Sustainable agriculture :: How we practice it.

 

When we first began considering the idea of farming, we wanted to ensure that whatever we were going to do, it would leave our backyard in a better place than we found it.  As we began our research to understand how we could meet this goal, we stumbled upon sustainable agriculture. 

With our first beds built, we filled them with plant based compost from a local farm. Hoping to begin to nourish the soil we were planting in, we entirely planted in compost. After that first year, we were hooked. When you treat the soil well, we learned, it rewards you. We were so impressed with how well our plants produced, we became committed to nourishing the soil as best as we are able. 

After that first year, we began to do try to live the soil relatively untilled, and just amend it with compost, or worm castings. This has been rewarded with beautiful crops (like the sunflower above.)

In addition to using compost, we learned more about crop rotation and cover crops. Now in our third year of gardening, we've been encouraged by how well our plants have responded to these methods as well.  

One of the happiest rewards of sustainable agriculture is all the wildlife that has come because of it. We have so many beneficial insects and birds that visit us throughout the year, it really does feel like a community effort. We hope to plant trees this year, as well as some hedges in the years to come to help against wind. We aim to use natural pesticides (like neem oil) or the traditional, water bucket filled with soap to knock asian beetles in. This last year we had a major vine borer problem that I didn't tackle intime. This year we may be doing surgery on many a squash plant. 

Wish us luck!

The one area  we diverge from traditional sustainability is in our fighting Japanese knotweed. When we discovered our land was almost entirely infested with it, we were greatly discouraged. Knotweed doesn't play nice. Fortunately, a call to the local NH extension gave us the tools we needed to fight it. Every year, after all pollinators have left, and the frost has yet to happen, we spray the knotweed with our own mix of herbicide as recommended by the NH extension offices. By doing this, we have not seen a decrease in our numbers of bugs, and we've been able to see the land return to its native fauna (we had a bursting of jack in the pulpit last year where it was previously just knotweed!)