Farm Happenings at Ecosystem Farm
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Growings On 9/21/20

Posted on September 21st, 2020 by Kirsten Simmons

Check out the new property! There's another day or two of clearing, then I can start building the layers that will turn into new soil for the strawberries. The first step will be to bring in some gravel to form a quick foundation for the shipping container, then I'm going to put down several layers of cardboard, then the stepping stones that will go in the walkways, followed by a mix of wood chips, spent mushroom substrate, fresh mushroom spawn, brewers grains, poultry bedding and fish hydrosalate. Then we'll bring in a load of compost, open two furrows in each row and fill each furrow with compost. That'll be what we plant the strawberries into - it'll give them plenty of nutrients while the wood chip mix breaks down into rich, fungal soil over the course of the next year. 

In an ideal world, that all happens in the next few weeks. Then we move the runners and parent plants from the old farm, put them in place in the new one, build a fence and collapse in exhaustion. The wild card is the court - if we get a 7 day eviction order on the 28th, then we'll have to move the runners and parent plants up to a temporary space in Druid Hills for a few weeks while we prep the new space. I'm not sure if the runners or the parent plants will survive that, though the cooler weather at least gives them a fighting chance. I just hope that the judge can understand how ridiculous this situation is and grants us the few weeks to get off the property without adding any more risks and potential damages to what we've already weathered this year.