Farm & Garden
Our rabbits live in little cages made out of different odds and ends left around the farm. We have four cages with chicken wire covering the bottom to keep them from burrowing their way to freedom. They are placed in our fields over our spent crops with the idea that the bunnies will clean up our old greens and weeds, digest them and then fertilize our soil with their manure. One cage was built by my father for my sister Molly when she brought home three wild bunnies she had found that were abandoned by their mother.
Last Saturday night’s rain made me completely happy. It was a serious downpour. Sunday morning was refreshing with all the green world at peace once again. No amount of irrigation can equal a nice rain. It’s remarkable how quickly the lawns bounce back. Some were so dry it felt like walking across potato chips.
Tomatoes and melons are on the way, cucumbers are having a banner year and demand is up for Island-grown produce, especially kale and chard. The biggest problem? Vineyard farmers can sum it up at the mid-summer mark in a single word.
“Dry,” said Bob Daniels of Old Town Gardens at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market on Saturday. “I have irrigation, but it’s not like rain.”
I needed to be talked down from the cliff several times this week. Between the vole damage in my vegetable garden and the replacement of dried and dead annuals at the job sites, I saw the entire summer as futile.
When state Agriculture Commissioner Greg Watson made his swing through a series of Vineyard farms last week, there was detailed discussion about what constitutes organic farming.
Against that backdrop, two Vineyard farms are now federally certified as organic.
I pretty much hate summer — fleas, poison ivy, sunburns, mosquitoes, traffic and countless insect pests in the gardens. The worst of all is the lack of significant rain. Even lawns with irrigation systems are beginning to crisp. The encouraging news is that the lawns will come back. The dried-up annual beds and window boxes will not recover. I cannot encourage you enough to water those areas every day — perhaps morning and evening.