Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm
Soil-first farming, building health from the ground up!
It was my father in-law who first introduced me to the concept of companion planting, as we discussed gardening, and he sagely shared the secret of planting marigolds with tomatoes in order to repel nematodes. I remember wondering what other plants could be grown among my crops to aid in the health of the garden,…
An expression of art and science, gardening is a practice that dates back to the start of civilization, and is both creative and economical. With the ever-increasing trend towards green and sustainable living, gardening is enjoying a resurgence–if you’ve been considering taking up the habit, I hope this is your year! If you’ve been toying…
Now that the balmy days of summer are behind us, and the time to tuck in for the long cold of winter has come–I like to play around with growing different foods inside my house. The gardening season may be over, but providing fresh and nutritious foods for family meals is a never-ending task, and…
I don’t know whether I hadn’t had an infestation of hornworms before, or I just hadn’t noticed them (which seems rather impossible!), but the tobacco hornworms have had a good year this year and there’s no avoiding them. One day all your beautiful tomato and pepper plants are healthy and fine, and the next–bam! –you’re…
Since this was my first time growing garlic, I was pretty stoked to go and dig up the bulbs earlier this week. I’d planted the garlic cloves back in October (you can read about that endeavor here). I mulched them heavily with dry leaves and watched over them all winter. This spring I pulled up…
Ladybugs are often touted as a safe solution to aphid problems in the garden because their use doesn’t involve harmful pesticides. The little spotted beetles are popular all over the world, and in ancient times they were thought to be indicators of good fortune and a bountiful harvest. However commercially available ladybugs are not native…
This past Tuesday at the monthly meeting of the Somerset Beekeepers, we hosted Gary Fish from the Maine Board of Pesticide Control to talk with us about “Pesticides and Pollinators”. We are a small group, so I’m always grateful that any knowledgeable speaker should come to Skowhegan to share their knowledge with us, and I…
These are the lettuces I planted a few weeks back. They’re looking really great. Here you can see the soaker hose I’d laid in this bed for the day, to give everything a good watering. And if you look closely, you can see the new lettuce sprouts I planted between these heads to ensure a…
After the devastation of last year’s seedling fiasco (read about that here), I was more than a little anxious about hardening off my seedlings this year. My mini hoop-houses (more about that here) have been working so well this spring that I decided to construct something similar to protect my tender tomato and pepper seedlings…
I managed to set up 2 mini hoop-houses and planted a number of lettuce seedlings, yet April was a cold and windy start to the gardening season that left me longing for more. So far May has made up for it in spades! I’ve been out in the garden practically every day for the last…