It All Begins With Soil

“Feed the Soil” is the mantra we use when practicing soil conservation. Vegetable production requires intensive use of the soil, and with that in mind, extensive soil conservation practices are necessary. We practice a debit and credit system on our fields. What we take out must be put back in in another form. Cover crops, composting and adding organic amendments, and integrated pest management are a few of the ways we are able to balance our output. Maintaining a healthy and alive soil food web is our priority.

Cover Crops

We use cover crops to conserve the soil when it is not in use. When a bed is taken out of production for the year, we seed it with a cover crop to keep bare soil from being exposed for too long. We use a variety of different cover crops throughout the year depending on our desired impact. Some common covers are: clovers, rye grass, tillage radish, and buckwheat. Cover crops are then turned into the soil at the end of their lifespan, thus feeding the soil with a fresh crop residue to be broken down and distributed along the soil nutrient cycle

Composting & Amendments

In the spring and fall we spread compost over our fields to add additional organic matter into the nutrient cycle. Compost is affectionately referred to as “Black Gold” among farmers. It contains micronutrients as a result of organic materials being broken down into their most simple components. We try to source our compost as local as possible and use multiple sources like cow manure, horse manure, and even compost sourced from homes. We keep our own compost pile on the farm to store organic material removed from the land. We use this pile to add compost to fruit trees and perennial beds.

Each year we amend our soil with organic fertilizers to balance out any soil nutrient deficiencies and keep a well balanced soil eco system.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Dealing with pests and disease on an organic farm requires a diverse tool kit for handling them. At Dog Days Farm, we believe that Integrated Pest Management best represents our philosophies for dealing with pest and disease. Although we are not certified organic, we use exclusively organic practices in our fields. IPM takes the focus off of pesticides as the primary agent of pest management. Instead, cultural, mechanical, and biological practices are implemented before resorting to the use of chemical agents. Cultural controls are everything already written about soil health. We maintain a healthy soil profile to provide the best environment possible for growing plants to fight off pests, plant pollinator strips to invite beneficial insects, and keep natural areas in tact to maintain habitat for local flora and fauna. Mechanical controls involve using row cover to protect plants from the elements and proper plant spacing to provide adequate airflow. Biological controls are used when we release beneficial insects to balance out pest infestation. Pollinator strips and natural areas are a form of biological and cultural control. Beneficials we release include lady bugs and parasitic wasps. Finally if all other options are unable to contain pest outbreaks, an organic pesticide will be used to limit further damage. In my seven years at Tracie’s I never used pesticides, and don’t intend to start without being certain I have exhausted all other options.

Working With The Land

This land is inseparable from the people on it. We cannot exist on a piece of land without altering it in some way by walking across it, spreading seeds from foreign places, and introducing new organisms. We acknowledge that the practices we use on the land impact it and our responsibility is to steward the land so that we are giving to it as much as we are getting from it. We had a PhD student in biology on the farm one summer and when discussing releasing lady bugs to balance an aphid infestation, he reasoned that we introduced the aphids by providing them a habitat with fewer natural enemies, and our duty was to tip the scales back in favor of a natural balance. I often keep this in mind when thinking of the farms relationship with the land and the give and take required to keep it healthy.

Land Acknowledgement

I cannot talk about peoples impact on the land without acknowledging those that first walked on this land. Dog Days Farm is located on N’dakinna, which is the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land and waterways and the alnobak (people) who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.