I founded Happy Medium Farm to try to grow food in an ecologically sustainable and community-serving way. Because of that, I think that how we grow is as important as what we grow. So here are the methods and practices that we employ to try to to turn a neglected square of hay and brambles into our dream farm.
Bed Preparation
When preparing new beds on the farm, we use a mix of no dig and what we call “one dig” methods. No dig is a well-established process, using deep compost and minimal soil disturbance to grow healthy soil. It’s great, but it’s not right for every bed in every context. Some of our areas have deep-seeded weeds and low soil carbon, making them ideal for “one dig”. In a one-dig bed, we dig out all of the persistent weeds and bury layers of small wood, green plant matter, straw and other materials to create a deep soil bed. Then, we never disturb it again, aside from planting and top treatments of compost, treating it from that point forward as a no dig bed.
Water
Here in the Oregon Coast Range, we get a lot of rain. But that rain is very seasonal. It’s not uncommon to get several feet of rain in a winter, then not a single drop for months in the summertime. The secret to evening out that feast-and-famine water schedule is storage. We do everything we can to slow, hold and store the abundant rainwater that falls on Happy Medium Farm in the wet season. That means digging ponds and trenches, and using barrels and other storage tanks to squirrel away every gallon we can for the hot summer.
But water conservation is about more than storing water. It’s about needing less. So we also practice deep mulching practices to keep our soil moist longer between waterings.
Pollinator and Wildlife Encouragement
Wildlife like elk, deer, and a variety of birds and insects were here long before we ever set eyes on the farm, and we want to not only conserve part of the land for them, but actually improve it as habitat. We devote beds that could be growing profitable foods to pollinator-friendly native wildflowers. The ponds we dig for our own water use are all kept in non-fenced open areas and available to every species that needs them. And some areas, we just leave alone, because as useful as intentional wildlife management can be, there is also value to just getting out of the way and letting nature have some space to herself.