Ohio Barn Flower Farm

my weather station out in the flower field Just got a weather station for Christmas and installed it out in the field.  I am excited to track the weather as I grow this Spring.  I am thinking the wind and rain will be particularly useful. Ambient Weather WS-2902A WiFi OSPREY Solar Powered Wireless Weather Station If you want to see the data from this weather station you can visit my  device data page Stock image from the Internet

finally got all the beds covered! after a few days i finally figured out a good system for collecting leaves

Supplies are arriving for my new growing station! Here you see the starter trays and heat mat. I still need lights, shelf and temperature and lighting automation control.  When I get it all setup I will give more details on the setup. Watch this space!

I know it is not much, but you have to start somewhere.  I am excited to try my new tiller but the ground is still too hard and my tiller is not adjusted correctly so I ended up just scraping the ground rather than tilling the soil.  The row in the pic is 4’ by 100’.  I plan to have a half dozen or so rows of this size with plenty of space in between.  I think that will work well for harvesting and upick days.  When the ground gets softer, I will give it another go and probably plat some this fall.  If I do plant this fall it will just be a learning experience not for sale, the real action will be next spring.  There is so much to do/learn but like I said you have to start somewhere!

It is hard to know how to get started but I figure clearing a field and finding a water source is a good start.  Over the last few weeks I used the bush-hog to clear about 1/3 of the back field.  I figure that is way more than I will know what to do with for the first year.  But what about water? Based on my research drip irrigation seems to be the way to go and you only need about 5lbs of water pressure to make it work.  My first idea was to build a water tower out in the field and find a way to fill it up every so often.  Maybe use the bucket on my tractor’s front loader – no that is too much work.  Maybe run a hose from the outdoor spigot that is about 400 feet away and just leave it laying on the ground – no that is just too HillJack.  I decided to dig a trench from the outdoor spicket out into the future flower field.  It was a little more work than I expected. I should have waited to dig the trench, the ground would have been much softer ...