wet, cool, and unseasonable weather....

[Alan]

Here in Indiana the weather has been all screwed up this spring, very cold and wet and to say the least it is making things very difficult, germination and seed rotting is becoming a huge problem, and already this year I think I have battled every insect that I know of on my plants and some I didn't know could or would do damage!

It's really getting dis-heartening, but you know me I will work my ass off to make everything right, and this is good in a way, because it takes away from me having to hand select each and everything to produce seed crops of for on farm and off farm use, trading, and the eventual seed bank program.

Anyone else having problems?

One whole acre of watermelon seed rotted in the ground, a half acre of winter squash, an acre of sweet corn....How much can I take? Bring it on I say, I will persever (knocks on wood).

I spent the weekend replanting all that property with an earthway hand seeder, the ground was already worked, there were no weeds, and I'll be damned if I will further destroy my soil structure with over cultivation, but damnit did that ever wear me out, between that and my community tasks that I am working on, I am wore out, but slowly gaining strength, stamina, and determination, I have also decided that a CSA is definetly where my interests in commercial farming will delve further into in comming years, it's just so convinent and the members are so understanding of bumps in the road and wanting to help on the farm, which is great, more time to focus on breeding, selection, harvesting and getting my product to customers in the freshest way possible!

I have also decided to get pretty heavily into more diversified smaller gardens for things like cole crops and lettuces, flowers and so forth, more hand work, less petrol, lots of composts, lots of areas for bio-diversity and food crop diversity, sanctuary for beneficial insects and trap crops. More hand tools and work with soil structure is needed to refine what I want to do and demonstrations and writing papers that are well accepted will help to inspire me to do so, plus I need the exersize of using walk behind manual seeders, cultivators, thatch rakes, u-bars. Of course big crops will have to use tractors, but bio-diesel is not out of the question for my massey and john deer, solar power to the greenhouses has been a topic of discussion in this household for a couple of weeks.

Lots of things on my mind.

Been doing a lot to try to educate my community, trying to work with three different historical societies on modern natural agriculture, historical agriculture, and sending my new and the old local seed out where they will be used, lots of future demonstrations, meetings, community improvement and a couple of community historical gardens in historical sites. There will be much to share with everyone this fall, maybe one day Washington county will be on your high priority to visit, both for my good company and the deep culture and history of the people and thier agricultural and historical systems, I am working, but am only one man, one who is striving to do my part in making great things happen and I just want to tell everyone on this site thank you for supporting me, please keep this message board hoping this summer while I'm busy, I will be in intermittenly and will be in full time this fall, when truly amazing things will see fruition.

I love you all,

Sorry for the rambling, keep up the good work!

[stratcat]

Hey Alan-hang in there.

As gardeners (and you, a farmer) we are by nature optimistic. Something good always comes out of our hard work.

Keep on keepin' on, brother.

john

[grungy]

We'll be here when you are and in between time if I say so myself. Hope the gardening/farming picks up for you.
Cheers,
Val / grungy and Dan / grunt

[flowerpower]

Alan, I saw a CSA from 50 mi away advertising here. Can't understand that since this county has some of the best farmland in the world. Maybe you should look into horse power.

[plantsnobin]

I have a couple horses you could use...sure can't put a saddle on them. Maybe a few hundred pounds of farm equipment would slow Pacer down a bit, but I doubt it. This weather is hard on planting, for sure. I am loving it, of course. Anything over 60 degrees and I am a smelly pig. But, I am glad that you are heading into some perennial crop areas. You can take advantage of different harvest times to spread the risk out. I will be glad to help you out there wherever I can.