Converting Neglected Field Into Our 2022 Flower Patch

Hey guys welcome back to wood street Farm i’m phil and this is the prep for Our 2022 flower patch This flower patch is in a new location This soil has only had one cover crop on It before and prior to that it’s had Years and years and years of neglect Nothing but Grasses and weeds and it’s just been Mowed Like twice a year no fertilizer no other Amendments So we’ve got a lot of work to do another Challenge we have i think is going to be Soil quality and fertility because we Have three distinctly different soils Across this one little quarter acre Patch it’s a little bit more than a Quarter acre but over here we’ve got This darker brown Slightly more sandy soil this was in Kind of the low spot of our terrain here So you know over time Sediment has accumulated there Next we get into this deep red clay And we did dump some wood chips in here That’s what some of that is But this red clay has been exposed this Was subsoil because we just had this Project done a few weeks ago we put in a Culvert and a roadway there to that Other little field over there And they excavated the fill dirt from a Little bit of a knoll that was here when

They did that they scraped back topsoil And then replaced topsoil Um So there’s a little bit of topsoil That’s under what has been recently Plowed but that’s why this in the middle Here looks a completely different color And then when you get back over here There is a third type of soil which is More clay And not as rich looking as the first Soil i showed you but it is a completely Different clay than that red stuff over There so we’ve got three distinctly Different Soil structures here in this same patch And we are going to try to grow flowers Here this year so we’re going to get a Spring cover crop in here that can be a Green manure to Chill into the soil before we plant Flowers so this was just plowed over Last weekend and today i’m going to till It and i’m going to spread seed because It’s going to rain tomorrow and we want To get that seed germinating there’s Some warm temperatures coming next week So conditions are perfect to get moving On that so let’s start tilling we’re Going to be using the county line six Foot tiller on our kubota l3901 today I’ve showed this in some other videos we Just got this last year it works great So let’s fire it up and get to work

[Applause] [Applause] Looks pretty good now that middle Section where that red clay is there’s Still some bigger chunks in there so Hopefully we get this cover crop on here It’ll grow for several weeks we’ll come Through and we’ll cultivate the soil Again and hopefully that stuff really Starts to break down i’m probably going To add a couple big trailers full of Wood chips up in there too we did that On the other side of our property i feel Like it really helped Change the soil composition a little bit Added obviously a lot of organic matter To the soil so hopefully you know That’ll help i don’t have time to get That done now so we’re going to go ahead And get this cover crop in before the Rain comes and we’ll see how it does What we’ve got here Is a buckwheat we did some of this last Year photographers actually really like It too so in about 35 45 days from now We should have a nice white field here Full of white flowers and hopefully the Photographers will like that we’ll be Able to make a little bit of money off This patch and then this will get tilled In and added to the soil I also have a little bit of annual rye Grass here this is left over from last Year i don’t know how it’ll germinate

But we’re going to go ahead and use that As a filler and hopefully as a weed Suppressant and just some additional Organic matter to get into the soil So i’m just going to do this by hand i Do actually have a spreader for the Tractor but i don’t feel like driving All the way across the property taking The tiller off hooking it up and all That so This will be almost as fast It’s not that much work I think the camera turned off when i was Doing the buckwheat But i’ve got a little bit left i’ve Already gone up and back left to right Across the field i’m just going to Spread the remaining seed going back and Forth and just make sure we get even Coverage [Applause] If you don’t already subscribe you can Hit the red button below this video to Subscribe and that’ll get you plugged in With some of our future videos Especially if you hit the bell icon Right next to it so you can get Notifications of each of our new videos I’ll give you an update in a few weeks How this is going and like i said this Is uh primarily just us trying to add a Green manure here for the spring Add that back to the soil and then we’ll Be planting early summer with our

Flowers in this patch And when the buckwheat blooms hopefully It will be an attraction for Photographers we did a test run of that Last year and only had a couple Photographers really take us up on it But now we’ve got a couple examples of What the buckwheat field looks like i Think we’ll be able to bring some more People in here this spring for the Flowering buckwheat for photo sessions So i’ll keep you guys updated of all of That here in future videos and I’ve got a couple other things that We’re working on we’re doing way more Flowers this year than we’ve ever done This being our primary patch for pick Your own flowers this will have zinnias And cosmos and a couple types of Sunflowers and Something else new that i forgot off the Top of my head and then i showed you the New road which is right here there’s Another new road a little bit that way And they had to excavate some uh some Soil for To build that new road so i’ve got an Area over there that’s basically damaged And needs to be repaired so i plan on Doing kind of the same treatment over There we’re going to plow it we’re going To till it we’re going to add a cover Crop and hopefully just kind of let it Chill like that for a little bit and

Then just down the hill from that i have Last year’s flower patch actually last Two years flower patch and we’re going To do some stuff over there as well so We’ve got several different things Happening around the property Related to this year’s flower season so If you’re interested in flower farming You’re interested in doing pick your own Flowers and all that kind of stuff you Want to get plugged into some of those Future videos because i can share with You some of what we’ve learned in Previous years and some of the stuff That we’re trying a little bit different This year that’s going to wrap me up for Today thanks for spending a little bit Of time with me hopefully this goes well Hopefully you’ll join me on a future Video and you can see the progress of That Hope you have a good one i’ll see you on The next video bye-bye