Organic vertical trellis gardening, reduced tillage, living mulch system at Woodleaf Farm

[@galennordland8074]

Looks like you all have a winning, healthy, and sustainable operation. Congratulations and I hope it continues. Thanks for sharing your farm and experiences.

[@agriculturalcampusplant-ba9618]

You can find the The Ten Principles for Managing Ecological Relationships on Eco-Organic Farms by Carl Rosato and Helen Atthowe under files in our Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/ACPBS

[@TurtleBushcraft]

Very cool system . thanks for all the tips. atb John

[@dobe762]

Excellent, you're certainly not work shy... great to see proper food production, thank you.

[@nnytek7724]

dobe762

[@caitihachmyer938]

Carl, thank you for such a detailed video! This is an amazing system, and I know you grow some amazing produce so it really must work well. A few questions - how exactly are you trellising the cucumbers? Do you just weave them through or do you find clips to be the best method? Spacing? Do you plant on both sides of the trellis or just down one side? Regarding the perennial summer cover crop, do you find that white clover smothers out most other weeds? I'm wondering if the beds were sufficiently spaced apart, could you mow the clover pathway during the summer to prevent competition/encroachment or would that be detrimental to the clover in the long term? Additionally, does it need to be watered? I use drip irrigation on my farm, so any living mulch I plant for the pathways would need to be drought-tolerant. Thanks for any more tips you can provide! Caiti Red H Farm

[@AgrarianDreams]

+Caiti Hachmyer We space the cucumber seed about 9 inches apart on one side. When the plants are tall enough we weave them through the trellis; this usually requires checking the vines 2-3 times per week for the first 4-5 weeks. When vines get to the top of the trellis, we help them over so they can hang down on the other side. Cuke production is concentrated this way. White clover seems to provide the best weed smothering in our system ( and in most of the scientific literature). We will redesign the next trellis so we can mow in between the trellis rows; we feel that mowing greatly helps to reduce weeds and somewhat helps to reduce clover competition with the crop. Thanks Caiti!

[@hamidsabir2296]

Would that wire trellis be strong enough to take the weight of a star jasmine trained up onto a wall that's 18ft long and 8ft high?

[@barryweible3810]

What kind of netting is that?