It amazes me how much the farm transforms with consistent extra hands around. After much uncertainty, it looks like we've settled with one of last summer's interns, Leah, and her friend Arielle. The two of them make an amazing team - since the volunteer day two weeks ago we've weeded and mulched the asparagus, mulched the sweet potatoes, weeded and mulched the rows of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants... noticing a theme here?
For now, summer on the farm is all about keeping on top of the weeds. I say for now, because the soil food web theory that I've been studying indicates that if I can shift the fungal:bacterial ratio of my soils to become more fungal, many of the weed seeds won't have the proper conditions to germinate. I visited a farm today and saw for myself that the beautiful vision of a less weedy farm via soil biology is indeed possible. I just need to prioritize making compost! Which is hard when there are seedlings that need to go in the ground, chicken coops to be cleaned, fall and winter crops to be planned out... but I want to move away from the action I'll be taking tomorrow, when I'll till several rows in the summer field to put in the next round of peppers and tomatoes. And to move away from that I need to have biologically active soils and compost ready to go on those new beds. And that compost isn't going to make itself, so... to the compost pile!
