Spreading tons of compost in the fields

Every day we are bouncing around the farm from task to task trying to take care of the most pressing needs first and rarely have days we spend the entire day focused on one task.

Yesterday we were able to spend almost the entire day spreading compost and got ahead a good amount so we don’t have to do it for a little.

The best part of it is that we didn’t have to use wheelbarrows and buckets to spread the compost, instead we were able to borrow the compost spreader Rainwater Ranch has that we hooked up to the tractor.

All the physical work was not completely removed as we still had to shovel the compost into the spreader many times but we will gladly do that in exchange for getting a lot more area spread with compost.

We are so grateful that we were able to borrow the compost spreader Rainwater has and to have such a strong, supportive farming community.

In addition to sharing tools and equipment, it is very helpful to talk with other farmers about the challenges each of us is dealing with and hopefully help each other with them.

Some of the field area we got compost on is the area where all of our peppers, eggplants and basil are going to be planted starting soon along with the area where we are planting the next couple of successions of tomatoes.

Spreading compost is just the first step in preparing the area for planting and it is the most time consuming step.

We then chisel plow to incorporate the compost and mowed cover crop into the soil. After letting it decompose for a few days or a week we will finish preparing the beds so that we can plant into them.

We’ve been planting lots of crops in the last week including direct seeding the first melons and green beans of the season.

Everything in the greenhouse is growing so rapidly and with the warm days we had to put out the shade cloth to prevent it from getting too hot.

We will have to remove the shade cloth for the next week or so with the temperatures cooling down significantly.

No day in the 10-day forecast is above 65 degrees and there is the chance of rain for a number of days.

All the spring planted veggies have been growing a lot in the last week with the temperatures reaching the high-70s and so much sunlight. They will slow down their growth in the next week with the cooler weather but we will begin to harvest some of them in another week.