We are excited to share our big news: after seven long years, our tenants lease has expired and the cows have departed. Over the next few weeks, we will be expanding our nursery production area by about a quarter of an acre. This will allow us to better keep up with demand (we are so grateful to have over 2,000 requests on the waitlist!). The remaining ~10 acres of our property will be restored to provide habitat for our native invertebrates, birds, and small mammals. Phase one of the project will begin immediately. Meadows should be completed within 5 years, shrub borders & woodlands should take shape within 10 years.
Because this is a tiny operation and there is no time to waste, we need to amend our nursery visit schedule. We love seeing our customers in person, but won't be able to juggle the restoration work with shipping plants and manning the shop. So, please, if you would like to purchase plants locally, place your order online for pickup. Plants will be prepared and placed on the pickup table at the agreed upon time and you will be welcome to explore our gardens. I will be around and would love to chat, but plants will not be labelled and primped for browsing in the sales beds. Thanks, everyone, for your understanding and support!
How?
Our farm has been pesticide and chemical free since we purchased it in October 2018. That won't be changing. Many native restoration projects begin with heavy and repeated applications of herbicide - that is not an option for us. Rather, in Phase One of the restoration, we will use our pig and goat teams to remove invasive species from ~2 acres of wet-woodland and to clear the property borders. We will utilize shallow tilling and smother crops to prepare the fields for wildflower meadows. More to be revealed in the next few weeks/months!
Our little goat crew; clearing the first four acres of invasive Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) and Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) in summer 2019.
Phase One will also include an enormous amount of manure cleanup...If anyone in the area needs cow manure, fresh or aged, please reach out!What can the average gardener do with fresh, un-composted manure?It is actually a great way to remove invasive plants! When we moved into our house in October 2018, the foundation was completely surrounded by invasive Bishop’s weed (Aegopodium podagraria), Japanese Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), and Privet (Ligustrum sp.). After tearing them out for nearly two years, we tried a different tactic: we laid cardboard over them, dumped loads of manure onto the cardboard, then layered newspaper over top (to kill the weeds in the manure), finally, we layered mulch over the cardboard. Oh boy, did we have beautiful soil to work with that next spring, and the invasive plants never came back! |
Why?
From The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation:
Pollinators are essential to our environment. The ecological service they provide is necessary for the reproduction of over 85% of the world’s flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of the world’s crop species. The United States alone grows more than 100 crops that either need or benefit from pollinators, and the economic value of these native pollinators is estimated at $3 billion per year in the U.S. Beyond agriculture, pollinators are keystone species in most terrestrial ecosystems. Fruits and seeds derived from insect pollination are a major part of the diet of approximately 25% of all birds, and of mammals ranging from red-backed voles to grizzly bears. Unfortunately, in many places, the essential service of pollination is at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases.
Learn more about these vital insects, the Xerces Society's pollinator conservation work, and how you can help at XERCES.ORG
Thanks for reading & happy growing!
Ali
