Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

Regular readers of this blog will remember the GGP I started back in November.  The cover crop came up beautifully, and the result was a rich, fertile soil, which was moist and pliable.  After renting a rototiller from Gold N Green rentals 2 weeks ago, I spent about 3 hours with a huge, self propelled machine, tearing up my front and back yards.  Word of advice: take frequent breaks; your arms will thank you.  The vibrations from that machine caused my forearms to ache for days — and the grass allergy I didn’t know I had helped too.

We are now in the middle of waiting for the cover crop to finish decomposing; about a 4 or 5 week process.  Once that is done, we can start installing the irrigation system and prepping the beds.  The goal is to have our seeds in the ground by mid-May.  Stay tuned for updates.

After many years of apartment dwelling, I was finally able to move my family into a house with a cozy front yard, and a (relatively) nice sized back yard for the kids to play in, and for my wife to have a nice garden.

But the problem looks like this (please forgive the mess, still in the moving-in process):

When I was a kid, I used to HATE yard work.  My parents didn’t garden at all, so our maintenance involved raking leaves, watering plants and mowing the lawn — for a kid who likes to see the fruits of his efforts, this wasn’t exactly fulfilling.  Looking out over this relative desolation, I didn’t feel dejected; quite the opposite, in fact.  I saw opportunity, in many forms.

First of all, I have been working at Peaceful Valley for going on 6 years.  When I first started here, I knew zilch about growing.  Nothing.  I’d never so much as planted a flower seed in a pot for Mother’s Day. In my time here, I have gained a vast amount of theoretical knowledge: I knew the hows and the whys, but never had the opportunity to apply what I’d learned.  Seeing this yard sent visions of sugarplums (and other fruits and veggies) dancing in my head.

What I am going to be doing over the next 5 or so months is getting this area cleaned up, put together and ready for growing.  Come Spring, I’m planting a lawn, and my wife is setting up a small vegetable garden, probably with raised beds.  As I do each step, I will be taking pictures and thoroughly documenting each phase.  The goal is not only to do my own yard, but to give a bit of direction for anyone else who wishes to do the same.

Here’s the plan:

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Although I’ve been gardening for a few years, I have never grown sunflowers. I don’t really have a reason as to why I haven’t grown them before. But gosh, now I know what I’ve been missing!

I’m growing these sunflowers to cover my bathroom window. It took me a while to feel comfortable taking a shower in there with the window open for ventilation, but now I figure with all the things we have growing on and around the fences, nobody can see into my shower.

But for good measure…I decided to use sunflowers as a living screen. I get to look at beautiful green foliage and flowers while luxuriating in my (low flow) shower, the insects get something wonderful to feast on, the neighborhood can view the sunflowers peeking over the fence, and I can have privacy in my shower.

I had to start sunflowers a few times this year – the first couple rounds got sapped by unexpected (and unseasonably) cold weather. Once they took hold, they raced towards the sky!

I’ve planted a Harlequin mix – some are really tiny dwarf sunflowers, and some are larger (those ones will cover the window).

Is there anything you’ve tried for the first time this year?

Freshman Farmer is off and running. Over at the site I’ve put up the inaugural episodes in our video cast of Andrew Meyers’ progress in starting a fresh new CSA.

Andrew is a 23 year old farmer who Peaceful Valley is sponsoring in his first year of farming. We hope that by sharing his story, it will inspire and encourage a new generation of farmers to jump in and make a difference.

Click here to watch the videos and to read Andrew’s journal entries!

On Tuesday I got the opportunity to go up to Andrew Meyer’s farm, Wild Grace Organics. Andrew is the very first participant in Peaceful Valley’s “Freshman Farmer” program.

Andrew Meyers at Wild Grace Farm

Freshman Farmer is an initiative that Peaceful Valley took based on our understanding that farmers not only aren’t getting any younger, but younger people aren’t looking to farming as a valid career move either. So we’re “sponsoring” Andrew’s farm this year, giving him the equivalent of an employee discount on supplies that he needs to get started, and to grow a CSA for the season.

I’m making short videos to go along with his website, which is freshmanfarmer.groworganic.com. (as of this moment, March 13, there is not yet content, but keep on the lookout, an intro video is coming real soon!)

We will be checking in with him throughout the season to see how things are coming along, and what challenges and successes he is facing.

He will also be keeping a blog, regularly letting everyone know what is happening up at Wild Grace.

It’s such a cool program, one I’m really proud to be a part of. Each year we will be giving a young farmer a boost and interacting in a very positive and long term way, not just with the organic community, but with the community as a whole.

Other great things are coming out of this too, some I can’t talk about yet as they are not written in stone, but some, such as our retail store’s cooler being a drop off point for his boxes of veggies, that could really assist in making local food available and affordable for this community. Perhaps we will learn enough to be able to pass lessons we learn along to others.

Let us know what you think, if you’ve heard of anything similar regarding CSA’s, and if you have any questions!

We’re really excited about a big project we have coming up. We’re calling it ‘Freshman Farmers’, and what we’re doing is sponsoring a young farmer and supporting them in their journey to becoming a part of the organic farming community.
There is a troubling lack of young people interested in starting farms in California. We are hoping that by giving our first year farmer Andrew Meyers a helping hand by providing special prices so that he will be able to inspire a few others of his generation.

Andrew is farming some land in Nevada County in an organic way. He is ready to go for it after contributing a couple of years to other local farms and this year he will be launching a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
A CSA allows for direct interaction between the consumer of organic food and the producer. In this way a local economic and cultural exchange is encouraged.
We are proud to be a part of Andrew’s start, and will keep you posted on our site devoted to his triumphs and tribulations.

Welcome to the very first post on the new Peaceful Valley blog “In The Loop”. Ahem.

I feel almost nervous.

Like this is a big moment.

Well we hope it is.What does big mean? I hope that big in the case of this blog means that you check in on it regularly to see how it is growing, and maybe even feed it once and a while with your thoughts and observations. I hope that you turn to it when you need inspiration and ideas for your garden, and I hope that it is healthy and ripe by the time we are all sick of fresh apple pies, around the end of Summertime.

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