Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
Weed control is an obsession for the organic farmer who is constantly seeking to minimize the time spent weeding (a thankless chore, according to most). Take fall garlic, for instance. Planted in October, it spends winter in a dormant state, but is quick to sprout as soon as spring temperatures beckon. Unfortunately, it does not…
As March ends, it is time for us to order our laying hens to ensure they arrive towards the middle of May. Hen selection seems easy enough, but it’s more complicated than it appears. Unlike broilers that arrive as one- or two-day old chicks, layers come aged 18 to 19 weeks. They usually start to…
Preparations for the 2010 season are in full swing. We are busy completing our warehouse, the cold storage area and our chicken coop. The warehouse is an old barn which we have converted into an all-purpose building, re-cycling old barn planks from the self-same barn to create a cold storage area, a vegetable work area,…
While our main focus at Arlington Gardens is organic farming of vegetables for our CSA baskets (or ‘shares’), we would be remiss if we did not draw your attention to our organic fruit plantation plans. Unlike vegetables, which are, for the most part, sown and harvested yearly, berry crops take a bit more time to…
But our pond is nevertheless the sine qua non of our organic farming activities. Plainly put – no water, no veggies. Last summer we had more rain than we wished for, but as Mother Nature offers no guarantees – who’s to say that this summer won’t be a dry one? Fortunately, our pond is an…