feed the animals and realize that the air isn’t cold, no frost on the ground. Lately clear skies have come with cold north winds and hard freezes, and I am struck by the deep joy of spring. Growth and life flourish as the season turns, burgeoning life beckons and adds a spring to my steps.
It is planting time for the thousands of vegetable starts in the propagation house. They have been waiting, straining skyward and testing the capacity of the little paperpot cells that contain them. Beets, scallions, bok choy, kale, collards, Asian greens salad mix, mizuna, tatsoi, red choy and lettuce will all go out this week into beds we prepped a couple weeks back and covered with plastic. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and romanesco in their 3” pots will be set out to harden off for planting in a week.
I like transplanting more than direct seeding because it lessens the weed competition. The plants that go in are already more than three weeks old so they have a jump start. Bed prep is key; ensuring a smooth, soft, clear space for planting takes effort and planning. One piece of the puzzle is making sure there are starts to plant, and the other is staying ahead of bed prep so there are places to plant them.
Two weeks ago I mowed the remaining pea shoots and blown-out arugula. We amended, added compost, broad-forked and then ran the BCS with the power harrow across the bed surface to make a smooth planting space and incorporate the additions and the chopped crop detritus. Then we covered the beds with plastic to smother weeds and keep nutrients from leaching in the rain before planting time.
Today and tomorrow we’ll pull and fold the plastic, I’ll use the Paper Pot Transplanter to plant the crops, we’ll lay out the drip lines and then cover the beds with one layer of insect netting and an additional layer of spun row fabric, held down by sandbags and T-posts. The fabric will stay on for the next couple of weeks and then once the plants are well established we’ll stuff it back into totes until fall. The insect netting will suffice to keep birds away and provide shelter for the tender greens.
Covering crops has become a core part of our practices to ensure consistent and high quality harvests. The spun row fabric comes in two thicknesses: 18 weight is a thinner protective cover that provides a couple of degrees of extra warmth and shelters the plants from the desiccating winds, while a thicker, 30 weight frost blanket is more durable so it doesn’t rip as easily. It also heats up much more on warm days and sheds more water than the more porous 18 weight. We buy 30 weight frost blanket in 14’ width, as it works great for low tunnels made with hoops bent from 10’ EMT metal conduit.
The insect netting and thinner fabric are held down on the edges of the beds but are free-floating on top of the crop, pushed upwards by the growing leaves. This saves the trouble of collapse and damage during snow events, and most of the greens don’t mind being flattened by snow so long as they aren’t sized up too big. If they’re big enough to harvest, we pick them before a snow event to avoid damage and crop loss.
As we transition into the heat of the coming season we’ll pack away the spun fabrics, for they add to temperatures and don’t allow air movement the way the thinner insect netting does. At this point we shift to shade cloth for all new plantings, giving the disturbed roots and tender seedlings time to acclimate in their final homes. We start with thicker 50% shade cloth and will use 30% shade cloth for the entire lives of tender salad mixes during the hotter months.
In the early days I suffered many crop losses to birds, freezes, heat spells and pest pressure from insects like the harlequin beetles that plague any uncovered brassica crop. I used to be resistant to the extra labor to cover crops, but over time I have learned that it’s always better to take the time on the front end to protect the plants than end up with a loss that puts a hole in my market lineup. The covers also increase quality by reducing pest blemishes and heat or cold damage, and the shade cloth helps reduce the labor of hand-watering tender crops while they acclimate to new surroundings.
As the big planting season begins, I find myself excited to do it again, to apply the lessons learned to farm smarter and more capably. The vibrancy of the young plants in the propagation house brings me great joy, and watching them march out into their final homes soothes my soul of much trouble and anxiety. The sun returns, and it is good. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
Casey O’Neill owns and runs HappyDay Farms, a small vegetable and cannabis farm north of Laytonville. He is a long time cannabis policy advocate, and was born and raised in the Bell Springs area. The preceding has been an editorial column. The Mendocino Voice has not necessarily fact-checked or copyedited this work, and it should be interpreted as the words of the author, not necessarily reflecting the opinions of The Mendocino Voice.