"There's no substitue for just doing it."

Week old lettuce transplants. Cincinnati State students, whose farm lab-practicum is held at Bahr farm, practiced transplanting here.

Everything sounds good in theory, but rarely does anything go as planned--that has been my biggest lesson recently. I was put in charge of planning our fall/winter high tunnel program this year. There are fifteen tunnels equaling about half an acre of planting space.  "High-tunnels" is just a fancy word for greenhouse--see above picture. They aren't actually "high" either. I'm 5'3" and even have to bend over while walking and working in them, which is still not all that successful in preventing me from occasionally banging the crown of my head on a metal pipe. Also, this has been my first major--and for the most part, solo--project on the farm.  I have been excitedly planning and putting it into action with my Farm Manager, Steve, and Farm Educator, Charles, as well as working with the students of Cincinnati State's Sustainable Agriculture Program, who have practicum every Friday at the farm.

Planning the high-tunnels meant I chose what was to be planted in which tunnel based on what had previously been planted and grown there during the spring and summer, as well as last fall's and winter's crop rotations. Basing what to plant on previous seasons is important; it's bad "mojo" to plant the same kind of vegetable family on top of one that had already been there because of recurring disease and pest potential. For example, planting kale after cabbage that was previously infested with the Brassica family-loving flea beetle is asking for another infestation. Vegetables have families, too. Here is a really cool and easy-to-understand explanation of vegetable families.)

Beginning, middle, and somewhat finished planning stages on paper. These plans changed weekly.

Also, some crops are heavier nutrient up-takers than others and can "exhaust" the soil if planted too many times in the same area. For example, you don't want to follow tomatoes with cabbage, but instead you want to follow tomatoes with lettuce--a very quick-growing, easy on the soil, crop--as seen above. This can lead to a lengthy discussion just on vegetable and fruit families, but I'll save that exciting information for another post. If you're really interested, visit the aforementioned and linked website.

Basically, keeping detailed records, among other things, is imperative to be able to successfully rotate crops of any kind. Having organized records will save you a lot of trouble when you're trying to rack your brain remembering what was planted where two seasons prior during the busy season when you're already mentally and physically tired. Even quickly jotting down what you did on a scrap piece of paper can be an effective reminder for later on when there is time to make a detailed note of it in your records. Personally, I carry a pocket note-jotter and pen with me to keep a daily account of what I do on the farm, any interesting things I learn, any subjects I would like to discuss and expand on later in my educational classes, or any things I should mention to Steve. I also keep an ongoing list for any new skill I learn or acquire. Keeping pen and paper handy is also an essential farming tool.

The only actual high tunnel, shown is what was planted for a future mesculun mix of greens.

But, back to the plan... Sort of. Not only did I decide what was to be planted where but I also needed to figure out how much spacing each plant would require and how that would fit in each greenhouse. Amazingly, what was originally planned to be planted in each house managed to work out perfectly with the amount of space available. Also, I had to take into consideration what prep work was necessary per tunnel (i.e. weeding, tilling, weed strikes, stale seed beds, etc.). Something I've begun doing under direction of Charles is keeping track of jobs I do and how long they take. Also, keeping records of them ensures that in the future I know how long tasks take to complete and can calculate man-hours, as well as budget labor and monetary costs accordingly--all of that is for a future post, too.

Since drafting the first edition of the high-tunnel program, the plan has changed on and off paper several times. This has been mostly due to time constraints. Unlike "normal" farms where farmers work until dark and even later to see a job or project through to completion, Our Harvest is a 9:00-5:00-type of workplace. This results in plans taking a lot longer to come to fruition, sometimes  missing planned prepping and planting deadlines. This is yet another lesson: there are never enough hours available for the work that needs to be done.

Transplanting Swiss Chard.

As of now, especially because it is near the end of the growing season (around October 19th, plants stop actively maturing and growing due to fewer hours of sunlight), plans have to change to accommodate future plant maturity and harvest dates. For example, one of the tunnels was planned to have Swiss Chard for our winter CSA, but it wasn't seeded in time in the black, plastic transplanting trays early enough to be able to harvest off mature and continually-producing plants. So, instead of harvesting singular leaves of Swiss Chard in bunches, we are instead planting more than the normal amount of plants in a house and bunching whole "baby Swiss Chard" plants together. 

Planning and record keeping are useful and vital. In farming, it's more like creating a detailed outline or framework of how and when things have to get done; usually the plan works well. This is probably one of the coolest aspect of farming: if something goes awry, change it. Farming is variably flexible; granted, you're putting seeds in soil and, if the conditions are mostly right then, "Voila!" a month or more later, food!