This summer season is certainly not over, but I am already planning for the next season in the garden. Each year we get better organized and a bit savvier about how to make the farm and market operation easier. As I was pulling the last of the squash plants today to make way for our broccoli and greens, I thought about the "Top Ten" list of things I learned in the garden so far this year.
1. My kinky affair is over. Sure, it sounded like a good idea at first. I was lured into thinking it would be both fun and practical. But those coiled hoses are one of the most aggravating tools we have ever had on the farm (were you thinking something else?). Perhaps these infomercial wonders are great for the occasional car wash, but we found that after they were extended through the greenhouse a couple of times, all these hoses wanted to do was get kinky! No thanks. The day I bought extra heavy duty, extra long hoses, my daily water chores got much easier and my vocabulary got cleaner.
2. Rabbits don't clean their plates. This was the first year we planted tomatoes behind the barn, which is far from dog and cat prowling grounds, so rabbits were a problem for the first time in our farming history. We planted 12 different types of tomatoes in the new field and the rabbits chose the ones they liked best. It seems they prefer the pink and orange tomatoes to the reds and they don't like plum tomatoes no matter what the variety. They really like the big one-to-two pounders, but only like to eat half of the big 'mator before moving on to the next! After all that taste testing, I think I will get one of those a bunnies to be the Windcrest Farm Tomato spokesman, just like those insurance folks did with the gecko.
3. If it can be trellised, do it. Trellising tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers sure makes harvesting easier and we did not do enough of it this year. I'm thinking of hanging planters for the lettuces and if I can figure out a way to vertically grow squash I'll be in heaven.
4. Cultivation is easier than weeding. Cultivation is getting the weeds with the stirrup hoe when they are ¼ INCH tall; weeding is when those undesirable plants are ¼ FOOT tall and requires anything from hand pulling to the weed eater. I am happy to say I did much better in this department than last year and the results were rewarding. If you don't own a stirrup hoe yet, get one while you are out buying that heavy duty hose.
5. Straw bale construction is so fast and easy even an old farmwoman can do it. 
Using straw bales, I can finally build compost bins as quickly as I need them without worrying about the safety and sustainability of the building materials. Plus I know that if I put them in the wrong location this year I can easily move them next year and leave a lovely rich garden spot behind. Or I can leave them where they are and trellis things on it (see Lesson #3). The chickens love their straw bale house which was constructed in less than 2 hours! And that's loofa sponge squash trellising up the sides the chicken coop in the picture below.
6. Chickens are just plain cool! 
The pair of Black-laced Golden Polish chickens we got this spring, Kramer & Vegas, greet me each morning and talk to me thoughout the day as I work in the garden. I did not realize how personable chickens are and I am amazed at their soft, cooing vocabulary. Ray & I have talked about adding laying hens for fresh eggs to the farm mix but we haven't solved the issue of what to do with the girls after their laying days are over. We get very attached to anything that recognizes us! In the meantime, Kramer & Vegas are making short order of the half-eaten tomatoes coming from the back field and turning them into compost material. Hmm, maybe the chickens are talking with those bunnies about getting in on the taste testing!
7. Teenagers can strip a garden faster than tomato hornworms can strip a tomato plant. That's a good thing when you need a hoop house cleared of bolted lettuce or a tomato patch cleared of weeds. Our visiting Passport summer campers were a great resource for the farm this year. They provided a helping hand and the opportunity for me to work with young people who are concerned with the future of our plant.
8. Buckwheat blooms are a great cut flower. Combine one field planted with a buckwheat cover crop and one farmer who didn't have time to shop for supplies for her floral design class and you find out that buckwheat blooms last longer than zinnias and black-eyed susan in a vase.
9. Bolting is beautiful. When a lettuce, broccoli, or fennel plant sends up a seed stalk it has "bolted" and the plant develops a bitter taste to us humans. Interesting that in equine terms, a horse that has run out of our control is said to have "bolted". So prior to attending a workshop this summer, I viewed those bolted plants as something I really shouldn't have let get out of control! Then I learned that a bolted plant is a welcome sight for pollinating and beneficial insects and we should let a plant or two bolt into a buffet for those insects that help defend our garden against pesky predators. Plus the fennel seed heads look great in a vase (see Lesson #8).
10. Those aren't weeds, that is a Natural Conservation Area! The collapse of honey bee colonies has raised the awareness of the role of pollinators in our food system, but honey bees are not the only pollinators we rely on. There are over 200,000 species of pollinators that include beneficial insects such as flies, beetles, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, plus a variety of bees. Apparently our manicured landscapes, highways and other "managed" areas are destroying natural habitats for foraging, nesting and/or egg laying by pollinators and other beneficial insects. So I will no longer feel bad about that un-mowed piece of bottomland or that wild fence line - they are Natural Conservation Areas!
