It may come as no surprise that weather in Canada is as fickle as election politicking these days. Mother nature is either still making up its mind, or it’s playing tricks on us. Thus far, June has finally given farmers something to smile about. For us, the massive “rainpocalypse” of May has been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the moisture has done wonders for the walnut orchard which is still recovering from last year’s drought and very much requires good solid rain. On the other hand, excessive moisture has created a perfect storm of grass and weed growth that continues to grow at biblical proportions. It is not uncommon to see four to five foot high weeds on the property.
Idealistic at the worst of times, we thought we could handle the weeds at the farm through manual methods like hand-powered weed trimmers, cutters, and good ole’ fashioned yanking the weeds out of the ground. That idealism was quickly reduced to rubble considering the almost 3,500 trees under our care. We invested in a gas-powered trimmer (Makita brand – $339 CDN) which has proven to be a highly reliable, light, and stable machine. We will provide a more thorough update on our new trimmer once we have put it through its paces at the farm.
Here are two sets of comparative photos of our walnut orchard between February and June of this year:
Seven Fields Farm & Orchard 