Farming In a High Tunnel

New Earth and the Samaritan Womens Project, Baltimore, MD
The Samaritan Women's Project is the vision of Jeanne Allert.  It is an holistic ministry providing a recovery program for women who have addictions or been subjected to abuse. The women will live on the 22 acre property/farm and be trained in culinary skills. Food raised on the property will be used in the program and be sold to provide revenue for the project.
I became aware of  TSW project in the summer of 2010.  I made a commitment to help with the hoop house in the fall of 2010.  My interest in the earth began as a young person.  I love nature and studied biology as a college student.  Since 1978, I have been a member of the Unification Church and have been actively involved in church ministries.  I received my Master of Divinity degree in 1992 and served in Russia for several months before working in the Baltimore area working introducing clergy to the Divine Principle, the teaching of the Unification Church. . Over the past 4 years I have been teaching horticulture as a vocational skill at the Youth in Transition School in Baltimore, MD.
I consider myself to be a life-long learner and am taking on this project to learn more about urban farming and sustainable living.  In addition to learning skills, I want to be involved in working with my family, my faith community and the greater community in service to others.
I believe that we all must do our part to be a part of the solution to our problems by the way we live.  Especially people of faith should take the lead and to their part to work together to care for the needs of others, building a peace community, nation and world. A truly religious person is one who feels all human beings are part of his or her extended family and works to end the suffering of all people.
My role is to manage the greenhouse/hoop house/ high tunnel project.  This building will be able to support year round crop production and also serve as an educational site.  The hoop house production is part of the whole farm production program which is organized under Ben O'Donnell, the farm manger for 2011.

This Blog is an attempt to chronicle the development of the hoop house project.




High Tunnel Farming

My work with the hoop house began the first week of  January 2011.  The high tunnel or hoop house had been constructed over the summer.  It is large hoop house 16 feet tall and 44 ft wide by 96 ft long.  The end walls have not been completed.
My first activity with TSW was to cultivate the soil.  I enjoyed driving the small tractor inside of the greenhouse, running back and forth cultivating the soil until it had loosened an 8 inch layer of soil.

Next step was to test the soil for pH and the major nutrients, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. The pH test showed a neutral or 7 result.  The soil was low on Nitrogen. We may need to add lime after adding the compost.
A week later we ordered compost.  This truck is carrying 30 cubic yards.  Compost adds organic matter greatly improving the soil's ability to retain moisture and provide air.  Compost also adds nutrients and can be important in disease prevention.

I wanted to add 2 inches of compost to throughout the bedded area.  About 80 wheelbarrows were added to each side of the hoop house.  We used about half of the pile delivered, or 15 cubic yards. 

At the same time volunteers were rolling in the wheelbarrows, we had a team working on the endwall construction.  Each end wall required 6 4x4  12 foot posts seated in 3 feet of cement.  On January 29th, We were able to dig the 3 foot deep post holes with a hand post hole digger and cement 6 posts. The volunteers did a great job moving the compost, setting the posts, and even laying out the beds and digging the bed walkways.