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Fernglade Farm

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Commenced:	01/01/2005
Submitted:	08/04/2011
Last updated:	16/02/2016
Location:	Cherokee, Victoria, AU
Climate zone:	Cool Temperate

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Fernglade Farm

Cherokee, AU

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Children of the corn

Project: Fernglade Farm

Posted by Chris McLeod about 10 years ago

You wouldn't think that demons and gardening could be related - You'd be wrong! Lots of shed building stuff, and lots of spring flowers.

The title of this week’s blog is a nod to Steven King’s truly frightening short story written way back in 1978. The story revolved around a demon haunted town in the corn belt of the US. The demon in that town decreed that no one in that area should live past their 19^th birthday and all of the children in that town ruthlessly assisted in the enforcement of that decree. In that imaginary town a person who was 19 years and 1 day old would possibly be facing some immediate and reasonable fears for their personal safety!

So, what could all that possibly have to do with a small farm Down Under? Have I decided to chuck all caution to the wind and grow only corn here and enforce rules which could only ever quickly lead to my own untimely demise (being well past 19 years old)? Perhaps someone has been messing with the local malevolent spirits? Well, not really (and hopefully not anyway).

The truth of the matter is that I have simply run out of established space with which to grow edibles. To get around that problem, I have had to remove perfectly healthy and edible plants so that I can get the next round of crops growing in their place. Somehow, I’ve become like the demon in the short story as I’m cutting down vegetables in their prime.

Salad greens awaiting their awful fate

If I don’t get the next crop of salad greens in the ground shortly, then during high summer – which is not that far away – there will be no salad greens for me to eat. The reason for this is that it is very difficult to establish new crops in high summer due to the extreme heat and sunlight both of which kill seedlings. That was my fate from only a few short years ago to learn this harsh lesson. A shade house would be very handy in these circumstances, but I don’t have one – at present, anyway.

As I also collect seed from the plants here, it becomes a delicate balance between: having crops ready to eat, leaving some crops to go to seed and getting in new crops for future food. It is a really complex problem to solve especially if planting space is limited.

Throw in a couple of unknown variables such as climate and predation by the local wildlife and that problem becomes even more difficult to solve.

For the rest of the blog: http://ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au/

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