Soil blocking

 At the farm we use the soil blocking method. Its something developed by Eliot Coleman who wrote a fantastic book, The New Organic Grower. Its basically a way to start seeds in a nutrient packed little cube giving the plants the best start possible. By making the blocks you are eliminating the plastic containers and root shock. Its quite laborious and takes a lot of soil, compost and time to get it right but its worth it.

First you make the mix

Making the soil blocks

Your work station

Filling the green house tray by tray

Heirloom Seeds for sale

Getting our Farmstand all dialed in and ready to open in march.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for sale. I choose the varieties for sale so they are perfect for our region and season.

All heirloom no GMOs allowed.

$2.50 a pack

Seeds

Our first seeds got started today. Fantastic!

Wildflowers

Last year when I took a work/ personal vacay up to Santa Rosa to attend the Heirloom Seed Expo I stopped in Petaluma to visit the Seed Bank. I had visions of planting wildflowers at the farm and needed some seed. There is a nice slope in between the bee yard and the growing field that needed some something...something.

The bag of Wildflowers has been calling to me ever since. But as always at the farm it takes a lot of work to do anything. We needed to clear debris ( and I'm talking carpet, buried clothes, box springs) and pull zillions of weeds. But we did it and the seed has been sowed. Thank you to all my helpers, it was quite a task.

I tried to wait until the rain came to plant but since its never going to come I decided to just water. Someday it will rain, right?

Putting the seed in the ground

Everyone was working hard to help get our first seed in the ground, it's looking great.

30lbs of happiness

Today we are putting our first seed in the ground. This Soil Builder Mix from Peaceful Valley will help build our nitrogen and make our soil plantable for our summer crops.
It's a beautiful thing.