Greenhouse trip

The last farm trip is about a greenhouse.this greenhouse is called Ever-Green Greenhouse.it is located in Red Deer.this greemhouse is owned by Brian.he graduated from olds college in 1974.  Kathy recepted us,she has been a grower for 16 years.

She took us to a dugout first,this is the water resouce for their greenhouse.They have a water pump set in this dugout.

And for the irrigation system,we saw a control centre ,water should be checked and filted before reaching plants.the PH value,the contents also should be tested.this is the control centre:

Pots for growing plants.we can see some empty area between pots,this is for the convenience to reach every pot when workers are working here.another thing she told us is the planting depth is very important.if got too deep or too shallow,plants might not grow well.

Ever-Greenhouse's main customer is walmart.the supermarket.which means the quality of production from this greenhouse is really good.such massive customer means they don't have much problems on sale. but at the same time,when you trade with massive customer like this big,the profit margin is very small.which means production quantity makes sense.

I got some valuable things from this trip,the first thing is ,a grower like Kathy,she has been working in this place for 16 years,so everyday she has to do the same job,but this does not make her bored,on the contrary,she has been thinking about how to be more effective when doing the repeation.to figure out what will be more efficient way to do the same thing.The second is when working at a new place,better be modest,better for us to learn more from different working system.the knowledge we got from program doesn't mean we are experts ,every farm has their specific way to cope with the specific condition on their own farms.there are more details,process,new systems for us to learn .

visit to a sod farm

This monday,we visited a sod farm-Mountain Sod Farms.it covers about 550 acres filed.This company has established their business for 49 years.   The owner recepeted us,when we arrived ,he was harvesting sod.

look at his mower,really brilliant ,this is an effective machine supported by computer.it can cut the sod precisely for a certain length and width.and then delivers it by a conveyor.


Then it rolls the sod through this special track.

After that ,it puts those rolls inside the back container.

when harvest enough rolls ,our driver will stack rolls up like this:
 
To imagine how precise this mower is ,just have a look at the sod track it just got through.


This farm uses pipe irrigation system ,the pipes are set around the field.here they are：

when watering,here will be like this:

The owner told us that the best time to cut sod should be in early morning,because at this time ,moiture will come up to the surface,so it is easier for cut and better for holding moisture in soil which have been rolled out with roots.Normally sod growing season needs two years,the first year to get prepared and sale in second year.
I think,for sod market,it mainly has something to do with sports,like football fields,golf fields.sports customers are the one who need to change their turf regular and to maitain.so for sod farm business,it is better to set nearer to areas where football or golf games are popular.

A nursery for native plants

On saturday afternoon,we visited a nursery in the south area of Calgary,this nursery is BowPoint Nursery.

Ken Wright and his wife is the owner of this nursery.they started their nursery business 25 years ago.this nursery plant trees,shrub,vine and ground cover.among all their products,what makes them special is their native woody plants.Ken is absolutely a native plant grower.
This is their retailing area.trees and shurbs are waiting for sale.


Ken believes native plants grew, thrived and out-performed most introduced plants.here is red osier dogwood,a native tall shrub.this nursery also grow paskapoo popular,river birch,powerface willow and so on..here are pictures.



About soil,Ken has got a special organic resouce:the horse feces.horse breeders want to get rid of this waste ,so they deliver the feces here and give them to Ken for free,but this wastes supply Ken a fantastic soil mixture souce.


In the end ,ken showed us his bedding area.


Ken told us that his nursery does not to buy seeds from outside,they pick seeds from their own plants,in this way ,ken has too benefits,first it saves him money on buying seeds,second he can creat some new cultivars using his own seeds and his knowleages.he has been exploring the unique ecosystems of southern Alberta, developing new ecovars and cultivars for growing stunning landscapes around Calgary, Cochrane and the foothills

Weekend's farm trip

On saturday,we had a whole-day trip to three farms.The Eagle Lake Nurseries LTD is our first station.

About 8:30,we arrived at the Eagle Lake Nurseries LTD,this is a quite big nursery.running over 1000 acres field. it was established in 1970 by Heuver's family,now Anita Heuver runs this company.Her lovely cat welcomed us before she met us.

This nursery pruduces 500 varieties of trees,shrubs and evergreens,as well as 600 kinds of perennials.their market is 85% wholesale and 15% retail,calgary is their main wholesale market.This is the retailing area. a big area,many kinds of perenials and shrubs are showed here,customers definetely can get abundant options to choose what they want.



From the picture above ,we can see part of their irrigation system,water spraying .you also can notice under plants pots,they cover some plastic on ground.so the redundant water can flow along their manmade channel to a certain container where water can be reuse.a smart way to save water ,so they can save cost on irrigation.
Another special system utilized in this place is pot-in -pot system.this system is mainly for their trees and evergreens.here is picture about this system.


They also apply drip irrigation system along with their pot -in -pot system.pipes deliver water here and through tiny green needle tubings to drip water into soil.a very efficient method to reach plant roots.
Here is their drip irrigation system:


After this ,Anita took us to her field where are growing many young trees.Anita told us that normally they grow plants for customers for 1~2 seasons.customers need to order plants one or two years in advance.so young trees here we are looking are for the next year.


If trees grow too big for customers ,this nursery 's solution is to burn down their trees,which is quite a ruthless way in my opinion.
So what is their biggest problem for their business.Anita said it was the weather and disease. sometimes frost,hail or unexpected disaster got their plants devastated.since the boomy season in 2008 ,their business road has been not easy.

The eagle creek farm

This is the third farm we visited in our first semester. The Eagle Creek Farm is a family farm owned by John Mills and his father.this farm is located also in centre Alberta.

This is the young grower John,he also was a student of olds college before.he recepted us and showed us around his farm.

(Unluckly the memory card in my camero got something wrong,so i lost most of my pictures about this farm,only few left,begging your forgiveness)


A quite big shock is 40 kinds of potatoes are planted in this farm,i just ate 2~3 kinds before in China.Besides potatoes,this farm also produce strawberries. John showed us the bedding tunnel for strawberries,i don't know what is this tunnel called,it is like aluminium tunnel which is setting away from ground.About 1~1.5 meters high.soil is in tunnel .obviously two apparent benefits about this equipment.firstly it can keep soil from washing away ,keep nutrients in soil.secondly it supplies a protection for the strawberries from pest living in underground.
3 acres of u-pick flowers including Sunflower, Gladiolas, Tulips, Peonies, Zinnia and a collection of perennials are grown in their u-pick field. Most notably this farm can supply over 30,000 lilies.
Two things in this farm impressed me.
The first one is i saw plastic used as a protection tool .John told us that this plastic can protect the soil from washing away as well as can save water .and their plastics are made of organic things like crop resouce.
Second one is their farming way.their pursuit for the sustainable farming in nowaday's agriculture field.they have grown vegetables without the use of any chemical sprays or synthetic fertilizers.nutrients are supplied to their crops through crop rotation and crops grown specifically to be plowed back into the soil.. Weeds are controlled by pulling them with hands, crop rotation and smothering them with cover crops. what is more,they recycle more than 80% of the garbage and waste generated by their farm operation. I believe if more and more growers would like to do farm sustainably ,farm pruduce will become greener,soil on earth will become happier,our planet will become better.

A small but beautiful lakeside farm

Sept 18th,we visited the Country Thyme Farm,this is a relatively small farm(just 40-acre) compared to other farms we have visited.it is located besides a beautiful lake in the west of Bowden,centre of Alberta.if it wasn't raining ,I bet it would have been much more attractive farm.
Daniel is the owner of this farm,he is quite young grower,he showed us around his poultry houses.we saw sheep,chicken,ducks and rabbits.but his shepherd dog said hello to us first.

The poultry breeding scale seems small for each group,but I believe this is optimum for a new grower to reduce investment risk.






After the poultry,Daniel took us to his planting area.40 kinds of plants grown in a relatively small area.Daniel believes this abundant kinds planting way also can help him reduce investment risk. So if  he can't get good harvest from one kind ,he might still get repay from somewhat other kinds.through which he can sustain his farm business.a conservative way but maybe a better choice for new grower.
 
 
Although running a small scale business, this farm is able to keep good quality.besides hard works and good care ,the most important thing to keep quality is soil and water. From this point ,for a new grower,the location of  farm is the key point.for this farm ,the location is perfect.the soil condition is good.so Daniel doesn't need to improve the soil which not only can provide good edatope ,but also can save expense .secondly this farm has natural water supply because of the lake besides it. As long as they have the using permit ,they have numerous irrigation resource. Both Edatope and irrigation system play important roles in farm business.

 

the eagle creek