As we plunge into summer, weeding in some form or another may be our #1 activity. I suppose that can be a bit overwhelming. Some might even say, depressing. “All we do is weed!” But I don’t think of it that way. It’s actually not really weeding at all. It’s all about compost ingredient acquisition. AKA compost creation.
Layering the compost
Although we do purchase a few soil amendments from time to time, the primary fertilizer on the farm is compost, compost we concoct right here. And the largest ingredient by far is plant material. Where do we get most of the plant material we put into the heaps? From the gardens and the nurseries of course. We grow it. We grow our compost. We grow it in our high quality soil in between our young apple trees. We grow it next to our lettuce, spinach, corn, kale and broccoli. You might even say, compost is our most important crop. After harvesting, the weeds go into our layered heaps for a year or two before returning as “black gold” to the gardens and nurseries to feed the next generation of compost plants of the future.