Busy streets full of holiday shoppers, winter's cold settling in, chocolates a plenty, ahh yes winter holiday season is up and going full steam while I write this column.
Things on the farm are however, are loping along at a slow pace while crop planning ideas are spread across my living room table in a mess to the likes of what I envision was the table of Ludwig van Beethoven's while producing his 6th Symphony 'Pastoral'.
Like Beethoven, this will be our 6th symphony of soil this coming season. While the home gardener may be able to wing it, and throw a handful of seeds to the soil that have been selected from catalogues that are being crammed in mail boxes this time of year, the farmer however, must be very methodical on creating a plan for crop rotation, seed selection, market analysis, weather prediction, crop densities and volumes, budgeting and a whole lot of hoping things go well!
Why the comparison to the great composer Beethoven? The complexity involved in planting large volumes of food for the public, is an art-form backed scientifically in statistical data, linear equations, proportional conversions and formulas such as the hydrostatic pressure formula used in irrigation. While the math is not overly difficult, it is the weaving of all the numbers (notes) into a form that creates abundance in accordance to the parameters allowed from topography, soil and climate (your instruments), thus the symphony of soil is created. While all the notes of performance are laid upon the music sheets, the actions of the performers contribute to the overall outcome of said performance and my bank account. It is easy to farm with pen and paper, but the story is different when it is laid upon the land.
With the explosion in urban farming, why should gardeners just wing it? Why not make your garden not only beautiful with diversity in the growing season but also highly productive and profitable?
For example, let's say you want to grow heads of lettuce for the neighborhood. You want thirty heads of lettuce per week for the neighbors who said they are willing to purchase them from you. After all your soil preparation has been completed it's time to start planting. To get thirty lettuce heads per week you are going to need to be starting thirty heads each week in flats for transplant throughout the season. One 72 cell seed flat can be half planted one week and the other planted the following week. Now you have two weeks worth of customer's lettuce ready to be planted. Lettuce requires approximately six to eight-inch spacing depending on variety and most varieties take up to 30 days to mature to harvest size. For each week harvested you will need a bed thirty-six inches wide with three rows spaced one foot apart with interplant spacing at eight inches for a total space requirement of twenty seven square feet or 9'x 3'. Why the extra space you may ask? It is always a good rule of thumb to try to produce thirty percent more than needed in case of loss. So if you are producing for let's say a ten week period then you need a 90' x 3' space available (this could be multiple small beds). A person must know their particular climate (yes each backyard has it's own climate) for starting plants and succession planting to have a continual weekly harvest. If one had been gardening for some time in the yard and knows what varieties work best and when to start plants this may be an easy revenue booster in the growing season which could finance a weekly fishing adventure from doing something you enjoy.
So there you go, now multiply this kind of method to a multitude of varieties, soil types, markets, and throw in equipment breaking down and crazy weather along with a million other always unforeseen factors and formulas and you are now a farmer...kinda.
Be wary though, you may like it so much you up the ante and head to the country for a larger backyard.
To quote Thomas Jefferson, "The cultivators of the earth are the most virtuous citizens, and possess most of the amor patriate". So get to planning your garden because May is only five months away!
