Weeding with the Animals & Pest Control

Village Farm Team,

In order to make room for our cooler season crops we’ve been tackling the task of weeding our plastic mulch beds on the North Farm. We’ve been allowing the goats and chickens out of their pens to work alongside us for this task to provide some enrichment. When we can’t have them working next to us, we’ve been bringing the weeds to their pens so that they can still get in a little foraging enrichment. Allowing them to work with us benefits both parties: they get to forage and we get a couple of extra sets of hands, or rather mouths, working on the task.

Though the rain we’ve been getting recently has been taking care of our watering needs for us, it has created anaerobic conditions in certain areas around the farm. These conditions create the perfect breeding ground for pests like mosquitos and flies. In order to combat these pests and keep them from bothering our animals, we’ve employed homemade traps in both the goat and chicken pens. The traps are made from glass mason jars filled with food and a bit of water to entice the pests. The tops of the jars are covered with a funnel so that ideally, the pest will crawl down through the opening towards the food and not be able to get back out. We’ve also been putting herbs like basil and lavender leaf inside the animals pens to serve as both a tasty snack and a pest deterrent.

It’s peak okra harvesting season on the farm! We’re walking the row every other day at this point to make sure we harvest the seed pods before they begin to grow tough. We will have a pretty hefty amount of okra for sale at the veggie wagon this Saturday in addition to transplants and herbs. Make sure you take advantage of this delicious crop while you can because we won’t be seeding it again until next summer!