Plastic, Paper, or Grass???

We have been looking more and more into plastics and how to remove as much of them from our life as a family and farm.  One of the biggest steps Dave and I are hoping to try for the farm this year is to use cover crops between our rows of field corn to stop the production of weeds, which will smother the crop and prevent it from growing.  We were just talking last night about the seed we are going to purchase for our fields.  Hopefully we will be successful with it as we want to get away from spraying our corn.  We will be experimenting with different cover crops between our rows to eliminate weeds, provide organic matter to the soil as the crops decompose over winter, and most crops are able to scavenge nutrients trapped in the ground that are beneficial to our soils and plants.  Legumes are nitrogen scavengers and buckwheat will search for calcium and phosphorus and phosphates.  These minerals are all found in the fertilizers made in the factory.  We will be using plants to reclaim nutrients in our soils.   

The next step is to move away from plastic between our rows or plants.  Most plastics used in farming, while being listed as "food grade" are very tough on the environment and almost impossible to get rid of.  So this year, between our vegetable rows we are putting "biodegradable paper" to lessen our environmental impact.  This way when we are done with that patch of vegetables, we can put the pigs in it, and the "clean up crew" can root around and eat anything we missed, and not worry about the harm to our animals that normal plastic used for farming could cause if a small piece ripped off and stayed in the field.  It is a cellulose -fiber material that will stay strong for a couple of months depending on the weather then becomes a natural fertilizer for the ground.  While costing a considerable amount more than common plastic mulch, we feel it is well worth the cost of using safer, "greener" products for our farm.

It is our goal to improve our soils using unconventional methods.  We strive to eliminate many of the "common" practices of food production in our operation.  Growing sustainably means thinking out-of-the-box and hearing lots of "you can't do that here" comments.  I am confident that with refinement of our processes we will be able to prove the naysayers wrong and move forward with our production goals.