Have you ever tried to navigate a long hose through a large garden? It’s not nearly as easy as it sounds.
Let’s set the scene. You’ve planted an exciting garden stuffed full of flowers and vegetables, and you’re eagerly waiting for the seeds to sprout. Every day you diligently use a garden hose and watering wand to dispense water around your garden, quenching the thirst of underground seeds and encouraging them to grow.
Because the plants haven’t sprouted yet, you’re free to pull the hose this way and that, letting it trail wherever it wants across the ground.
But once the seedlings sprout, everything changes. Now the garden hose is an awkward menace, threatening to knock over and uproot delicate plants. You carefully thread it among the beds to reach the back of the garden … then in a moment of lapsed concentration, you give it a tug and snap a handful of young corn stalks as the hose crosses their path.
What to Do About Watering?
Growing plants in raised garden beds can reduce this issue, since the walls of the beds will (mostly) prevent the hose from crossing into beds and damaging plants. But maneuvering a long hose up and down every pathway between beds can be slow and cumbersome, and occasionally the hose still jumps the track and curls unwanted into a bed.
So what’s the answer? You can opt to run soaker hoses through each bed so you don’t have to move them around. But this can be a large investment, and it doesn’t provide water for the various potted plants, hanging flower baskets, etc. that you might have scattered around your garden.
A regular garden hose with a watering wand is a perfect solution in many cases, if only the problem of navigating the hose among plants and beds can be suitably addressed.
More Hoses & Some Splitters, Too
After trying several approaches through the years, I recommend addressing the issue with a combination of more hoses and several two-way and four-way hose splitters.
This solution requires some planning and spending. But the end result is satisfying if you’re dealing with a large garden. A two- or four-way hose splitter screws onto the end of a standard hose and allows the water flow to be split in multiple directions.
The controls on hose splitters allow each pathway to be turned on or off as needed.
My suggestion? Install a four-way splitter wherever the hose enters you garden, or right near the water source if the source is within your garden. Connect four hoses and send each one off in a different direction through the garden, weaving among beds as needed. If necessary, you can attach two-way splitters at the ends of these hoses to further expand the directions and possibilities.
The idea is simple: instead of having one long hose that’s difficult to maneuver through a large garden, you can use lots of short hoses instead, laying them out so that each one covers a small section of the garden. And if you end each one with a watering wand, you won’t have to bother with the flow controls on the splitter. You can simply turn each valve “on” so that every hose down the line is ready to deliver water as soon as you ask for it at the watering wand.
If your water pressure is high enough, you can even have multiple people watering at once, each using a different hose and watering wand.
So why not add a couple of hose splitters (or three) to you garden hose toolset? You’ll have an easier time getting water to every corner of your garden, and delicate young plants will thank you.
When livestock animals (and especially cattle) are distracted by discomfort, they may spend more time fighting flies than grazing—slinging their heads over their shoulders to try to dislodge them, kicking flies off their bellies and constantly using their tails as flyswatters.
Bites of horseflies, deerflies and stable flies are very painful for livestock, and these flies go from animal to animal and can spread blood-borne diseases. Horn flies, by contrast, live their whole adult life on the host animal, and large numbers can suck enough blood to reduce weight gains.
Cattle Conundrums
During fly season, some cattle may have thousands of these little flies covering neck, shoulders and back, with smaller numbers on the rest of the body or along the midline of the belly. After these flies feed and mate, the females move to the rear of the animal and fly to the ground as the animal defecates, immediately laying eggs in the fresh manure.
Horn fly eggs are generally laid in clumps on grass and other vegetation covered by the cowpat. After a time, which varies depending on temperature, the eggs hatch and maggots develop and grow. They then pupate in or below the pat, and the emerging adults later seek cattle hosts.
Horn flies live on the hosts—only flying up temporarily in a cloud of flies if the animal brushes them off—until they have sucked enough blood to mate and prepare to lay eggs. As summer moves into fall, horn fly larvae in manure mature only to the pupal stage and overwinter, waiting to become adult flies the following spring.
Although most cattle can tolerate up to 200 horn flies without economic losses, larger numbers of these flies decrease livestock weight gain and milk production. Studies have shown that a calf with more than 200 flies during summer may weigh 15 to 50 pounds less at weaning than calves with fewer flies.
Most stockmen try to reduce the number of biting flies that torment their cattle. The typical weapon against flies during the past century has been insecticides; more than 100 years of research has seen numerous strategies, starting with fly-killing chemicals as sprays. In the 1950s, chemicals in back rubbers and dust bags (where cattle could self-treat by rubbing on these applicators) came into common use.
In the 1970s, the invention of ear tags impregnated with long-lasting insecticide made it easy to give season-long protection against horn flies by installing these tags in early summer. But with nearly every cattle producer using fly tags, flies quickly developed resistance, and people had to switch to a different type of insecticide tag for their livestock. Researchers had to come up with different chemicals.
jackienix/Adobe Stock
Many of the most popular tags no longer work very well. Problems with chemical control include the ease with which flies develop resistance, and the fact that insecticides are toxic to other creatures and not just flies. They may adversely affect beneficial insects and other life forms in the ecosystem.
In recent years, some stockmen have been finding ways to reduce fly populations without resorting to chemicals. Even though nontoxic methods won’t eliminate livestock flies completely, they can help keep numbers down to more tolerable levels.
Different kinds of flies have different life cycles and behavior. Something that might work to reduce one kind may not affect another, so a combination of tactics is usually most effective.
Stable flies spend very little time on livestock animals—just long enough to grab a blood meal—and lay eggs in manure and rotting organic matter like old hay and bedding. Horn flies spend all their time on the host animal and only breed in fresh cattle manure. Horseflies and deerflies breed in swampy areas and can fly long distances, so it’s almost impossible to control them at their breeding sites.
Keep Clean Quarters
Stockmen can control stable flies and horn flies to a large degree by reducing access to breeding sites. To reduce breeding sites for stable flies, manure and wasted hay should be spread thinly for quick drying or be composted.
Properly composted material gets hot enough during fermentation to kill fly eggs and larvae. Piles of old hay and bedding are a huge incubator for flies. Texas A&M University researchers found that the area around just one big bale feeder produces more than a million stable flies.
In the spring, move feeders and spread wasted hay so it’ll dry, or put it all into a big pile—and cover it with black plastic—to start heating and composting. Otherwise, it may stay wet through summer, providing an ongoing breeding site for stable flies.
Stable fly numbers can be reduced by a combination of diligent clean-up—not letting manure or old hay/bedding build up to create breeding sites—and biologic control by dung beetles and parasitic wasps. These tiny wasps lay eggs in manure so their larvae can feed on fly larvae. A few of these wasps are always present, but some people buy additional ones from companies that sell them to release in barnyard areas where stable flies breed. This helps augment the natural wasp population.
Tamara Harding/Adobe Stock
Dung beetles are another beneficial insect native to North America and generally present in the environment—unless people use pesticides or deworming drugs such as ivermectin that end up in manure, which tend to kill dung beetle populations. Adults hinder fly breeding by disrupting manure pats. They consume liquid in the manure and lay eggs in it.
Hatching beetle larvae thrive on manure for food. Some species of dung beetles remove and bury balls of manure in which they’ve deposited their eggs.
An active population of dung beetles can bury or destroy 95 percent of horn fly eggs and larvae and about 90 percent of other cattle parasites that are passed in or depend on manure. They can’t get back up to ground surface after dung beetles bury the manure.
Birds are attracted to manure containing dung beetles and tear the pats apart to eat the beetles—which helps disrupt fly larvae development. One manure pat without beetles can generate 60 to 80 adult horn flies. A herd of cattle can provide a nursery for millions of horn flies.
On the Move
Rotational grazing can be another means of habitat control, if you can move cattle frequently enough—and far away enough—to leave the fresh manure behind so there are no cattle to fly to when they hatch into adults. If the cattle are moved far enough and don’t come back to that pasture for several weeks, this can help break the fly life cycle because livestock are no longer available to the hatching flies.
Horn flies develop from egg to adult within 10 to 20 days (depending on weather and temperature), and the adults live for about three weeks on a host animal, feeding 20 to 30 times a day. If they don’t find a host, they die.
If the cattle don’t come back to the pasture where the flies hatched out (while giving that pasture adequate time to regrow), the fly life cycle is broken. Moving cows every few days can make a big difference, but if they aren’t moved far enough, the flies can still find the livestock.
Other methods of biologic control include birds that eat flies. Birds that can catch insects in midair—such as tree swallows, barn swallows and eastern kingbirds—eat many mosquitoes and flies. Some people put up bird houses to attract tree swallows. These swallows feed from dawn to dusk in areas full of flying insects.
They eat all kinds of flying insects, including some of the flies that bother cattle.
Chickens that roam in barnyards and pastures also eat flies, and their scratching around in cattle manure disrupts the life cycle of several types of flies. Some types of ducks are also great fly-eaters and hang around cattle to eat flies. Cattle egrets also eat insects off the backs of cattle.
Fly Traps
Biting flies, including some that come from other areas, can sometimes be trapped before they attack your animals. Several sticky traps exist for use in barnyards, as well as electronic bug zappers that attract flying insects. One effective method for incoming flies is a trap invented by a cattleman in Oklahoma, now made and marketed by a company in Tennessee.
Horseflies, deerflies, stable flies, black flies and mosquitoes are attracted to large, dark objects—the shape and silhouette of an animal. This trap is a frame with a dark portion and transparent panels that simulate air space above an animal and under its belly, where flies circle before landing. When flies hit the transparent sheets, they bounce into trays of water and drown.
pimmimemom/Adobe Stock
If a person adds a few drops of dishwashing soap, the soap breaks surface tension of the water so the insects can’t float. They immediately sink and drown. Dish soap isn’t harmful to the environment, and some organic farmers use a soap product that is safe enough to drink.
Research at several universities showed this trap kills about 1 pound of biting flies per day. A three-year project at Cornell University, University of Florida and New York Pest Management compared 15 flytrap products and found this trap most effective. The trap was also tested three years on New York dairy farms, looking at nonchemical approaches versus pesticides.
The trap catches many flies in the evening when the dark portion is still warm after air cools off. The fly thinks this is an animal. It works best in an open area where flies see it from a distance. You need to scoop out dead flies every other day or so with an aquarium net, add more water and soap if needed, and change water every two weeks.
If it’s in an area where animals might rub on the trap and damage it, you can put an electric fence around it. A portable version can be moved from pasture to pasture for rotational grazing. It has an aluminum frame (lightweight and easy to move) and sandbags—to be filled and placed on the legs to help secure it in strong wind.
Around the Horn
Horn flies tend to stay on one animal instead of flying from animal to animal and need a different kind of trap. A walk-through fly trap was made by USDA entomologist Willis Bruce before World War II, but the advent of insecticides—pour-on products and ear tags—quickly gained more attention and use. There was new interest in his trap in the late 1980s, however, after horn fly resistance to insecticides became an issue. Instructions for building a simple walk-through trap are available from University of Missouri Extension.
Cattle enter the 10-foot trap through either end—as when going and coming from water or along a travel route from pen to pen. As they walk through the enclosure, they contact a series of canvas or carpet strips that dislodge most of the horn flies on their backs and sides. The dislodged flies are then attracted to light and travel toward the screened sides of the trap and can’t escape.
Zigzag screening forces them to crawl from a large opening through a smaller one. As they go through this cone effect, they’re trapped between the exterior screen on one side and the zigzag screen on the other. With the small end of the “cone” facing them, they don’t find their way back out.
If cattle are reluctant to enter the trap, it may be necessary to remove most or all canvas strips, and then gradually replace them after the cattle overcome their fear. Feed can be used as bait to attract cattle into the trap, or it can be placed where cattle must go through it to get to water.
After livestock become accustomed to it, they often go through it several times a day because they realize it brushes the flies off and provides relief.
Field studies in central Missouri in 1986 showed that the trap reduced about 50 percent of horn flies during the season. This level of control was less than that from insecticide ear tags and some other treatments but maintained horn flies below the damaging level, which is about 200 flies per animal.
Other Ways to Reduce Fly Load
Some farmers put apple cider vinegar during summer in the cows’ water supply to repel flies. This makes the skin slightly more acidic (changes the pH) and flies are less attracted.
Genetic selection for fly resistance is another strategy. Some cattle are naturally more attractive to horn flies and always have higher numbers. If a person culls those animals and selects fly resistant cattle to keep in the herd, this can make a difference.
Hair coat is another factor. Livestock with short, sleek, oily hair are less attractive to flies. There are many genetic traits that people select for when breeding cattle; fly resistance is rarely on the list, but some stockmen pay attention to this trait when making breeding decisions.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
With summer in full swing, fighting insects at the farm can feel like a full-time job. Let’s take a closer look at three common species of flies that impact our cattle and other livestock.
Horn Flies
The horn fly is a surprisingly small insect (the adult is only 3 to 5 mm), so it’s not the size but rather the number of these flies that causes problems. Clustering in large groups that can number in the hundreds, these flies will sit on the backs, withers and sides of cattle and pierce the skin to feed on blood.
These flies are tenacious feeders, too, taking upwards of 20 to 30 bites per fly a day.
Despite the fly’s small size, these bites are painful, so animals will move and fuss to avoid being fed upon. It is usually all for naught, though, as these flies not only feed but then also have the audacity to rest on the animal. This means a continual fly presence that is understandably highly irritating.
Stable Flies
Just a bit smaller than the house fly, the stable fly is a ubiquitous pest in the summer. Congregating along an animal’s back, legs, sides and belly, these flies (in contrast to the horn fly) only take on average one blood meal a day. Bbut the bite is painful and causes distress.
Face Flies
You know the image: a cow (or horse or goat) in the summer sun with dozens of flies around its eyes and nose. This is, you guessed it, the face fly. Unlike the other two species mentioned above, these insects do not bite but instead feed on bodily secretions, most commonly tears, saliva and mucus.
They are also more likely to be found on animals on pasture, not in the barn. Although face flies don’t bite, they do transmit a common cattle disease: pink eye.
What to Do?
The three fly species above represent variations on a theme: irritants that negatively impact the health and welfare of our livestock. Animals suffering from fly infestations will constantly move to avoid the insects. This means less time grazing or resting.
Horses will stomp repeatedly to remove flies from their legs. This repetitive concussive force can cause lameness.
Cattle constantly on the move will not gain weight and, in some cases, can lose condition. Farmers may also see a negative impact on calf growth, not because the flies are feeding on the calves, but rather the cow. As the cow continuously moves to avoid the flies, the calf is unable to nurse.
Given these issues, what’s a hobby farmer to do in the summer? It’s important to realize there is no one-stop solution to controling flies on cattle and other livestock. Instead, integrated pest management (IPM) is typically the best course of action. This means cleaning up the environment (such as removing manure on a regular basis and not overcrowding the animals) in conjunction with chemical control. The latter will look different depending on an individual farm’s set up, but could include dust bags, rubs and ear tags for cattle, and face masks, fly sprays and fans for horses.
Because there are different ectoparasites out there (we haven’t even talked about ticks or grubs, just to name a few more), there should be a multi-layered plan to help control their access to your animals.
Once, after a successful cookout, I was pouring the dregs from glasses of beers and wine down the kitchen drain. From a stint in local government I knew that the nutrients in these dregs would wind up in someone’s drinking water reservoir and could contribute to algae blooms and fish kills.
Why was I pouring perfectly good nutrients down the drain? Why not pour them in a pitcher, leave them out for a day or two so the alcohol could evaporate, then dilute with water and irrigate my container garden plants with this free, liquid plant fertilizer? That’s what happens now at our house with any liquids that used to go down the drain such as leftover coffee or pasta water. The amount of nutrients may be less than found in a commercial liquid fertilizer, but it’s free. And it doesn’t fill up a drinking water reservoir or septic tank.
Creating commercial liquid fertilizer for the garden requires using fossil fuels. And that puts more carbon dioxide into the air, which contributes to climate disruption: hotter summers, longer droughts, harsher winters, etc. The weather is already a challenging enough element of gardening without us rocking the climatological boat.
But most important, my container plants seem to like these kitchen dregs. Just be sure to let the alcohol evaporate. You don’t want any tipsy plants wreaking havoc in the house!
Potting Media
When it’s time to repot plants, we could buy a bag of potting media. But that means that someone had to mine ancient peat moss. Those peat bogs are stable carbon sinks. So when we stick it in pots, it eventually breaks down and adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere which contributes to climate disruption.
Besides there’s a better backyard source for potting media: compost. It absorbs water better than peat moss, it has way more nutrients than peat moss, and if you’re any kind of gardener, you probably have some in the backyard. So there’s no need to run to the garden-supply store.
You can make compost go a little further by diluting it 10 percent with sandy soil that you may have on your property. And you can dilute it another 10 percent with shredded tree leaves. Save up your spent coffee grounds and mix them in for another 10 percent.
If you have any wood ash from your fireplace or woodstove, feel free to add any chunks of natural charcoal up to about 5 percent of your compost/potting media. The hollow spaces in your woodstove charcoal creates homes for beneficial microbes. So, the more materials there are, the merrier.
A wider range of nutrients will be available for your garden plants. And those plants are mostly made of water and, uh, carbon dioxide. Each plant is a carbon-sink for as long as it lives. You can leave the peat moss in their bogs to remain as permanent carbon sinks. And grow more plants that tie up carbon dioxide.
Repurposed Garden Containers
I could have had my old pair of leather work boots resoled, but they didn’t fit me that well anymore. Throwing them out just didn’t seem right either. So I filled them up with my backyard compost potting media, planted succulents in them and parked them by the front steps. A pair of kid’s cowboy boots with holes in the soles that had been sitting on a neighbor’s curb for over a week got the same treatment and earned a place in the garden.
A banged up cooking pot that my wife wanted to get rid of became a home for sedums. The cooking pot didn’t have a drainage hole, but sedums are the kind of plant that can survive drought as well as drowning.
So they’re happy regardless of how much rain they get.
I also reuse a few big, black, plastic, nursery pots. Landscapers sometimes have these pots left over from projects. I use 20-gallon pots to grow delicious, edible plants that I don’t want to see spread in my garden. I have big pots of Japanese knotweed, native ground nuts and sunchokes.
To keep their roots from slipping through the drainage holes and colonizing the soil, I line the inside of the pots with landscape fabric. The pots can still drain out excess water, but the invasive roots remain contained in the pot. And these free pots are plenty big enough to let me grow harvestable quantities of these otherwise invasive plants.
We also use free burlap sacks from our local coffee roaster for our window baskets. They were designed to be lined with expensive, imported coir, a material from coconut shells. But coir lasts only a couple years and then has to be replaced, using money that I would rather spend on a nice dinner out with my wife.
But the burlap bags that coffee beans come in end up in the landfill if gardeners don’t use them. So once a year, I swing by during working hours (maybe your local roaster will place them where gardeners can snag them on weekends and after work) and pick up a few dozen bags.
My wife cuts the bags to make a double layer that fits inside the window baskets. She then tops it up with our compost/potting media and plants brightly colored annuals that we can see from inside the house. These free bags last just as long as the expensive coconut coir.
And sometimes we talk about that over dinner at a restaurant.
Container Mulches
If mulch is a good idea for garden beds, why isn’t it more common for pots? Is there a law against it? Looking at commercial pots and planters, one would think so.
The amount of time I spent watering pots went down by more than half when I made a habit of mulching pots. For big pots like my dwarf citrus trees, I’ve been using Mexican beach pebbles, rounded river gravel, florist moss, acorn cups, Spanish moss and wine corks.
Cork Screws Make Mulch for the Container Garden
As you’re popping corks from wine bottles, don’t throw them away. They’re organic and can be repurposed. Corks are actually a renewable resource. Farmers harvest a layer of bark from cork oaks in Portugal and Spain about every 9 to 10 years. The trees regrow their bark so farmers can harvest from each tree many times over its life. And the acorns from the oaks feed free-ranging pigs that produce some of the world-famous hams of the Iberian Peninsula.
So the move toward plastic corks could undermine one of the most sustainable agricultural systems on the planet.
Just tossing corks into a pot won’t work very well. It looks like you’re in the house of someone who drinks way too much. Plus, the corks float around when you water them.
Best practice is to make sure there’s room for the corks. Is there an inch or two of clearance between the potting soil surface and the top of the pot? Then slip a piece of wood about an inch thick under the side of the pot facing you. Start standing the corks up at the back of the pot—so they don’t fall over—and work your way to the front.
The corks should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder like so many soldiers.
Once the pot is completely covered, start squeezing corks into any gaps until it won’t hold any more. When all the corks are snug you won’t have to worry about them floating away when you water the pot. If you’re not a big drinker, the next time you’re at a restaurant—spending the money you saved by freecycling for your container plants—ask the bartender to save corks for you.
There is a beautiful city about two hours northeast of Minneapolis that’s called Duluth. It sits right on Lake Superior, on the westernmost point of the lake. Our family tries to get up to Duluth at least once a year because there is always so much to do and see. The lake is awe-inspiring throughout all seasons.
Duluth, MN by Jacob/Adobe Stock
Also, one of our very favorite restaurants resides there—Duluth Grill.
One thing I frequently order at the restaurant is called Bi Bim Bap, which is a rice bowl with seasoned pork and beef, pickled peppers, pickled onions, kimchi, veggies, an egg, marinated kale and more. We often try to recreate various versions of this meal at home, as I almost always have pickled onions, pickled peppers and kimchi (top three of my favorite preserves) on hand.
But the reason for the back story here is the marinated kale. The first time I ever tasted kale marinated was at Duluth Grill, and it stuck out because it’s such a genius way to enjoy kale.
I always grow kale in our gardens at home. I harvest so much throughout the season that I’m always thinking of ways to use it up. My kiddo loves kale chips, so we make those quite often. I use kale in soups and sautés, and we freeze plenty.
Marinating, though, opens up a door to a whole new way of enjoying kale.
As I said, we make our own variations of rice bowl meals for dinner quite often, and marinating kale in various ways is a unique and delicious way to get some extra fresh greens incorporated into our meal. However, marinated kale doesn’t have to be reserved for rice bowls—it’s also delicious turned into a salad or eaten as a side dish.
I don’t exactly measure this recipe, as I harvest as much as I think is enough for our family of three. However, it’s about a cup per person. Adjust the ingredients to your preference.
Ingredients
Main
Fresh kale, ribbed and cut to bite-sized pieces
Marinade
Olive oil to drizzle until kale is saturated (2 tbsp or so)
1 tbsp or so fresh ginger root, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 to 2 tbsp coconut aminos
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. sesame oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Wash kale and remove ribs. Cut into bite sized pieces.
In a bowl, whisk together the marinade ingredients.
Note: You can make this recipe in a bowl, but I use a gallon-sized Ziplock bag since I find it really easy to mix the ingredients together well and massage the kale with the marinade through the bag so that it gets evenly coated. Also, I make this recipe one day ahead, so once mixed together it’s easy to pop in the refrigerator for storage.
Combine the marinade with the prepped kale and mix together well. This can be eaten the same day or made ahead a day or two.
Notes
Add and omit ingredients as you’d like to create different flavored marinades to match your dining needs.
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you can see which plants are weeds so you can pull them when they’re tiny. uncommongoods.com
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This article originally appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
Is your lawn the bad side of gardening, endlessly sucking in your time, energy and money? You fertilize, mow, water, mow, spread pesticides, mow and mow some more? Well, it doesn’t have to be that way.
A lawn is a complex community of plants, insects and microorganisms, and the more we understand it, the easier it will be to successfully maintain. Organic lawn care is labor-intensive, but at least we aren’t working against ourselves and the environment with toxic chemicals.
And actually, maintaining an organic lawn isn’t difficult. With proper planting and care, nearly anyone can successfully grow a healthy, green lawn.
Lawn Maintenance
Whether your lawn is large or small, it needs regular maintenance to look its best. Weekly mowing during the growing season takes up the most time, but the organic lawn also needs frequent feeding, dethatching and other care to stay green and healthy.
Mowing
Sharpen your mower blade at the start of each season to ensure that the grass blades are cut rather than torn. To keep grass healthy and vigorous, remove only 1/3 of the top growth each time you mow. The optimal mowing height depends on the variety of grass. In general, though, the higher you cut your grass, the deeper its roots will develop, strengthening its resistance to heat and drought.
Low grasses, such as zoysia and Bermudagrass, should be cut no shorter than 1 inch, preferably 1 1/2 inches. Cut taller-growing grasses, such as tall fescue and bluegrass, no shorter than 2 inches; 2½ to even 3 inches is better.
Mow high during summer droughts. Set the highest setting on your mower blade if the grass is really tall. Reduce the blade height for the following two mowings until you are cutting at the standard height.
If you mow regularly, let your grass clippings lay where they fall. They’ll eventually rot and enrich the soil with organic matter. Large clamps of cut grass sitting on your lawn block sunlight and promote disease. Rake them up and add them to the compost pile or use them as mulch in other parts of your yard.
Michael Feldmann
Fertilizing
The first step toward a well-fed organic lawn is to use a mulching lawn mower and let nitrogen-rich grass clippings remain where they fall when cut. Additionally, you can use compost or other organic materials to nourish your grass. (Relying on high-nitrogen chemical fertilizers can result in problem-prone, shallow-rooted turf that requires more frequent mowing.)
The most important thing to note is the time of year when the grass starts growing rapidly. This is a perfect time to apply a high-quality organic fertilizer. Plan to fertilize twice in the north, where cool-season grasses have a growth spurt in the spring, and once more in the fall.
Fertilize warm-season grasses in late spring, as soon as your lawn begins to green up, and again a few weeks later.
Choose a finely pulverized, weed-free organic fertilizer, such as processed manure or sifted compost, and spread it evenly over the lawn just before the rain is expected. Mow the grass about a week after fertilizing. Corn gluten meal is a natural fertilizer that also prevents many types of weeds from germinating.
Aerating
Because lawns are frequently subjected to high foot traffic, the soil below them becomes compacted over time. Grass roots have trouble growing down and out and instead concentrate their growth at the surface.
Aerate your organic lawn every two to three years to prevent or fix it. Aerating a lawn involves poking tiny holes into the soil. For small areas, use a step-on core cultivator. For bigger lawns, rent a power aerator machine.
Mow the lawn and apply a thin layer of organic fertilizer. Aerate in one direction and then repeat crosswise. Water thoroughly.
Liming
Lime is only necessary when the pH of your soil drops to an undesirable level. Most turf grasses prefer soil pH levels ranging from 7.0 to 7.5.
Spread lime in the fall of the year, as it takes about two months to change the pH. If more than 50 pounds of lime per 1,000 square feet is required, split the amount into separate applications applied several months apart.
Planting New Lawns
Sometimes you’ll want to plant an area with lawn, such as around a newly laid patio area, or if you are moving into a newly built home that is surrounded by bare soil. To get your organic lawn off to the right start, choose grasses wisely to match your conditions.
Create a strong lawn by choosing grass varieties that are suited to your climate. New cultivars with increased disease and pest resistance, as well as drought tolerance, are continually being introduced by hybridizers. The following are some of the most commonly grown lawn grasses.
Bermudagrass
Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon), a delicate-textured, drought-tolerant grass, thrives in warmer climates. In the winter, it turns a buff brown color. Numerous runners create wear-resistant grass. Modern hybrids are much easier to keep from invading flower beds than open-pollinated strains, which are quite aggressive.
Buffalo Grass
Buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides) is a warm-season creeping grass that is drought-tolerant, can grow in alkaline soil and is wear-
resistant. It browns in midsummer and fall.
Centipede Grass
Centipede grass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) is a warm-season, coarse-leaved creeping grass with good drought tolerance. Plant in low-wear areas.
Fine Fescues
Fine fescues (Festuca spp.) is a cool-season, creeping, fine-textured, dark green grass with good shade tolerance. Often mixed with Kentucky bluegrass.
Kentucky Bluegrass
Kentucky bluegrass(Poa pratensis) is a cool-season, lush, dark green grass with narrow blades that needs plenty of sunlight. May become dormant during summer droughts or during winter freezes. Creeping stolons knit tough turf.
Turf-type Tall Fescue
Turf-type Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea) is a coarse, medium-green grass that tolerates both sun and shade and is becoming increasingly popular in the central United States. Most of the year, updated cultivars remain green. Drought tolerant. Because it grows in low bunches and doesn’t creep, it’s frequently combined with other grasses.
Zoysia Grass
Zoysia grass (Zoysia spp.) is a medium-green, creeping, fine-textured grass for full sun—green in warm weather, tan in the winter.
Justin/Adobe Stock
Seeding & Planting An Organic Lawn
All lawn grasses require at least 4 inches of good topsoil in which to stretch their roots. You’ll need to apply new topsoil if your new yard has been scraped down to the subsoil. Whether you plan to start with seed or sod, site preparation is the same: Thoroughly cultivate new or existing topsoil, adding a 1-inch layer of compost or other organic matter. Rake out all weeds and roots, cultivate again and rake smooth. Use a roller to evenly compact the site and make it level.
Seeding
Selection is very important when buying grass seeds. Improved cultivars of the best lawn grasses are more expensive than their open-pollinated relatives yet perform better. Select cultivars that have been specifically bred for drought tolerance, pest and disease resistance, or other traits. For even distribution, use a mechanical seeder. After seeding, roll the area and keep it continuously moist for two weeks. Start mowing three weeks after seeding.
Laying Sod
Sod is the fastest way to have an attractive lawn, although it costs more than seeds. It’s perfect for spot repairs, especially in high-
traffic areas or on slopes. Warm-season grasses should be planted from late spring to early summer, while cool-season species should be planted in early spring or from late summer to early fall.
Use only fresh, green strips. Before they are planted, keep them moist and shaded. Slopes are best suited for ground covers, but if you decide to plant grass on a slope, make sure to work crosswise along the slope. After planting, roll or walk on the strips to push the roots into the soil. Water every two to three days for three weeks after planting.
Plugs & Springs
Some types of lawn grasses, including rhizomatous warm-season grasses, such as St. Augustine, zoysia and centipede, are planted using plugs or sprigs, as well as sod. While plugs and sprigs are less expensive than sod, the time it takes for them to grow into a dense lawn may be longer. To use these, prepare the soil the same way you would for sod, and keep the plugs or sprigs cool and moist until you are ready to plant them. Plant plugs in rows, individually.
Sprigs, the grass’s runners or stolons, can also be planted in rows, or they can be broadcast over the planting area and then individually pressed down into the soil surface. (You may tear up sheets of sod to make your own or purchase sprigs by the bushel.) With plugs and sprigs, keep the soil evenly moist but not too wet until they are established and vigorously growing. This can take four weeks or more.
Coping with Problems
A healthy lawn is naturally more resistant to weeds, insects and disease problems. A tight cover of vigorous grass will outcompete weeds. A loose, well-drained soil helps prevent disease issues. Because proper fertilization promotes the growth of strong, healthy turf, it can go a long way toward preventing lawn problems.
The majority of today’s grass cultivars provide genetically enhanced resistance to many pests and diseases. If you have consistently problematic lawn areas, consider replanting them with an improved cultivar or trying an alternative to lawn grass. Ground covers work especially well as lawn alternatives.
If your lawn develops weed or pest problems, take a few simple steps. Use a small, sharp knife to slice off any established weeds about 1 inch below the soil surface. If more than half of the plants in your lawn are weeds, renovate the lawn by replanting.
When subterranean insect larvae, such as white grubs, feed on grass roots, they can cause significant damage. Apply milky disease spores for long-term pest management. Biological insecticides that utilize parasitic nematodes to control numerous insects likely to feed beneath your lawn.
More Information
Water Worries
While you don’t necessarily have to water your lawn, if you want a lush green lawn in the middle of summer, you’ll need to water it. Water deeply and regularly for three to four hours at a time—once a week for heavy soil and every other day for sandy soil.
Deep watering (enough to wet 6 inches of soil) encourages roots to grow downward rather than near the surface. Surface-rooted plants need to be watered more frequently. As a result, the surface remains perpetually moist, which promotes the growth of weeds and the spread of disease. Deep roots stay cooler and are less likely to go dormant in the summer heat. To keep growing, most lawns require about 1 inch of water per week.
Michael Feldmann
Repairing Lawns
Ruts left by vehicles or scars caused by the removal of shrubs or trees require immediate spot repairs. If damage occurs in winter, prepare the soil and cover it with mulch until spring.
Loosen the soil in the damaged area, reserving any grass plants that appear to be healthy. As you work, keep them wet and shaded. To condition the soil, add a 1/2-inch layer of compost or other organic matter, along with enough good topsoil to raise the level of the damaged area 1 inch above the surrounding soil level. Reseed or replant, matching the primary species in your yard. For a month, water regularly.
Dethatching
All lawns have thatch, a layer of grass clippings that gradually decompose and feed the roots. If the layer is less than 1/4-inch thick, there is no need to remove it. Thatch problems are frequently caused by the overuse of synthetic chemical fertilizers, which encourage grass to grow quickly and lushly.
As clippings build up into a thick layer of thatch, grass plants are unable to get enough air for healthy growth. Use a thatch rake to break up thatch in a small lawn. Rent a vertical mower to dethatch a larger area.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
Flower farming. That’s right. Flower farming is an actual thing, and while it might not be as mainstream as row cropping, cattle ranching or even market gardening, small-scale flower farmers are making it big!
If you love flowers, few endeavors are likely to be as rewarding as starting your own flower farm. But speaking as someone who has owned and operated a flower farm for several years, flower farming isn’t all sunshine and daisies. I’ve made more mistakes than I have grown flowers, so I thought I’d share five pitfalls potential flower farmers should seek to avoid.
1. Everything Isn’t Beautiful
People often want to begin a flower farm for the aesthetic. Flowers are beautiful, and we associate them with vibrant and bright colors in showy landscaped gardens.
Who wouldn’t want a yard filled with rows of beautiful flowers? But flower farmers do not grow flowers in this way. Flower farms rarely have fields filled with rows of color, as flowers are often harvested before they reach their peak performance. Growing cut flowers is a business, and the flowers are cut out of your field in order to sell and distribute them.
If you are seeing fields with rows of color, you’re likely not selling as many flowers as you should be!
2. Don’t Grow Too Many Flowers
Every year I think about doubling the size of my flower farm, and every year I have to have a difficult conversation with myself. Expanding your growing space, I’ve learned, doesn’t always mean increasing production and profitability. When you first begin your flower farming journey, it is so easy to think, “I will plant 7 acres and grow all the flowers.” This is a recipe for disaster. Cut flower farming on a small scale is labor intensive and requires a huge amount of work and dedication. It seems like planting two acres of cut flowers would be more profitable than planting one, right? Twice the profit.
But that isn’t always the case. Scaling your flower farming business also needs to correlate directly with scaling your available labor hours, your sales channels and sometimes equipment. Growing more intensively with better growing and management practices at a smaller scale will typically give you healthier and more productive plants than growing twice the amount without good management practices in place. Not to mention, cut flowers are a perishable product. It’s critical to have your sales channels in place before scaling, otherwise you’ll end up with a field full of dying flowers without a cause. Start off small, then grow from there.
3. Understand Your Growing Zone
I think this one is often overlooked by flower farmers. You see someone growing tulips in early spring and think, “Hey, I will do that!”
But the fact is, flowers—much like vegetables—have growing zones, and some flowers do better in cooler climates. Some do better in warmer weather. Some will survive anywhere. Some need to only be grown in fall or spring. Some varieties might require season extension like a greenhouse. Some varieties might require chilling in a cooler. Also like vegetables, flowers are very seasonal. It’s important to have a firm grasp on your growing zone and what varieties thrive best in your zones, as well as what varieties just won’t work in your area. Having a firm grasp on this prior to even beginning your growing journey will save you from crop and profit loss. Just a little research can save a lot of money!
4. Know Your Market
This is the most important one on this list. Everyone, and I mean everyone, goes into a flower farm thinking, “If I grow it, people will buy it.” But guess what? That’s simply not true.
Flower farming is a small business enterprise. You must identify your target market and sales channels before you start planning out what you are growing.
Variety matters in flower farming, and every variety isn’t for every buyer. A direct-to-consumer, market-style bouquet might have all sorts of varieties like celosias, sunflowers and zinnias. They are bright and filled with colors and textures. But wedding florists often prefer large volumes of greenery and neutral color palettes, with lots of white and cream flowers. Know where your flowers will go before you grow. This way you can select varieties in color palettes that will appeal most to your target sales audience.
5. Understand Biennials, Perennials & Annuals
Most everyone knows there are perennial flowers and annual flowers. Annual flowers are planted every year and last just one season. Perennials are planted once and come back year after year.
Most of us understand that, but there are also biennial flowers. These you plant in year one, overwinter, then harvest the blooms in year two. As a beginning flower farmer, I never realized how critical those varieties were in order to extend my season and have continuous blooms from early spring to late fall. It is important to delevop a firm understanding of the different types of flowering plants, their bloom times and when best to plant.
By investing in a blend of perennials, annuals and biennials, you’ll have a wonderful and consistent supply of saleable flowers and foliages.
But no matter what combination of perennials, annuals and biennials you choose, we hope this list of some of a few of our mistakes helps you get growing in the right direction!
For many years, I watered a handful of garden beds in my orchard using a 35-gallon leg tank. Gravity caused water to flow at low pressure through a 50-foot hose, allowing me to gently (but slowly) water corn and pumpkin plants.
This year, I’ve switched to running hoses from a yard hydrant, significantly increasing the water pressure available at my garden beds. But that increased water pressure has come with unforeseen side effects, prompting me to add a new watering tool to my collection: a watering wand.
A watering wand screws on to the end of a standard hose and provides a better means for controlling spray pattern and pressure. After testing a watering wand with my new hose setup, I can’t imagine getting along without one, because it readily solved all the problems I faced.
Intrigued? Here are four reasons why you need a watering wand in your garden:
1. Improved Control Over Water Pressure
Before I switched to a watering wand, I was using a simple shutoff valve at the end of my hose to control the flow of water. By opening the valve only a little bit, I could change the straight jet of water from the hose into a spreading spray of droplets.
Unfortunately, a basic shutoff valve offers minimal control over water pressure and spray shape. It worked fine when watering freshly planted beds. But once seedlings sprouted, I had only two choices:
spray the whole bed from a decent height (which was gentle, but wetted and muddied the leaves of all the delicate seedlings)
selectively spray around the plants close to the ground (which kept the leaves drier, but threatened to significantly disturb the soil due to the high water pressure)
A watering wand can remedy all these issues. Mine has two means of controlling water pressure. A knob broadly controls the amount of water flowing through the wand, and a squeezable lever further refines the amount, even shutting off the flow if the lever isn’t squeezed at all.
For lengthy watering sessions, a metal clip flips down to hold the lever in the “on” position so continuous squeezing isn’t needed.
With two options for controlling water pressure, my watering wand makes all the difference when caring for my garden beds. I can water the bases of the plants without pummeling the soil, leaving leaves relatively dry and roots undisturbed.
2. Long Handles Save Bending Down
Another benefit of a watering wand is its length. While designs vary, often the sprayer head extends far down from the handle (sometimes by a couple feet or more), which means you can water at the base of plants without bending down.
If you have a lot of plants to water, this can save strain on your back.
3. Handy On/Off Control Reduces Water Waste
Of course, any garden hose can be shut off at the source. But having a more convenient on/off control at the end of the hose is a big positive.
You can shut off the spray while you navigate between plants or garden beds, saving water while soaking only what you intend to soak. No more spraying water across the stone pathway, or the garden bench, or that jacket that you took off earlier because you were too hot.
4. Variable Watering Patterns Offer Versatility
Some watering wands further expand their capabilities by offering multiple watering patterns. If you want a pure jet of water like you’d get from a hose, that’s an option. Or you can opt for a mist pattern that’s even finer than a spray.
Whatever your needs, a watering wand with variable watering patterns ought to get the job done.
What are you waiting for? If you’re caring for a large garden, a watering wand is a must-have addition to your watering toolbox.
Purple clover’s summertime flowers just began blooming this month and will continue to bloom into September. So we can keep picking the choicest flowers and drying them until we have a nice store set up for daily teas through winter.
Trifolium pratense, commonly called red clover in herbals or purple clover by country folks, will be peeking their light-pink-to-pale-purple blooms up among the grasses of hayfields and forage lands, and any waysides nearby. The scientific name pratens is latin for “of a meadow,” and it came here with European settlers to benefit plants, humans and other animals.
Purple clover is employed to fix nitrogen in the soils and give grazing animals forage. It also carries added health benefits for us when ingested, aiding a variety of systems in our human bodies.
An Effective Flower
The flowers are considered to be helpful for “moving blood,” and this effect is achieved by consistent use of tea or tincture over many months. You can also eat flowers and leaves raw, as a salad herb, just as you could eat white clover (Trifolium repens).
As you chew purple clover, you can notice salivary glands start to activate as your mouth gets more spit. This fluid stimulation applies to other systems in the body, including bile in the digestion, respiratory coughs that could use some mucous, and even lymphatic and skin conditions.
You can tincture or dry the flowers and top leaves. Purple clover is frequently used to address uterine complaints, and any especially toxic situation.
Identifying Purple Clover
Even though it is commonly called red clover in herbals, it doesn’t have nearly as much red as the bright hot fuchsia of crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum), whose deeper hues and more elongated flowers distinguish it from the plant we are discussing. Crimson clover seeds are more often used by permaculturalists and flower farmers, the latter of whom love the cut flowers for arrangements and the double duty of soil improvement in a diverse farming system.
Purple clover does all this, of course, as well as attracts far more diverse pollinators including honeybees. But it also gives us time-honored herbal benefits.
Melissa Calhoun
Harvesting Purple Clover
Go ahead and include the upper leaves around the base of the flowers when harvesting. Look for the single pale chevron in the leaves. The club shape of the leaf sets and the uniqueness of the common clover family flowers together will give you a simple guide to identification.
But as always, have someone knowledgeable with you to help you correctly identify your first harvest before you decide to ingest.
How to Prepare & Use Purple Clover
Purple clover is considered gentle but strong. It does slow work over time, so it’s great to try to create a routine for daily ingestion of small amounts.
A cup of tea or dropperful of tincture daily for several months will be the best strategy. That said, home drying may sometimes be slow unless running a dehydrator overnight. Slow drying of these flowers, such as in a paper sack in an air conditioned home, runs the risk of a slight fermentation of chemicals that can make them less desirable for those on blood thinning medication.
Thus it is often contraindicated in that case.
For the best preservation of desirable qualities in dried flowers, pick in the morning after the dew has dried. Pick flowers that have just opened their colorful pink petals. Each plant will have several flowers opening in succession in varying ages, so you’ll be able to tell with a few days of practice how fast the flowers bloom and fade.
Make sure you then dry quickly and store in an airtight container away from sunlight. We want to see the color fade only slightly, into a deep dark purple-red upon drying. We know the fully dried flowers are ready to put up when they are crunchy and the petals crumble off upon touch.
Herbal Benefits of Purple Clover
The idea of “blood cleansing” to aid many skin issues can be understood more deliberately if we think of our skin as an organ of detoxification. While our livers and intestines want to be first lines of defense, our blood may still be “clogged” with traffic after these organs have had a go at detoxing.
If that’s the case, we’ll need our skin to help secrete undesirables.
Stinky sweat, strange bumps, chronic dry or oily spots, and even glandular swellings (where the lymph is also clogged with waste) will also alert our brains to problems that we may have failed to notice in our livers and stomach tissues. A chronic itch or rash will generally indicate an internal problem, as well as get your attention!
While various topical treatments from a dermatologist may help soothe symptoms, red clover ingestion can go deeper to help internally balance a stressed system.
Its benefits in menopause have been capitalized recently, but be careful and always consult a doctor before trying over the counter supplements. A tea you have properly identified and collected with (or purchased from!) a trained herbalist will be safe and usable for the long term.
For serious conditions always enlist an experienced health practitioner to take your body chemistry and symptoms into account, and to teach you specifically about estrogenic compounds. Red clover is generally recognized as safe when used responsibly and subtly for average health complaints, even in children.
Besides, what is more enlivening than picking flowers for tea on a clear summer morning?
