Soma Gardens

05/20/2024

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07/14/2023

Theeeese are the blueberries that I've been munching every weekend while gardening. Sooo tasty 🤤

🫐

Tim's blueberries, kale, and chard will be at the Marion farmer's market this Saturday. And so much other local food will be there as well!

🥬

Check out Marion Tailgate Market for more info.

📷 Photo taken at IDLE ACRES FARM

07/07/2023

I appreciate the opportunity to learn and experiment at Tim's farm.

Some of y'all may not know that he contributes his produce to the NC Farmers of the Foothills CSA. If you want to support him and other farmers in this area, and get some fresh local produce in return, I recommend checking them out!

1️⃣ - My bounty for the weekend. I didn't do much today, but I'm on vacation 😌

2️⃣ - Just chillin 🏞️

3️⃣ - Some of what is currently being harvested at Tim's farm: Chard & Kale. Also, there's soooo many blueberries, and they're quite good 🤤🫐

4️⃣ & 5️⃣ - A chop-and-drop experiment I started amidst the soon to-be-ready basil 🌿

6️⃣ & 7️⃣ - Lunchbox peppers and wax peppers growing amidst the final fennel for the year 🫑🌶️

📷 Photos taken at IDLE ACRES FARM

07/03/2023

Production veggie beds at IDLE ACRES FARM
🥬🥒🍅
These beds were just dirt and weeds a couple of years ago!

Pic 1️⃣ - Bush bean & cucumber
These beds started with "no dig" (thick compost) two years ago. Over the two years, we added a high tunnel, gave time for the "hot" compost to settle, grew and watered crops over a few seasons, and chop and dropped residue as green manure. These beds in the high tunnel are some of the most productive on the property.

Pic 2️⃣ - Kale, chard, and pumpkin
Seemingly doing just as well, this "top step's" beds are growing lots since we added heaps of organic matter and silage tarped them this winter. They were not doing anything close to this well last year.

Tim (owner of Idle Acres) and his friend have been running these beds for multiple seasons now. I had lots of experiential learning during the first several seasons when I experimented with creating the beds. I've also learned so much I wouldn't have learned as they've made the beds incredibly productive. Two inputs they use are organic foliar sprays and drip irrigation. Tim also just began experimenting with Korean Natural Farming this summer.

Pic 3️⃣ - Tomato, kale, flowers, and cucumber
Tim and his friend started these beds this year, and to my surprise, they are already growing food! They intend to create beds all the way up the hill, perhaps 10-20 more!

Idle Acres has become so productive in these last two years. It's been educational and inspiring for me to experiment and watch. However I can't wait until I have my own ground to grow in! My partner and I are currently looking for a property, and I hope to have some pics from our own garden beds by next spring!

Though not as showy, you can see some of Soma's current experiments at .log (Instagram)🧑‍🔬

01/03/2023

📢 Annual vegetables (eg tomatoes, squash, and kale) successfully grown in living mulch!​ 🎉

Lincoln Fishman of Sawyer Farm completed a study which concludes that the following crops were a "homerun" in clover living mulch (produced very well): cabbage, kale, broccoli, collards, tomatoes, beans, squash, sunflowers 😁

https://www.nofamass.org/articles/2022/10/growing-vegetables-in-a-perennial-clover-living-mulch-part-2/

I've seen a lot of articles on living mulch, but most report some losses when growing annuals. This is fantastic news 😊

Sawyer Farm's Tillage Reduction Journey By Lincoln Fishman, Farmer at Sawyer Farm Lincoln Fishman headed to the fields. Photo credit: Akos Szilvasi. In the spring of 2020, we decided to do a small experiment

01/03/2023

We had some pretty cold nights recently (9°F ~= -13°C). I'm delightfully surprised that some plants survived 😌

Happy new year 🥳

07/10/2022

The no-dig beds in the tunnel are doing fantastic now!

Pic 1️⃣
🍅 Tomato plants are taking off all throughout the tunnel 🌞

Pic 2️⃣
In full no-till style, I chop and dropped all the zucchini plants today to make way for the bell peppers coming next week 👨‍🌾 The no-dig beds are doing so much better than when they were fresh last fall.

Coming soon 🔜
The seeds I planted for last week's experiment have germinated, and the ones from

07/05/2022

Experiment results from last week + more experiments this week 🧑‍🔬

1️⃣
Decent germination of okra in the mini swale. Zinnias and Marigolds we're not as successful, but I see a few.

2️⃣3️⃣
Good germination of melons, squash, and beans in the baseball-sized swales all over the hills!

4️⃣5️⃣
I was surprised to see that the seeds down in the mulch that had been sitting for weeks did so poorly. There was a lot of deer damage and some wilting/yellowing/holes.

6️⃣
Control - the bare dirt raised in a mound did better than the bare dirt in a pit.

7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟
Today's new experiments! The labels in parentheses (below) are for me, you can ignore them!

Pic 7 - On the left there are two rows which were down in bare dirt either left bare (2a) or lightly covered in green manure (2b). To the right I performed the same experiment in clover alternating in a single row (1a & 1b).

Pic 8, 9, and 10 - I did the same two green manure (b) vs bare (a) experiments in a wood-heavy area (3a & 3b) and a grassy/weedy area (4a & 4b).

06/20/2022

Happy Juneteenth 🌻 So many experiments this weekend! 🧑‍🔬

1️⃣ Seven different variations of sowing into heavy mulch. The blue patches are 1-2" tilled + . Zoom in to see descriptions of others 🔍

2️⃣ Close up of pink patch (from prev photo) with compost (brown border). After letting the green manure sit for 2 weeks, I cleared several 1-inch holes, broke up the soil in the hole, sowed seeds, and lightly covered again with the straw so some light would filter through. Watered thoroughly.

3️⃣ & 4️⃣ A 2-3inch ... watered, sown with okra and zinnias, and lightly mulched with straw.

5️⃣ I dug several small holes, watered, sowed with squash, beans, melons, and cucumbers, and lightly mulched

The zucchini is growing well in the clover ! So much to eat. I'll try to remember to get a pic again soon. This is getting closer and closer to ! 😌

06/12/2022

Zucchini is here!

1️⃣ A fruit from the tunnel.

2️⃣ Another zucchini fruit growing up amidst a lettuce understory. Some is still growing and it's hot! ☀️

06/05/2022

What a beautiful day of gardening! 👨‍🌾

1️⃣
The vegies in the tunnel are flourishing!

There's lots of Black Beauty Zucchini, some Incredible Corn, and various varieties of cherry tomatoes, radish, and lettuce growing in the shade of the zucchini. I intend to grow the tomato vines vertically upwards using string.

Also there are tons of ladybugs, beetles, and grasshoppers in the tunnel. I intend to let them stay until the natural ecosystem balances itself (in the long run, the goal is to not need to pay for and use pesticides)

2️⃣
The grow boxes that I randomly scattered seed in are doing so well!

3️⃣
The grow bags are still doing well. I intend to use them throughout the summer and fall to grow more veggies.

4️⃣
(Left) Zucchini flourishing in clover living mulch.

(Right) A new no till bed forming with moist compost and grass straw. Inspired by and

5️⃣
Some clover, zucchini, and bell pepper seed is poking through the daikon as it begins to break down.