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.
We’re not usually running major irrigation in March. It’s a difficult call; do I install the timers and have to manage draining the system for possible freezes, or do I limp along running the water manually and doing a lot of hand-watering? Without the timers, I turn on some beds and then space it out, waking up in the night and realizing I have to get up to go out and shut off the water.
Seeing the oak trees leafing out already, smelling the flowers and listening to the birds, it’s obvious that spring is here. With the forecast for warm, sunny weather, I’ve decided to go ahead and install the timers and get the irrigation running automatically and on a schedule. Then we can hand-water tender crops that need additional support in the low tunnels. All of the high tunnels are on sprinklers and have timers already set up, so that part is done.
If I switch out the Reemay on the low tunnels and just run insect netting, then I can also run sprinklers for the closely spaced tender crops that get watered unevenly with the nine-inch spacing of the irrigation. But Reemay protects better from cold weather, which I’m certain we’ll still see in the months to come. Farming is full of these types of choices, with benefits and drawbacks to each decision. The best you can do is hedge your bets and go with gut feeling.
Our winter was so mild, and the trends have been warming so consistently that I’ve decided to shift into full spring mode even though it’s a month earlier than usual. With the kind of warmth I’m seeing in the forecast, I either have to dedicate a ton of time to managing water, which slows down the other farm operations or go ahead with deploying irrigation and pulling cold-weather covers.
We’re making good use of the weather while we have it, mowing cover crops, prepping beds and covering them with old dep tarp to break down the biomass into rich, vital soil for the season to come. Some of the cannabis terraces are already planted to salad mixes, bok choy, scallions, cilantro and radishes. When these crops come out in June, we’ll plant the young cannabis plants and rock on through summer until harvest in fall. Then the cover crop will go back in, building fertility and using up any leftover nutrients to enrich the soil over the winter.
I’m planning to undersow a summer cover crop this year of buckwheat and red clover, which will add nutrients to the soil and make lovely flowers for the bees and other pollinators, while attracting beneficial insects that will reduce pest pressure and support the health of our farmscape. Increasing biodiversity is always a goal in our practices of stacked functions that create multiple beneficial impacts and produce the best crops we can grow. Each year the soil is more vital and we get better at our craft. The excitement of spring is palpable in my veins with the chance to do it all again.
I’ve been reading about the ways that plants take up nutrients from living soil, learning about interactions between microorganic soil populations and the plants they benefit by helping them to produce more compounds that in turn are beneficial to the humans who consume them. By tending the soil to help it live and thrive, we set the stage for plants to do their best work to help us live and thrive. This good energy is cyclical, the driving force in our lives as we follow Grandpa’s adage “Let us be happy in our work.”
Living soil tended with care and regenerative practices creates health and well-being for the land and those who consume what is grown there. This tending defines my life, giving me direction and purpose, a calling in service to plants and land that brings me great joy. The smell of the flowers, the taste of crisp, sweet greens, the cycles of abundance that spring from the seeds we sow.
As I sit writing, I can smell the bouquet of narcissus and daffodil on the kitchen table, a reminder that spring is here. Dawn breaks the horizon, and I look forward to another sunny day and to the magic of seeds, plants, love. Living soil is the antidote to my fears and struggles, my reminder that the Earth nourishes us, and my prayer for the future. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
Early watering now encourages string roots. Plants and beds that get the same watering schedule throughout their growing cycle grow the fastest and produce 2x the veggies and fruit. Happy Farmin