Category Archives: Garden Advice

Hurricane Relief: Resources for Farmers & Growers

October 1, 2024 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Hurricane Helene has devastated much of the Southeast. SESE’s headquarters escaped unscathed, but we are deeply saddened by the loss of life and the damage to family farms. We rounded up some resources designed to help farmers and growers as we head into recovery.

One of the most important things you need to do is document the damage. Gather evidence before beginning any clean-up. If possible, document damage with dated photographs, videos, and third-party verification (non-family if possible). This information can help you get the aid you deserve from various resources.

Keep notes on your damage, expenses, and repairs. Track:

Damage
Necessary repairs
Costs associated with repairs
Receipts for anything repair-related

If possible, put off repairs until you receive approval from the Farm Service Agency (FSA). Document any emergency repairs you must make, like fencing repairs for livestock.

Monitor Livestock Carefully

Any livestock exposed to flood waters should be monitored carefully in the coming weeks, even if they appear fine right now. Bacteria in flood waters can cause skin conditions and infections.

USDA Resources

Find and connect with your local USDA office here.

The USDA has a number of programs designed to help farmers recover from hurricane damage. Here are some of the ones you can look into:

Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP)

NAP provides financial assistance when natural disasters cause low crop yields, crop loss, or delayed planting for uninsured crops.

~Apply for NAP~

Tree Assistance Program (TAP)

TAP assists orchardists and nursery growers in replanting or rehabilitating eligible trees, bushes, and vines damaged by natural disasters.

~Apply for TAP~

Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish (ELAP)

ELAP provides financial assistance to qualifying farmers who have lost animals, honeybees, or farm-raised fish during certain natural disasters.

~Apply for ELAP~

Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP)

LIP provides assistance to farmers who have had an excess of livestock deaths due to natural disasters. LIP payments are equal to 75 percent of the average fair market value of the livestock.

~Apply for LIP~

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

EQIP is a conservation program that provides financial and technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners to integrate conservation into working lands. It may be used for hurricane recovery in several ways, including obstruction removal, clearing and snagging, land smoothing, repair of access roads, and repair of fences for prescribed grazing and protecting sensitive areas.

~Apply EQIP~

Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP)

EFRP is designed to help landowners restore forest health damaged by natural disasters.

~Apply for EFRP~

Apply for FEMA

FEMA isn’t specifically for farmers, but it can help anyone, including farmers, with serious issues like displacement, temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss, or other disaster-caused needs.

There are several ways to apply: Go online to DisasterAssistance.gov, use the FEMA App, or call 800-621-3362 from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET daily. The telephone line is open daily, and help is available in most languages. If you use a relay service, such as Video Relay Service (VRS), captioned telephone, or other service, give FEMA your number for that service.

To view an accessible video on how to apply, visit Three Ways to Apply for FEMA Disaster Assistance – YouTube.

RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International)

RAFI has information about farm emergency preparedness and disaster relief for farms affected by natural disasters. Visit their website.

Appalachian Sustainable Development Resource Page

Appalachian Sustainable Development has a developed a list of Emergency Resources that is available on their website.

Assistance for the Carolinas

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association has put together a running list of resources that may help growers in the Carolinas and beyond move forward with recovery. Be sure to check back in as they update their list.

~Check out CFSA Resources~

Meade Tractor

See the full description under Virginia heading to apply for equipment assistance.

Florida Farm Relief

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) offers low-interest or interest-free loans to agricultural and aquaculture producers with damage from natural disasters.

They are now accepting applications for producers who experienced damage in Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Debby.

~Apply for a Recover Loan~

Georgia Farm Relief

Georgia Department of Agriculture

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper has sent a letter asking Georgia’s congressional delegation to immediately provide aid to farmers. In the letter, he requests federal aid through a Block Grant to the State of Georgia rather than the pre-existing relief programs. Hopefully, we hear more soon.

~The Georgia Agriculture Department~

Tennessee Farm Relief

The University of Tennessee Extension has compiled a list of resources to assist farmers and individuals in Tennessee impacted by Hurricane Helene. They also encourage all farmers to contact their county extension agency.

~Flood Resources~

Virginia Farm Aid

Smyth County Virginia Cooperative Extension

The extension encourages Smyth County farmers to contact them on Facebook and report losses, including hay, fences, barns, animals, etc. They ask that you include your name, address, description of loss, approximate value, and whether you had insurance.

121 Bagley Circle, Suite 434, Marion, VA 24354 – 276-783-5175

~Find them on Facebook~

Meade Tractor

Meade Tractor has started a Crisis Response Program for farmers affected by flooding in Asheville, NC, Tri-Cities, TN, and Southwest Virginia. The program provides access to a fleet of tractors, loaders, and other essential equipment at no cost to impacted farmers and on-site training from Meade Tractor’s skilled team to ensure the equipment’s safe and efficient operation.

~Apply for Assistance~

This information has been gathered from other state, federal, and organization websites. SESE does not work with or support these programs. All of their decisions are their own. The hope is to gather helpful resources for folks. We will update this list as we come across more information in the coming weeks.

How Can I Help?

If you want to donate money, supplies, or your time to hurricane relief efforts, check in with the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. They have created a Running Resources list including some great ways you can get involved.

Garden Advice

Soil Season: Winter Cover Crops

September 24, 2024 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Winter is an important time to rest both for the gardener and the garden, but it can also be a productive period. It is a great time to work on building healthy soil, which can improve your harvest for years to come. One of our favorite ways to improve soil is by planting cover crops. They’re fairly low effort and provide big rewards! Now is a great time to establish some cool season cover crops in your garden.

Benefits of Winter Cover Crops

Winter cover crops have surprising benefits, even in small gardens. You don’t need a large farm to reap the benefits of cover cropping.

Add organic matter to the soil.
Protect soil from erosion.
Improve fertility.
Provide habitat for beneficial insects, microorganisms, and fungi.
Suppress cool-season weeds.
Improve moisture control and heavy clay soils.

How to Choose a Cover Crop

When selecting a winter cover crop, there are a few considerations. Does your soil have a specific issue? Is it compacted? Does it have low fertility? They should all be taken into account when choosing a crop.

However, one of the most important things you want to consider is how you will use the land in the spring. If you need to get a crop on the land in early spring, you may want to choose a winter kill cover crop. However, if you want to suppress early spring weeds, you may want to select a winter hardy cover crop that will continue putting on growth next spring.

Note that what crops are considered winterkill versus winter hardy depends on your location, hardiness zone, snow cover, and winter temperatures. Understanding your hardiness zone and looking at each crop’s specific requirements can help you make an appropriate choice.

There are benefits and drawbacks to both winterkill and winter hardy cover crops.

Winter Hardy Cover Crops

Winter hardy cover crops are those crops that can survive winter temperatures. They don’t necessarily grow all winter long. Instead, they go dormant when it’s very cold and put on growth when conditions allow it. For some areas of the Southeast, this may mean you see some growth through the winter. However, in mountainous regions, winter hardy cover crops will often put on growth in the fall and then again in the spring.

These winter hardy cover crops have the added benefit of out competing spring weeds. As they establish root systems, they tend to encourage more biological activity in the soil than a winter kill cover crop.

Winter Hardy cover crops tend to put on vigorous growth in the spring as the daylight increases and temperatures begin to rise. This growth can be good for suppressing weed growth, but you must also manage these crops as you prepare to plant.

Mowing and tilling winter hardy cover crops under is a popular option. Some no-till farmers prefer to use tarps or crimping to kill the crop and leave it lying on the bed as a mulch to plant into. However, as the mulch begins to break down it can temporarily tie up nitrogen. To mitigate this risk, you may want to wait 2 to 3 weeks before planting into that bed.

There are many winter crops ideal for fall sowing. Here are a few of our favorites:

Daikon Radishes (winter cover crops) — Daikon Radishes

Winter Kill Cover Crops

Generally, we plant winter kill cover crops a bit earlier than winter hardy cover crops. The goal with the winterkill cover crop is to allow them to put on good growth in the late summer and fall so that when they die during the frosts of late fall or winter, they provide a covering of mulch on the soil. This mulch helps provide a habitat for beneficial insects, insulates the soil, and adds organic matter as it breaks down.

In the spring, beds with winterkill cover crops are ready to plant immediately. You can lightly till the crop residue into the soil or leave it on the surface. Generally, it’s easy enough to rake to the side for seeding or to transplant into if you have seedlings.

Unfortunately, depending on where you live, these winter kill cover crops need to be sown early. As the main goal is to create biomass, you need to allow them plenty of time to grow before they’re killed off by frost.

As with winter hardy cover crops, precisely what is considered a winter kill cover crop in your area depends on your climate. For example, daikon radishes are often considered winter kill cover crops, but this may not be the case across parts of the Southeast. Daikon radishes are only killed where temperatures regularly drop below 20°F.

Here are a few of our favorite options for winter kill cover crops:

Mixing Cover Crops

Want the best of both worlds? Consider trying a mix of crops. Many winter kill cover crops are better suited to tolerate the southeast warm fall temperatures. Mixing them with a winter hardy cover crop can provide a little shade and protection for the winter hardy crop to get established. As the winter kill crop begins to die back, the winter hardy cover crop will grow and continue to grow in spring.

If you want to learn more about using winter cover crops in a no-till system, check out this article on Organic No-Till Cover Crops by our neighbor Pam Dawling, the author of Sustainable Market Farming.

It’s time to build healthy soil! Try adding some of these winter crops to your garden to add organic matter, improve fertility, prevent erosion, and more.

Garden Advice

Winter Lettuce Production

September 17, 2024 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

In much of the Southeast, it’s challenging to get good lettuce production during the summer. We get a few cool weeks in the early spring before the heat sets in, and our lettuce bolts and turns bitter. In years like this, where hot, dry weather lingers, fall production can be challenging, too. Thankfully, winter lettuce production is surprisingly easy.

While lettuce isn’t technically as cold-tolerant as some of the tougher greens, you can still produce good lettuce with a bit of protection and proper care.

Season Extension for Lettuce

In some areas of the Deep South, you get away with growing lettuce in the field with no additional protection. However, lettuce isn’t incredibly frost tolerant, so in most places, you need to provide some additional frost protection.

Unheated greenhouses, cold frames, and high tunnels offer the most protection while still providing plenty of sunlight. These are ideal for mountainous areas where serious cold protection is needed.

That said, you can usually get away with more affordable and accessible options. Row cover and low tunnels made with clear plastic and wire hoops can give you a cheap, easy-to-install method of season extension. Note that low tunnels and row cover can reduce airflow, potentially encouraging pest and disease issues, so it’s important to stay vigilant and open them when possible.

In very cold temperatures, you can combine the two methods. You can use row cover to provide an extra buffer for lettuce growing high tunnels and greenhouses.

Winter lettuce seedlings growing in a low tunnel

Lettuce Soil Requirements

Lettuce is generally considered an easy crop, but like any crop, it will perform better with optimum soil conditions, particularly during the winter. It thrives in well-drained soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5.

It often surprises new growers, but lettuce is a heavy feeder because it grows so quickly. It benefits from soil rich in minerals and organic matter, so amending your soil with compost before planting is a good idea. You also want to consider this when planning your cover crops and crop rotation.

Especially if you have struggled with lettuce in the past, a soil test is a great tool that will allow you to amend your soil appropriately.

Lettuce Seeding

In the Southeast, we can get away with seeding lettuce pretty late into the fall. You can continue direct sowing as long as your soil temperature needs to be above 32°F. However, that doesn’t mean you will get quick growth.

Cold temperatures, cloudy days, rain, snow, and limited daylight can all affect lettuce growth. It may feel like your lettuce isn’t growing at all. It’s not unusual for lettuce to take up to an additional 30 days or even longer to mature over the winter. Getting seeds in the ground in the fall is helpful for winter harvests. Additionally, you’ll begin seeing faster growth as the days grow longer in February and spring.

When seeding your winter lettuce, sow seeds about 1/4 inch deep. The spacing you need for for rows of lettuce depends on what size you intend to harvest your lettuce at.

Generally, when harvesting lettuce during the winter, we harvest it as baby greens. This means we get to enjoy a harvest a bit earlier. It also protects the lettuce. Smaller lettuce is much more frost and cold-tolerant than mature heads. For baby lettuce harvests, you can get away with 4-inch row spacing, but closer to 12 inches for mature heads is ideal.

Winter lettuce transplants in a tray — Winter lettuce transplants

You can also transplant lettuce. Transplanting is a great way to keep successions going, get seeds started faster, and fill in any gaps in your cold frame, hoop house, or other bed throughout the winter.

Winter Lettuce Care

Winter lettuce tends to be a bit more hands-off than spring lettuce, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to manage. Weed pressure is less in the winter, but you should remove any fall weeds as these can be harbors for pests and diseases.

You should also continue to water lettuce through the winter. As it grows more slowly, winter lettuce has lower moisture needs but still requires periodic watering to keep the soil moist in low tunnels, cold frames, greenhouses, and high tunnels.

It’s critical to keep water off the leaves when watering, as this can encourage disease and frost issues. Water lettuce at the base. Drip irrigation or soaker hoses are ideal.

You also want to keep your lettuce from overheating and offer good airflow whenever possible. On warm and sunny days, vent high tunnels, cold frames, greenhouses, and low tunnels whenever possible.

Despite the cooler temperatures, pests and disease can still play a role in winter lettuce production, partly because of the minimal airflow and moisture associated with season extension devices. Watch for pests like aphids, mites, and white flies, as well as fungal diseases like powdery mildew, dampening off, and bottom rot and bacterial diseases like soft rot.

Lettuce Varieties for Winter Production

When selecting lettuce for the winter garden, you may want to choose varieties different from what you would usually pick for gardening in the Southeast. Cold-hardiness and disease resistance are of the utmost importance during for winter production.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Winter Lettuce Harvest

As mentioned above, harvesting your winter lettuce as baby greens is ideal. If possible, harvest lettuce when the leaves are dry and gently cut the leaves with scissors or a knife. Especially in cold weather, lettuce is easy to bruise.

You can store lettuce in the fridge, but for best results, we recommend harvesting just before you’re ready to eat.

You can grow lettuce all winter long in the Southeast using a few basic strategies. Keep growing this winter, and enjoy fresh, crisp salads!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange