Spring Preparations
We finally had a nice Saturday where we could spend some time outside and get things ready for this growing season. There are always a lot of chores to do once the weather warms and this year isn't any different.
First on the list was to move the beehives to a more secluded location. Unfortunately, I lost hives again over the winter. I'm having a hard time figuring out why I can make it through one winter, but never two in a row. It's actually really discouraging...so much that I'm thinking about taking a season off. I decided to cut back this year and really focus on getting some core hives through several seasons. I'm going to change my mite treatment schedule (though I saw no evidence of mites in my cleanouts of the dead hives) and cut back on how much honey we're harvesting. I also moved the hives back into the treeline to provide a little more wind protection.
We're also doubling our flower growth this year which means we need a second garden bed for growing. We cut a new plot (60' x 70') last fall and covered with with leaf litter collected by the town in the fall. We tilled up the soil and mixed the leaves in to provide a bunch of carbon over the winter while they rotted down. This spring, I remixed the leaves and we started laying new compost in planting rows. We'll use a heavy layer of wood chips in between each row to help keep weeds under control.
This brings us up to about 7,000 square feet of growing space for the farm. Hopefully, we're able to max out what we're able to sell this year with our own farm as well as some local connections who would also like to sell our flowers to their customers.
Up next is getting the new bed finished and then focusing on cleaning out the barn so we can pour a concrete floor and add a small walk in cooler for flower storage between harvest and sale.
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A thought from Alan Levine
2026-03-29 20:09:31I enjoy seeing the plot and reading your plans. Thanks for your mastodon replies about irrigation. It’s still early here in Saskatchewan (fresh snow today, but ever bit of moisture is welcomed). Are you running your own machines for wood chipping? We’ve been going no till in the garden with use of much straw. The weed fighting is still never ending and keeping the straw thick was with the help of some paid student labor. We considered going wood chips between rows as we have big piles of ancient fire wood left here from previous owners. Still looks like a lot of labor for the two people here. Our new idea is to build raised beds making use of piles of discarded shipping pallets we collect in town, and moving to planting native grass and clover between to ideally choke out weeds. Lots of drip to get out too this year as we do heavy amounts of planting saplings, we don’t have quite the tree density I see. Happy Spring, Brian!
A thought from Brian
2026-04-01 15:11:40We (the farm) actually own a full-sized wood chipper. It's kind of amazing how much wood you need to mulch up to make a noticeable pile. There's an app called Chipdrop that helps homeowners connect with local tree service companies because they often take their chips to landfills if they don't reprocess it themselves for mulch. We are always on the watch for tree trucks and we'll just go out and ask them to bring their loads to the farm and we've had good luck with that. We're no-till except for breaking new ground. We'll layer good compost on the rows with whatever amendments we need and then chip heavily in between rows. We also cover with large silage tarps to get weeds to germinate and then die back before planting. After a few years, the weeds will be much reduced.