The Farm: Week 1

Last week on the farm, I:

• Did a lot of weeding;
• Learned about “sheet mulching” as a quick and easy way to start a new garden bed;
• Helped to expand one of the garden beds using this sheet mulching method;
• Mowed a bunch of grass and collected the clippings for mulch;
• Learned the difference between compost and mulch, the order they should be layered in when creating a new bed, and why they’re both important to a healthy garden;
• Learned a bit about companion crops, specifically growing crops for the explicit purpose of attracting harmful bugs away from other plants; and
• Foraged for felled wood in the forest to make a fence

I don’t know yet what I’ll be doing this week.  Tasks are usually assigned each morning according to whatever part of the property seems to need the most attention.  But, I suspect part of this week will be spent making a fence from the foraged wood we collected, not to mention finishing up the bed I started expanding, and possibly planting some winter crops?

The Spanish girl who met me at the train station left this week and another couple showed up from the UK, fresh out of “uni,” as they call it.  They’ll be here through Thursday, and the girl from Vermont leaves Wednesday, when two new people are supposed to show up from I don’t know where.  I honestly don’t know how the owner manages it all – it’s quite a lot of balls to juggle.

This place has only been up and running for about a year, so it’s still very much in start-up phase.  There’s a lot of physically demanding work that needs to done to turn this year-old farm into a self-sustaining permaculture system.  We work about 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, often hunched over the beds or lifting and carrying awkward loads around the property.  That said, I realized this morning just how completely relaxed I am being out here.  Every day brings new challenges, and I am immersed in a completely foreign environment where everything is new to me.  It’s kind of like being in school again, but without all the stress and striving and competition.  It’s really wonderful so far.

TL;DR:  Every day’s a new adventure on the farm.