P-Farmland
Established in 2012, started off promoting permaculture and urban farmings, by 2015 unexpectedly restored a patch of abandoned land, currently yielding fresh produce and herbs. Chitchat and scribble as pastime.
Farm Talk
of Spring
Spring has arrived. It is time to wake up the farm to a new growing season once March or “Insects Waken” (in terms of 24 Solar Terms) starts. Various heat-tolerant and wet-tolerant crops should be planted before summer arrives, including summer leafy vegetables like water spinach, Chinese spinach, basella, sweet potato leaf. Also, different varieties of gourds and beans (such as hairy gourd, watermelon and string bean) and colorful crops such as eggplant, sweet corn, pepper and okra are perfect to grow starting from spring. While farmers are busy to sow and take care of all these crops, they still have tons of work to manage in the fields.
Prepare the field
Plough the field to avoid crops being submerged when heavy rain comes. Tall, thin ridges should be built in summer instead of short, wide ridges which are usually used in winter. Harvest the winter crops in time and replenish sufficient organic matter and base fertilizer to the fields.
Plan the field and sow
It is very important to work out the growing plan before planting, which helps you to arrange crops in the field and nurse the seedlings. When deciding the sowing order, crops with longer growing period should be considered first. Fast-growing leafy vegetables and beans can be arranged in the remaining fields.
Nursery
Because of the unstable weather in spring, seeds may not germinate successfully in fields, and it is difficult to estimate the germinating rate as well. Hence, nursery is essential. Choosing the right utensil and medium according to the crops. Seedling tray with larger cells is more suitable for gourds and beans as they usually have larger seedling size and to avoid rootbound. Change a larger pot whenever is needed.
Clean the ditch
Heavy rains often occur in summer. Good drainage would be crucial to avoid flooding.
Build trellis
As most of the gourds and beans are climbers, trellis is needed for them to grow.
Fallow
If you do not have enough time to manage all the fields in summer, lying the land fallow can be a good idea. It does not mean doing nothing. Instead, tidy up the fallow fields and then sow green manure or cover them with mats or straws. This minimizes the impacts on surrounding crops and eases your workload when restarting to farm the fields in next season.
The above mentioned are some practices we adopted when operating as CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Diverse practices and growing timetables are out there to cater different needs of the market or farm operation. No matter which practice you are using, agriculture should not only be about growing knowledge, but also about commercial consideration. The subject is broad and profound.
