Cloches and Cold Frames

It's getting cold outside, finally. Our extended summer and mild fall have allowed us to continue growing some mild season crops. We've got pole beans and beets and radishes and lots of greens.
Now, though, the nights are getting cooler and the temperature is in danger of dropping below zero. That means frost. A transplanted Lamb's Ear is really beautiful covered in frost.













But our other plants would hate it. Their leaves would wilt, their growth would be stunted and ... they could DIE! We couldn't have that. So we made some protection for our plants. There are two simple types of cold weather protection for plants. One is a cold frame. A cold frame is any transparent-roofed structure to protect plants from cold weather.


You can build a box and top it with a window on hinges: The top is hinged so that the box can be opened in the day time. Otherwise, the interior would get too hot. It also helps to angle the window-roof slightly so that it can face south and get more sun. That takes a lot of time and materials. Plus, it would have to be a pretty big box to fit along our rows of crops. We made a number of cloches over our rows, instead. A cloche (French for bell) is a plastic tent that can be placed over vegetables to protect them from the nighttime frost.

We drove metal poles into the ground, along the long edge of our planting rows. The poles are spaced about five feet apart. Then we used a flexible plastic tube to connect the poles together and form an arch over the bed. When we know the temperature is going to drop below freezing over night, we just drape long sheets of plastic over the arches and secure them to the ground with bricks or rocks.















Now our plants are happy and protected.

Ben

Boys and Girls Club Update

Hello again,

As it's getting colder these days, Marie and I are going to temporarily say goodbye to our Boys and Girls Garden Club group. We have really had a fun year with these kids.

In August, we all introduced ourselves and played a game of 'Guess the Vegetable' when Marie showed the kids what we have been growing on the farm. We also pulled weeds and prepared our bed for planting. Then we began to plant our rows with peas, carrots, radishes, collards and kale and we all got a chance to water what was growing. Next, Marie and I taught about the importance of cover cropping and we all took turns throwing clover and rye seeds on the beds we hadn't planted anything in.

As that has grown, we have gotten to do some other fun activities. One day, we all walked down to the farm to see what was growing. Each of the kids took a turn to harvest some lettuce and try it straight from the ground. Everybody loved it! A few weeks later, it was the kids' turn to try what they've grown themselves--we ate salad from the collards and kale that was growing in their plot with some ranch dressing. The next week, we introduced the kids to some other salad toppings, like apple chunks, raisins, cheese and sunflower seeds. Needless to say, everyone had a great time. We all love salad!

Overall, it was very nice to hang out with the kids at our neighboring Boys and Girls Club. We share practically the same parking lot but hardly ever see each other, so it was nice to meet some kids that are genuinely excited about growing food. Their enthusiasm was truly heartwarming. I know that the kids are proud of what they've grown, and I can't wait to see what they do with their little plot next Spring.

Beth

Rainwater Harvesting

On Monday night we had some long awaited rain. A good shower yielded nearly 150 gallons of water in our new rainwater catchment system.

Rainwater harvesting is one more way in which Beardsley Community Farm strives for greater sustainability. Tennessee, like much of the southeast, has experienced one of the driest years on record in 2007. The drought has been hard on gardeners and the environment. The need to keep our crops irrigated forces us to use large amounts of costly municipal water. This drives up the cost of food production while putting stress on local water supplies. Our solution:

This 900-gallon catchment collects water from half of our barn roof. A 1000-gallon system (soon to be installed) will collect water from the other side giving us 1900 gallons of storage capacity. We expect to be able to completely fill this through the winter with only half the average rainfall for Knoxville. This will give us a great head start on watering next spring. We hope to reduce our dependence on Knoxville’s city water supply by at least 50% (in a good year the reduction will be much greater).

We constructed this system using three 300-gallon and four 250-gallon plastic tanks that we got from Advanced Polymer Recycling. Ben and I gave the tanks a good scrub with detergent and borax, using a power washer.

We got our fittings and tubing from Industrial Plastic Works and Davis Hose and Supply. Davis Hose were very helpful with figuring out exactly what parts we needed to make the thing work.

On Thursday afternoon, Marie and Beth used our first "harvest" of rainwater to establish some winter rye.

Rainwater harvesting is the beginning of what we hope will be a comprehensive water management plan for Beardsley Farm. Eventually we would like to have some kind of drip irrigation in place using a human powered pump. It will feel good to be off the grid with such an important resource.

Peace
Frank

Head Start kids visit

Hey folks!

On Tuesday, October 23rd, we had a special group of visitors at the farm. A group of four-year-old Head Start children and their families came to Beardsley to check us out, and it was tons of fun.

First, we all gathered in the greenhouse and Ben read a story about vegetables. The kids really got into it. After that, we broke up into groups and visited different parts of the farm. The kids checked out what was growing on the farm, fed our chickens and even helped us harvest.

Overall, we had a group of thirty-eight visitors to the farm, including children and parents, and everyone had a great time. Having classes and group tours at the farm is really wonderful. It's great to see kids learning and having fun in the outdoors.

From top to bottom: Little boy showing a pepper that was growing on Beardsley Farm. Feeding the chickens. Weighing the radishes that we harvested. Group of kids around a basket of radishes.

Until next time,

Beth