By Susan Harlow

Agriculture is all about innovation: Every farmer must experiment to figure out just what works. “There's no one out there who will tell you the right way to do things on your farm,” contends Tony Lehouillier, an organic grower in Johnson, Vt.

He and wife Joie grow more than 100 vegetable varieties at their Foote Brook Farm. “You listen to other farmers,” he points out, “then do what works for your farm.”

One strategy that has worked several years for him is mulching with cover crops between rows. On about a dozen acres of onions, shallots, squash, summer squash, zucchini — just about everything except brassicas — he plants a mix of annual rye and white clover between black plastic-covered rows and in the wheel tracks. It really helped this year by keeping down excessive puddling and flood erosion. And it helped drain fields faster.

Reversing organic matter loss
Foote Brook grows 38 acres of organic vegetables, sold at its farmstand and wholesale through Deep Root Organic Co-op. The Lehouilliers also raise 25 acres of nonorganic sod for landscaping — another way they diversify.

A few years ago, Lehouillier noticed he was losing organic matter — about 0.1% every two years. Losses were pronounced in fields used for production the previous season. He decided to try cover crops to add organic matter back to the soil.

Before vegetable planting, he runs a Lilliston rolling cultivator along the wheel tracks to level the plant beds. Then he lays drip irrigation and black plastic, followed by rye and clover seeding. A few handfuls of clover seed are added to keep rye from being too thick and hard to mow.

Keeping the dropped seed at the very edge of plastic ensures no gaps where weeds can fill in. Mowing right to that edge is just as important. “If you don't, new weeds will grow up on the edge. Then you could get weeds and disease because you're in extremely high soil moisture content."

Lehouillier installs drip irrigation and black plastic cover for shallot rows, then interseeds a cover crop of annual rye plus clover. Seeding to the plastic edge is important.

He mows about six times a year, using lawnmowers. But he’s considering a more-efficient bush hog.

"Every farm road is covered up; there's no bare dirt around here," Lehouillier says. “And the clover makes the road rock-hard, even when it rains.

"If we didn't use cover crops that we mow, our plantings would get too big to cultivate and we would have no way to keep weed pressure down. And, downy mildew and insect pressure would probably get out of control."

 It's too early to tell how well the mulch replaces lost organic matter, but Lehouillier is hopeful. "The goal is more fertility by having soil be alive, and to reduce weeds," he says. "By keeping cover crops, we have life in the field. Otherwise there is no life — it's just your plant against the world. It's all about soil sustainability."

Staying a step ahead
Lehouillier also sows winter cover crops in other fields. He employs another weed-killing technique on the 2-acre market garden where he grows produce for his farmstand — covering the soil with silage tarps for a few weeks.

The tarps heat up the soil and kill the big flush of weeds coming after first prepping the beds. After removing the tarps, he seeds or transplants his crop, then burns small weeds as they emerge with a flame weeder.

As an organic producer, Lehouillier uses an arsenal of organic methods to combat pests. Rotation is critical. Swede midge, for example, a recent problem with kale, can often be outfoxed by planting kale in different fields each year.

Foote Brook also extends produce production into the fall with five greenhouses, and a sixth just to start plants. "At the farmstand, you have to have all the stuff or people are going to give up on you — spinach, salad mix, something in the bean or pea family. You need the staple crops."

Meanwhile, he has to keep experimenting. "When I grew up, this was a dairy farm. I thought anyone can grow corn and that it was easy to grow vegetables. But vegetables are a hundred times harder to manage."

Harlow writes from Westminster Station, Vt.