Most folks whipping past our farm at a buck ten comment that the farm looks neatly weeded. I usually caution them that most landscapes look neat when you’re travelling that speed. Not that we don’t try and keep our farm neat, but getting a firsthand look at our gardens would paint a more realistic picture.
When we first started farming on rented land almost a decade ago, our practices were “slack and messy”. Our first few leek patches boasted some of the largest mallow weeds I can remember, and this made harvest a pain! Some of our green onion crops were nothing but a solid mat of red root pigweed that took our crew hours to cleanup – if it weren’t for my wife’s encouragement, they would have been tilled under. Eventually, after asking ourselves why five times (a root cause problem-solving strategy), we realized our farm needed to change.
Don’t get me wrong, we had some incredibly blessed seasons under the “slack and messy” management, but the drudgery and long hours were slowly starting to wear on us. So, a few years ago, we shifted gears and moved to this farm.
Our new farm was designed with more intention. Small, simple, and sheltered. But more on this next time.