Pith & Petal Farm

First Flower Order!

So excited to share that the first seed order for 2018 AND the first ever seed order for the farm was placed last week!!

I ordered dahlia tubers from Sunny Meadows Flower Farm located in Columbus, Ohio. I’m keeping my 2018 order list updated over on this Pinterest Board. I’m really excited to try out dahlias – I’ve heard they’re really fun, productive and am hoping they’re easy on a beginner! I’m much more familiar with growing vegetables – this coming year will be my first go into the world of cut flowers and I could not be more excited to experiment!

Besides what’s on the Pinterest Board, I attempted to order Rock Run Ashley, which are GORGEOUS. But they sold out within minutes while I was updating my PayPal information from the move. I also ordered the dahlia grab bag, which is super exciting because I won’t find out what assortment I’ll get until April 2018. Since I have 0 dahlias right now, everything will be new for me!

It was SO hard to pick and it was so hard to order only a few of each. But, I’m trying hard to start small and not overload myself the first year while I’m still figuring everything else out.

I would love to hear your favorite dahlia varieties, or any must-grow recommendations!

December 6, 2017

New Farm Plan: Part 2 – Brainstorm

In New Farm Plan, Part 1, I made an outline for creating my new farm plan. In this post I’m going to start getting into the big picture with my first brainstorming session. Lifestyle seemed like an great place to start. It’s inevitable that the farm will impact my lifestyle and my lifestyle will impact the farm. Going through the following questions helped define my expectations and clarify my thoughts.

Some Questions on Lifestyle

Do I have any guiding farm philosophies?

As I create my own system of farm-practices, I’ll continue getting inspiration from and learning more about:

Permaculture
Ecological Design
Organic Farming
Market Gardening
Biointensive/Biologically-Intensive
Companion Planting
Crop Rotation
Succession Planting
Season Extension
More as I find out about them, I’m sure

The Three-Legged Stool of Sustainability
At the 2016 Organic Association of Kentucky (OAK) Conference, I sat in on a talk given by Jim Munsch of Veggie Compass. He covered a concept called the three-legged stool of farm sustainability, which includes:

Ecologically sound production practices
Economically sustainable business practices
Ethical & nurturing treatment of people touched by the enterprise

After a Google search, I came across a related Three Pillars of Corporate Sustainability. In corporate environments, the pillars are very similar: Environmental, Economic and Social. Either way, I think applying this concept to farm management makes sense, and will keep it in mind.

The Good Life 4/4/4 Work Day

“The Good Life” by Helen and Scott Nearing was recommended to me a few years ago by my farmer friend, Barry. The book is about the Nearings’ many years of living self-sufficiently in rural, even remote, Vermont & Maine. It details their routines and self-reliant lifestyle, including a chapter on building a stone house from scratch. It was considered an extreme form of living when they were doing it, and obviously even more so now.

One of the concepts that stuck with me was how they structured their days. They followed a schedule of 4 hours of labor, 4 hours of giving back to the community and 4 hours of professional activities (such as reading and writing). Now, they were literally “making a living” without trying to earn much money. As far as I remember, they had no kids with them and rarely left the farm. So this kind of schedule would be hard for us to follow, to say the least.

But I like thinking through the pieces that would create my days:

Labor on the farm
Career and Hobby: Marketing, sales or content creation for the farm, freelance work, reading and writing. Some hobbies I really enjoy do have some extra income potential.
Giving Back: volunteering, community involvement and donation/charity
Leisure, family, friend and fun

Making time for things I enjoy or want to do in my life is important to me. Priorities will change over time depending on shifting interests and circumstances – and that’s ok. The mindset of intentionality and dedication is what I like about the 4/4/4 structure. I’ll be keeping the Nearings in mind as I manage my time on the farm.

Do I want to make money from the farm?
Well, I certainly don’t want to just sink money into it. At the size I’m thinking, I do expect the farm to sustain itself. If it could provide extra income for improvements to the house and land, that would be a bonus. I guess it might be easier to say – I don’t have plans now for the farm to be my sole-income, but I’m open to it as things progress.

What ways could I make money off the farm?
Right now, I’m interested in selling vegetables, flowers or eggs in some way. I do have a few ideas I’ve been thinking through, but nothing thought-out enough to mention. However, reflecting on this now… it’s probably something I should give more thought to. I just said above that the farm will need to make something to sustain itself! Depending on what I decide, it may affect my farm plan or layout.

What about self-sufficiency?
My immediate goal with the farm is not self-sufficiency. I admire those out there that pursue it, but I don’t see it fitting into my plan right now. I will actively work towards sustainability and prioritize lessening the impact of what I do choose to do.

Will the farm be my full-time job? How much time do I expect to put towards the farm?
As a freelance designer who works from home, I have some flexibility on the hours I work. The plan right now is to continue to do that as well as build up the farm. I’ll be busy, but I know that going into it.

Will I have help on the farm?
I’m sure friends and family will help if I have a one-off, big thing to do, but otherwise, not really. My husband is not interested in farming, and we came to an understanding before purchasing the property. I won’t plan on any regular labor time besides myself.

Why a farm? Why go through the trouble?
Because I love it! It’s productive work, I find value in it and I think about it all the time. I enjoy the process and the rewards.

Pith & Petal Brainstorm

What are my overall goals for the farm?

When I started brainstorming, my mind immediately went to very specific things I wanted to grow or do. I tried to take a step back and imagine my life on the farm to determine some main goal “buckets”. It was hard not to get into the details yet! I listed out all my ideas, then evaluated how they related to each other. I feel like the buckets I ended up with accurately reflect my main priorities.

Quality of Life & Environment
Reduce labor inputs // create an outdoor space my family loves // actively give back to the land

Spaces for family activities: fire pit, outdoor kitchen and eating area, wood oven, space for playing/adventuring
Efficient energy and labor planning: harvest, wash and process area, storage area, compost location, tool location, access to buildings, equipment and plots
Structures: shed, greenhouse, high tunnel, cold frames
Environmental Experiences: wildlife plantings and areas, moon garden, fragrance garden, pollinator garden
Less Work: lower labor intensive activities like watering, lawnmowing, weeding, importing compost
Forest Edge Management
Farm Dog: possible deer management and animal protection
Move towards sustainability: line drying, natural home products, root cellar, food preservation, solar panels, water catchment
Giving back: land and wildlife, soil, sharing things I learn, volunteering, being involved in the community, charity/donation

Production
Grow healthy food // manage animals for food and work // specialty products

Seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers
Animals: contribute in ways other than meat – chickens for bed prep & eggs, ducks for eggs, goats for brush clearing and possibly milk later on
Specialty: syrup, perennial crops, mushrooms, orchard

Experimentation
Let curiosities lead // hobby & interest support

Experiments: plant breeding, seed collection, variety trialing, observational studies, various growing techniques
Hobby Support: natural dyeing, bread making, cooking
Interesting topics: using weeds to read soil, cleaning & restoration with plants, wildlife/farm ecology

In the next brainstorm, I’ll get into specifics for projects and ideas, prioritization and whys.

September 17, 2017

New Farm Plan: Part 1 – Planning the Plan

I can’t believe it’s been four months since we moved to the farm! This summer has flown by. We’ve made a lot of progress on the house, but not as much outside. While I could have rushed and started working outside immediately after we moved, I’m so glad I didn’t. I took some great advice from my farmer friend, Barry, who told me to move in and do nothing. For a few months, he suggested, just walk the land and observe.

So that’s what I’ve been doing this summer and I’ve learned a lot. I have a good idea where the first and last places to get sun in the yard are, and places that hardly get sun at all. I’ve squished through the areas that stay wet the longest after a rain. Mystery plantings have come up to flower and surprise me over the months. I’ve been stomped at by a sassy baby deer grazing outside my front door. And I have excitedly been trying to identify all the new birds around the house.

As the cooler weather moves in, I’m ready to start planning for the farm’s debut year. I’ve been daydreaming for years about everything I’d do once I had some land. Now that it’s time to start making plans, it’s actually kind of difficult to know where to start! Dreaming and wishing is one thing. Knowing you have to put in physical labor to bring each project into reality is another. Time, energy, resources, need and interest have to be balanced and prioritized. While I don’t need a final farm plan, I’d like a “where to start” plan. Forming an idea of where structures, trees and perennials fit in the big picture would make getting started a little easier.

I’m a planner. Actually, I enjoy planning just as much as the execution and results. I love seeing and recording where I start against what ends up happening… it’s fun to me. I know it isn’t everyone’s approach and some will say, “just toss some seeds out there, it’s nature!”. Well, as the kids say, “that ain’t me”. I’ll be planning. I’ll be planning my planning. It’s my nature.

So, my plan for the farm plan:

Part 2: Brainstorm // Big Dreaming. All those articles I’ve saved over the last few years. All those post-it notes and Amazon book topics I’ve accumulated. Anything and everything I’ve ever had the slightest interest in doing on the farm. I’ll also think through questions on goals and lifestyle.

Part 3: Specifics, Whys & Priorities // I expect some of my brainstorm to produce overarching ideas, projects or philosophies. This will be where I identify smaller actions that make up those abstract ideas. This is also where I get into the whys of doing something. The last step will be prioritization. I don’t want my plan to be overwhelming (well, I do, but I know I shouldn’t), so establishing priority is essential.

Part 4: Questions // Once I get into the nitty-gritty, I know things will come up that I don’t know much about. I’d like to have a list of questions along with ideas on how to find some answers. Figuring out every detail isn’t required, but I don’t want not knowing something to hold me back. I also want to set myself up to be exposed to ideas I may not know anything about yet. It’ll be winter and a good time to do some research to fill in the gaps.

Part 5: Five Year Farm Plan // I read that a Five Year Plan works great because it gives you enough time to make some bigger plans, but isn’t so far in the future that it’s inflexible. We have a lot of life changes coming up, so 3-5 years out sounds reasonable.

Part 6: Site Design // This is a detailed map and diagram of the property, its assets and future additions. I’ll be doing this along with the Five Year Farm Plan. At the end of this month through October, I’ll be going through a local Permaculture Design Certificate course. The final project of this certification is the site design document.

Some of these may get broken down more as I go through the process, but right now this is a blueprint to move forward. Really excited, really overwhelmed… but I can’t wait to get started!

September 11, 2017