This week, we continue to get the farm cleaned up and ready for fall.

We spent all morning pulling plastic mulch and drip tape off of the eggplant beds in the “Back 40.” We  relocated the landscape fabric in the aisles of those beds into the strawberry aisles. We rolled up the silage tarps that had been covering some very grassy beds all season. It was hard, dirty work.

Even though it took three of us a few hours, the systems that we had in place saved us hours of weeding work during the busiest time of the season for us. It’s invaluable to be able to use these tools to keep our workload down as much as possible in the height of the season.

Getting rye and vetch on the fields as early as possible is great for the long-term health of the soil at LexFarm. We can rely on a certain amount of nitrogen in the soil after sowing vetch and the rye helps shield the vetch from harsh winter weather, adds organic matter and helps shade out weeds.

It is always our goal to get as much of the fields cover cropped for the winter as possible for these reasons. Luckily the weather has been cooperating so far this fall!