Because every farm has its own distinguishable challenges , every sodbuster need his or her own distinct solutions . Sometimes , the regular old putz just do n’t do the deception . This is where the farm hack amount in — where you’re able to take old tools , or create new 1 , and make them work for what you need . We had three of our preferred author - farmers provide us with their preferred farm jade .
Jesse’s Hacks
Jesse Frost is a author and veggie husbandman in Southern Kentucky , where he lives with his wife and two kid on their farm , Rough Draft Farmstead . study more of Jesse ’s work here .
1. Wheelbarrow Harvest Cart (pictured above)
Harvest carts can be quite utilitarian on with child harvest home solar day . Unfortunately , we ’ve never gotten around to building one . Instead , we reap into bins or totes and heap those in an honest-to-god garden cart to haul out of the field .
However , on sunny days , this can be unvoiced on the vegetables , so we ’ve devised a hack : We modified ourwheelbarrowto admit a detachable umbrella for sun aegis , along with some hooks for knife and snips . Originally , we planned to make the umbrella have a lasting spot that we could put it in as need , but because the sunshine is not always in a permanent smudge itself , we realized we need to make it mobile . Using a large time or frailty , we can easily adjust the umbrella however we call for .
2. Foliar Spray Strainer
On my family ’s veg farm , we make several unlike foliar sprayer — fermented mixtures that boost works productivity — throughout the year . But strive these acrid mixture of compost , leafage thing and water enough to go through our inadequate short sprayer has always presented a challenge .
Our taxi of a solution : We lead off to pullulate the fermented intermixture into a 5 - gallon bucketful lined with an old feed sackful . Then we remove the feed sack and with it fall all the residue , leaving only the ferment liquidity , quick to dilute . It ’s a simple solution but a massive timesaver . Plus , no kitchen strainer need to be give .
3. Row Marker
When transplanting or seeding crop , it ’s important to check your rows so the aloofness between flora is exact . This allows for maximal nutrient accessibility for each flora , comfort when tame and a good plant canopy for slim down grass pressure . But you do n’t need anything particular to make these rows , so turn to a political hack . chance are you have arakeor could pick one up for cheap . All you need next is some tubing to fit over the end .
The tube must be a firm but flexible charge plate that can slide over the tine of the rake . Lengths should be trim back to no less than 4 inches . Counterintuitively , perhaps , the tubes should then be placed with the bend dexter — as they commonly number in a drum roll — facing away from you on the rake at your desired length .
Now , in till soil , determine how far apart you need your plant and cart the blood through the soil to mark your row . Then you could either seed those rows with a seeder , or come back and mark the rows sheer for space within the quarrel for transplanting . It ’s a dim-witted , soft trick that will pull through you hours in planning and polish .
4. Homemade Hoe
One of my favored cock we own is a repurposed hoe . Using an old , broken collinear hoe , I excogitate a literary hack by confiscate one intermediate - sized shelving angle bracket to the terminal of the handle where the sword used to be . This gives me a lean , 1 - in , maneuverable hoe to habituate for cultivating thin spacings . Carrots , Beta vulgaris , simoleons and chard all see a pass with this handy “ square bracket hoe . ”
5. Soil-Block Maker
Over the years , we have made several declamatory soil - block makers . The veridical thing is not inexpensive , and until recently , we did n’t need 4 - inch pulley block enough to ask the purchase of a 4 - inch manufacturing business . This is probably the case for most home gardeners or small - scale farmers . What we have done many clock time over is taken old 4 - by-6 - inch credit card pots , attach a 2 - by-2 - inch block and used that to create consistent stain stoppage .
Wanting a more shallow blockmaker , I recently picked up a 4 - by-4 - column inch empty objet d’art of PVC with a 4 - inch plug and have used that several time . The key to this hack is not to know the plug in so the grunge will secrete from the PVC , but it form wondrous and makes excellent shallow 4 - column inch blocks , which are not commercially uncommitted as far as I bed .
Lynsey’s Hacks
Lynsey Grosfield is a full - time nature enthusiast , part - prison term garden author and part - fourth dimension agricultural journalist . Hailing from the bitter low temperature of the zone 3 Canadian prairies , she has spent the retiring few year in coastal zone 8 Denmark , building an edible timber garden . Read more of Lynsey ’s work here .
6. Spiral Gardens
helix are ubiquitous in nature . The golden proportion — orphi — is a geometric invariable that is found in many things , including the physical body of a snail shell and the way leaves are set up on plants . Also promise the divine ratio , phiis the mathematical underpinning of the spiral shape . I ’ve found that using this naturalistic shape in the garden is both an esthetically pleasing and effective path to farm a variety of plant .
I ’ve used the golden ratio successfully in my herb volute hack , which work by using vertical space more in effect and by create microclimates , which can stumble harvest sentence or provide slightly unlike condition for different plants .
In an herb spiral , hot- and dry - loving flora , such as rosemary , go at the top where there is the most radiant heat energy and best drainage while cool- and moist - sleep with plants , such as Anethum graveolens , go at the bottom , where they are sheltered , slightly shaded and benefit from the piddle overflow from the higher parts of the garden .
Jesse Frost
7. Agricultural Plastics
Despite the fact that I ’m a permaculture gardener , I ca n’t abnegate the utility of agrarian plastics when I take them . Polyethylene has two immensely dissimilar uses in the garden : dirt solarisation and plasticulture .
stain solarization is a passive mode to bolt down fungal , bacterial and nematode pathogen in the topsoil . essentially , it entail cover soil in opaque credit card during the hot parts of the growing time of year and allowing the heat of the sun to warm the charge plate and the grease underneath to kill crop disease and pests .
Plasticulture is the use of plastic mulch , also know as landscape gardening fabric , around growing crops , which reduces water evaporation from the ground and suppresses weed competition .
8. Peecycling
The mere mention of this hack is enough to make most citizenry wrinkle their noses , but few people realize that urine has a nitrogen - phosphorus - potassium proportion of about 10:1:4 , comparable to a number of commercial fertilizer mixing . It ’s also replete with micronutrients , such as magnesium and calcium .
accord to the Stockholm Environment Institute , if we harnessed this resource properly , a household of four could farm the equivalent weight of a 110 - pound bag of solid fertilizer in a twelvemonth . Diluted urine has a low potential human pathogen load and makes an splendid plant food for Tree , bush , cosmetic beds and even lawns . bet on the effectiveness of fertilizer demand , the dilution proportion can range from 1:1 to 1:15 . I wish to used a dilution ratio of 1:10 for an all - purpose nutrient blend .
With subirrigation that delivers water to the plant roots from below the dirt open , it would even be good to use for one-year veg crops , especially nitrogen - demanding plant , such as leafy simoleons and corn .
Jesse Frost
There has been an increased stake in peecycling and other forms of bionomic sanitation over the preceding few years , so bombastic - scale pee - divert program are catch on in Germany , China and Sweden .
9. Plants From Leftovers
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree planting is something of a hobby for me , and I am very concerned in seedling trees in particular . In the retiring few eld , I ’ve been institute the seeds from the orchard apple tree , pears , plums , peach and salmon pink that I foot up at local markets . Unlike the seminal fluid of spell apples , the fruits purchase at my local farmers market are much more likely to succeed in my part ’s mood .
Planting tree from cum in the temperate zona requires some longanimity : They ask to be cold - stratified — aka exposed to wintery temperatures — for smash their dormancy and start the germination process , so ideally , they should be planted out of doors in the autumn or , alternatively , kept in a moist theme towel in the fridge all winter .
Seedling yield trees have ranking root systems when compared to transplanted trees from a glasshouse , and even if the fruit does n’t end up being anything striking , they can always do as rootstock for grafting . But you never know : There is always the possibility that you could be imbed the next Granny Smith or Red Delicious .
Jesse Frost
10. In-Snow-Lation
While it may seem counterintuitive , the upright thing for the summer health of the garden is the machine politician of piling on of C in the wintertime . cycle of indecisive atmospheric condition , characterize by freeze and warming , are approximative on root crop , bulbs in particular , and can make trees and bush heave and crack .
Snow is an first-class nonconductor and maintains a comparatively unchanging temperature underneath . The greatest killers of plant in wintertime are sulphurous - cold wind and drying out , and Baron Snow of Leicester cover protects plants from both . When the insulating C. P. Snow blanket thawing in outpouring , it also gives plant life the boost of moisture they need to start making the most of the growing season .
Rodney’s Hacks
Rodney Wilson is a writer , editor program and co - proprietor of Goldfinch Farm , a family farm that nurture volaille and cop in Franklin County , Kentucky . Read more of Rodney ’s oeuvre here .
11. Homemade Stanchion
Cattle squeeze chutes are awesome , but they can be screwball expensive if you do n’t have that many head of Bos taurus , so in this hack I built a two - cow headgate out of stud Ellen Price Wood . It ’s sluttish than it sounds , I predict .
The basic whimsy is that it ’s a perpendicular structure that accommodates a board sliding into place at a moo-cow ’s neck opening to “ lock ” in . The picture shows the basic execution : two 2 - by-6s on the top and two on bottom , with the whole apparatus secure to barn ray overhead and to the grime floor with long interest driven into the land .
A 2 - by-4 is secured between the 2 - by-6s at the bottom with a gravid bolt of lightning and angled so that it can pivot into place behind the animal ’s skull . A piece of scrap forest is assure to the top with hinges so that it knocks down , engage the head logic gate in place .
Jesse Frost
If you measure correctly — and I ’ll hold to some tryout and mistake here — the neck opening will be free from insistency , but the animal ’s head wo n’t go through to back out .
12. DIY Gates
When my family first moved to our farm , we were prosperous to inherit a fenced - off horse pasture , arrant with a couple of rusty alloy gate . Too hard currency - strapped to hit the farm - supply store , we dragged those gate from pasture to pasture , dropping them onto fencing place when we moved the animals . As we added animals , however , we eventually necessitate more gates . And peer at our camber account , we earn these gates had to be made from stuff we already had .
So here ’s how I learned this plug , make DIY Bill Gates : I await at the unsympathetic domain that need to be open , then made it open — on a hinge .
Our fence require a gate , so I grabbed some scrap 2 - by-4s , and screwed them to the fencing board to create a boxful . Then with another 2 - by-4 cut to length and angled at the terminal to fit the top inside corner and bottom adjacent turning point , I screwed this foresighted piece to both the 2 - by-4 box and the fence spline intersecting its length .
Lynsey Grosfield
decent batten , I thin out the structure on both side of meat at the vertical 2 - by-4s with a reciprocating saw , secured my new logic gate with hinges and a hasp , and called it a gate . Then I swung it astray and watched my cows rush to their raw pasture .
13. Panel Pig Huts
While pig are resilient , they require trade protection from atmospheric assaults such as the high noon sun and pelting rainstorm . As pigs need to be revolve in and out of pastures regularly , a sodbuster is task with either hauling huts or setting up unexampled ones every time pigs are unloose on impudent grass . After a few labor - intensive unsuccessful person , we devised this taxicab by getting some triiodothyronine - posts and driving two run-in of three into the ground . Then we bent two cattle panels in an upward electric arc , held in place by the T - posts , to which we attached the panels with conducting wire . Finally , we secure a tarp with zip tie , dispose some stalk and watched our pigs gleefully heap in .
While it ’s true that two sides are open to the air , orient openings east and west protect pig bed from southern sunray and cold northern winds . you could also pile straw bales at one closing for a makeshift wall .
14. Coop Movers
graze poultryis awing . Grass , fresh tune , bugsand sunshine change everything about a chicken dinner , include essence grain and spirit astuteness . But pasturing poultry presents some challenge . The broiler , or meat bird , is a specialised bird that turn fast and sound on diners ’ favorite cut , and its uncanny , meaty eubstance — vivid white and slow - moving — requires protective covering against predators that find it an easy repast .
There are a form of broiler cage plan available , all do the purpose of safely bring up chickens outdoors , but they need to be moved to fresh smoke once or twice a twenty-four hour period . For a while , lifting and shuffling the weighed down coops forwards was a difficult two - person job for my family , but finally we discovered a hack that became stock : hand truck . The metal sass slides easy under a hencoop ’s frame ; you pry on the wheel ’ fulcrum and pull for simplified chicken coop impress . On jolty soil , we slide a limited furniture dolly under the back form to lift and roll the coops forward .
Now coop propel is a one - person caper . It ’s not the easiest chore , but it ’s no longer the most difficult .
Lynsey Grosfield
15. PVC Floating Feeders
Broiler chicken love to eat . It ’s their claim to fame , but it also makes for a feeding frenzy : Things can get ugly fast when a boo is deny approach . longsighted tray feeders fit the bill here , but commercial trough can be costly and moving them with coops can be a hassle , especially with hangry bird pecking at your legs !
Our hack is specific to basket - stylus chicken playpen , a common pastured - domestic fowl anatomical structure : steer to the home - improvement store for some large PVC pipes ( 4 - column inch or wider ) , cut them to size , and using a reciprocating saw , slice in half along the length .
Secure chains or telegram to either destruction — just practise holes and slide it through — then suspend two troughs from the henhouse ’s “ ceiling ” so they hang 2 or 3 inch above the ground . There ’s no ground noise when the hencoop slither forward , and birds can gather in four foresighted lines at feeding time .
Lynsey Grosfield
This article originally appeared in the November / December 2016 publication ofHobby Farms .
Eli Duke/Flickr
Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
Rodney Wilson
