When I first started learning about gardening, nearly every book said the same thing: keep the soil covered. Nature doesn't like bare ground. Living plants or mulch protect the soil, feed soil life, and reduce erosion.
Then I'd look at many farms and see large areas of bare dirt, with only an occasional winter cover crop or perfectly manicured instagram farms with only cash crops and sitting on beautiful black soil.
We're trying a slightly different approach or maybe not that different. Maybe we are just the only ones to admit it.
Of course we weed our production beds, especially crops like lettuce, carrots, and other vegetables that don't compete well. Larger crops like zucchini, cabbage, squash, and tomatoes generally need much less attention.
Outside of those beds, we often let volunteer plants grow until they become a problem. If they're starting to flower, we'll usually cut off the seed heads before they spread. If they're too large or interfering with crops, we'll remove them and leave them to decompose or compost in place.
In many ways, we think of these volunteers as a free cover crop. They're already adapted to the site, they help cover the soil, contribute organic matter, and support soil biology. They're not perfect, but we're always experimenting and learning how to work with nature instead of constantly fighting against it. It's so much more fun to fight the system.
That's really what this farm is all about—observing, learning, and continually improving while producing healthy food for our community.
