5,000 Strawberries at Adobe House Farm

In Adobe House Farm's first year, my sister learned which crops grow well and are worth the investment in time and money to grow. One of those crops is strawberries. The main reason for my visit to AHF this year was to assist planting 5,000 strawberry plants.

In order to reduce weeds, help retain soil moisture, and keep strawberries clean, we layed down a weed barrier over all of the beds. We poked holed and planted the strawberries. It's best to plant strawberry roots so that they go straight down, which meant digging 6 - 12 inches into the dirt. This proved very challenging in many locations because of the tough clay soil in the high desert.  As with everything on the farm, it was much tougher and took much longer to get the strawberries in the ground.

Hopefully the black tarp will save time with watering and weeding throughout the year and make it worthwhile to put in. It's important to keep trying to figure out ways to reduce workload so as to leave time for other farm projects - because there is always more to do!

Adobe House Farm Year 2

The second year at Adobe House Farm has proven to be much more fruitful than the first year. Every year the soil quality will improve, we will know which plant varieties work best in the high-desert, and we will have more of the main infrastructure in place.

Only in its second year, Adobe House Farm is much more productive because head farmer (and sister), Linley Dixon, has more time for leaving actual planting. The winter and spring have also been much warmer than usual in Durango, which helps plants grow earlier. It's exciting to see how much has grown since last year.

For more about what is going on at Adobe House Farm, check out Linley's blog at AdobeHouseFarm.com.