Class reminder - Your journals are due on May 13th  and it's a long work day at farm.

Lecture recap -  Managing Bugs and Blight

Wendy always centers us on what's important on keeping the farm  functional by "working for the fertility for the life of the ground."  Our class is already feeling the flush of success while gazing at our greens that only seem to have beneficial lady beetles.  Steve said it would be interesting to perform another soil test at the end of season to map out what has occured. Also, beware the pests will come

Causes & considerations for a farmer - the geoghraphy, climate and weather.  What can I grow?  Look at overall health of plants your planting, consider how you treat them from the very start, what are the natural predators and insects,  observations of different stages of plants. 

Funny, Wendy remarked that she sees herself as a "pest" of european descent pestering the landscape. 

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)  is a process in which you don't just observe the plant and its disruptive pest, but look at the whole garden or farm ecosystem.  The main 4 points of IPM lectured from textbook Golden Gate Gardening by Pam Peirce:

1.  Cultural conditions & procedures - check your soil fertility, cleanliness on a farm is essential, no piles, pathways are clean.  Know what the damage is and possible pest present, growing plants that will repel the pest or companion planting, taking better care of your plants, rotation of crops

2.  Physical & mechanical controls - hand picking, barriers, netting. washing plants, trap setting

3. Biological - introduce beneficial organisms and natural predators

4.  Chemical - in the form of safe  often homemade applications to more toxic appliations.

The only thing to do from here is to walk around IVC farm and our own home gardens and observe and keep our Golden Gate Gardening textbook close by.  More on IPM from next  lecture.

 Below pictures of IVC work day - planting of corriander, cosmos, zinnias, beans.  More cover crop planting.  Seeding in the greenhouse.  Rotilled & groomed for class planting,  loader used to get rid of rocks. Oyster shell hill now a smoothed out pathway. 

Wendy transplanting seedlings of Mexican sunflower in IVC greenhouse

Our first IVC harvest for the College of Marin Indian Valley Campus dedication, tour of farm and luncheon on May 8, 2009