Work Horse

My dad is one of the hardest working people I have ever met...I appreciate the trait he has passed on to me through both genes and example. Growing up as the oldest son on a farm in Michigan, my father learned an iron clad work ethic without choice. He had duties and loyalties to fulfill for the sake of the family. His constant drive is both impressive to watch and exhausting to experience for anyone else participating. As soon as his noodle arms were able (about age 9), he woke up with Grandpa Davis at 4:00 AM to milk the cows and perform all of the morning farm chores before school (feed the pigs and chickens). This continued for the next nine years until the guidance counselor at Plainwell High School suddenly declared that he was awarded a full ride to University of Michigan. His farming experience was not one decided because Richard (Grandpa) was a life long farmer but instead was chosen out of necessity. The family had to eat. After flying in B-24 bombers as a flight engineer (got shot down three times and escaped via parachute) in World War II, my grandpa worked as the lead welder at a paper mill in Plainwell, Michigan. He lived a life marked by hard work that centered around family. Now that I am starting a farm some 60 years later, I feel especially close to my grandparents...trying to awaken the green thumb that lies buried beneath a suburban childhood.
Last week I had to rent a truck from Lowe's to drive around James Island picking up bagged leaves for mulch. I was telling my dad a story about getting pulled over by a cop for losing a bag of leaves at a speed hump, and he said, "Sounds like you could use a truck with a camper top." The hint was dropped...the only truck I know of with a camper top was the 1976 Chevy Silverado that was previously sitting in my parents driveway collecting dust. This ruby red truck was bought brand new by my great-grandpa, Pa-paw...then was passed onto my grandfather (Richard Cleon Davis) in the late 80's...next it switched hands again in the late 90's to my dad (Larry Eugene Davis), and now I feel honored to be using a 4th generation vehicle to haul stuff around the farm. I know grandpa is smiling in his grave to know that the 76' Chevy is getting worked out again. Stretching her legs for the 380 mile trip from Knoxville to Charleston, the truck carried my dad in 8 hours time with no trouble.
He is in town for the weekend working the farm with me, and although there were times when I felt like I needed a break, I am happy to announce that it is 8:45 PM and he is sleeping like a baby! Looks like I wore him out good and proper. Today we spread the rest of the compost on the beds, put out the fertilizer for the whole garden, planted 13 Satsuma Tangerine trees on the northern border, and picked up some more leaves for mulch. I cannot think of a better way to spend a Saturday than planting fruit trees with dad. I could not help thinking that someday I will be eating tangerines with my kids telling them the story of planting the trees with their grandpa. Nice way to be immortalized. Tomorrow is shaping up to be another long one...looking forward to more time with pops on the farm :)

Seed time

15 X 72 = 1080!

I have another seven or eight trays to seed, so by the end of the first round of planting, I will have about 1500 transplants growing in seed trays in my sun room!

Transplanting is a great way to jump start the growing season because you can start the seeds indoors well before the last frost and get them grown to just the right size to plant after the danger of frost has passed. Also, certain seeds, such as basil, require a very specific soil temperature range to germinate, so indoor starting is an awesome method of controlling external variables. In addition, I will be able to plant my transplants through mulch, which will not only help with moisture control but will also help with weed suppression. I will plant more greens next week so that they will have a staggered growth schedule. That way, all the lettuce will not be ready at once.

Garden Update

The start of another week out at the farm brings the duty of prepping the beds for eventual planting. I got 10 cubic yards of composted horse manure on Craigslist that has been aging since November, so today I spent all day forking it into the wheel barrow and out of the wheel barrow...into the wheel barrow and out of the wheel barrow, over and over again. Meditation at its best. The picture is only after 6 days of work in the garden, and I have to say, things are really starting to materialize. I plan on starting all my spring veggie transplants in trays tomorrow and hopefully will finish with all bed preparation by the end of the week. The picture also shows leaves laying in the walking rows of the garden. This is an crucial part of the garden's overall health. Not only will mulched rows add nutrients to the garden over time, but they will provide much needed moisture control. Evapotranspiration occurs all over the earth's surface every day. Water is drawn up through the earth through evaporation and escapes into the atmosphere at varying rates depending on climate, ground cover, etc. Large scale agriculture cannot spend resources to mulch their rows, and as a result, irrigation and soil erosion increase dramatically. Within two hours of putting the very dry leaves on the very dry soil, moisture was already getting trapped underneath the mulch! I hope this will help draw up the water table underneath my little quarter acre plot, thus decreasing irrigation needs.

Farm Car

Picked up the wheel barrow from Emilio (green roofing) in Asheville and definitely got some weird looks on the drive back to Charleston. Other picture is of the vegetable oil tank in the trunk of my car...smells kind of like french fries (or crayons).

Top Bar Bee Hive

Todd and I pulled a dead cedar tree out of the ditch behind my parents house, had it milled into one inch planks, and decided to make some bee hives out of the wood. We chose a "top bar" design because they generally result in healthier colonies and do not include a "queen excluder hole." Notice the half-hexagon, 120 degree angles of the hive...the bees will build their combs along this edge. Top bar hives are generally calmer during inspection because you do not have to move stacked boxes to inspect the brood or honey. The apiarist can simply lift individual bars to inspect the hive, all the while the bees just two combs over hardly notice any difference. Hope to get some bees into their new home at some point this spring!

Getting Started

Kind if cliche I know, but I want to document installing a 1/4 acre garden at Fiddler's Green on James Island. This will be a way for me to post pictures of what's going on with the agrarian side of my life. This first picture is the work completed after just the first day in the field. I am forming the beds by hand because I want to demonstrate the power of human labor. Many urban areas throughout the world do not have access to heavy machinery, and I believe if communities come together, large amounts of work can be done.

The best quote from this week came from Seale (her family are the "care takers" for the property). She pulls up beside the garden in her car, rolls the window down, and says in a deep southern drawl, "What are you doin'?"
I responded tentatively, "Forming the beds for the garden."
She replies, "Duh....but why are you doin' it with a shovel?"
I decided not to get into reasoning based around dependencies on machinery and fossil fuels, belief in character building exercise, or even meditation? (haha...I am out there), but how else am I going to get ripped to launch my modeling career? Hehe...JK So, I simply repeated what Felix Line (a very close grandpa of my best family friends) told me about his secret to longevity (he turns 90 in two weeks), "I heard if you sit still long enough, you eventually wither up and turn to dust."
That seemed to satisfy her curiosity, but this week I still caught Seale looking at me from around the barn with weary eyes. She must think I am some crazy white boy with nothing better to do.

More to come soon.