I started off this week with a meeting with John. We discussed logistical matters and decided on where my beds will go. I decided on spots that would also benefit John down the line, as I want to be sure to make this a mutualistic exchange. John is an Evergreen and POF alumni and I am the first intern he has had on this farm. His main focus now is on his start production for the farmer’s market and work in his greenhouses and I will be helping to maintain and start new herb beds for harvest and medicinal use. Three of my beds, for calendula, skullcap, and milky oats, will be going in an area that has been ‘brewing’ for several years. John has been building the soil up with a bark chip inoculation method and it is now time to establish it as a production site. To prepare the beds I will weed out the bigger weeds growing there then run a BSC over to incorporate the new soil.
I will also be helping to revive a once-established patch of arnica John planted several years ago. It is overcome with a thick mat of grass and weeds and I spent some time beginning to carefully rescue the small arnica babies. Our deal is I will get to keep the harvest this year and it will benefit future harvests to give the patch extra TLC this year.
My next steps are to locate starts and seeds of calendula, skullcap, and milky oats, and to continue to work on getting beds established. A friend of mine works at another local herb farm and I may be able to get starts from them. My plan is to grow skullcap and milky oats for tincture making and arnica and calendula for infused oils and topical medicine. My goal for next week is to get my seeds and starts in the greenhouse to establish and grow stronger as well as to get a good chunk of bed preparation done in hopes to plant around week three.