Blackberry Blossom FarmVisit with us at Blackberry Blossom Farm and take a peek at the plants we grow; how to propagate them; Equipment we utilize, how we build soil by composting; and irrigation & pest control methods we use. Even a word or two about Phenology.
Two out of three ain't bad... We're a small family farm located in the mountains of east Tennessee. Of the three essential things needed for growing plants, we are blessed with two and are pitifully lacking in the third.
Water Our property has numerous springs feeding several small creeks. These springs have continued to flow even during the recent drought periods. Not only do we have a great source of water, the slope of our land provides the best delivery system available. GRAVITY!! A simple dam above us on the mountain and a 3/4 “ poly pipe provide enough flow and pressure to operate a sprinkler with a 30’ throw radius and continuous flow. What more could we want? How we Irrigate
Sunshine The cleared acreage on our farm faces due south and is sloped down towards the south about 4-5 degrees. This slope has the beneficial effect of increasing the solar energy absorbed by our growing beds. We receive approximately the same amount of solar energy as a flat location 300 miles south of us. Soil Our place is located on the side of “Stone Mountain”, and is well named. While this mountain provides an unlimited supply of rocks for building things, deep fertile soil is not likely to be found. Lack of water or limited sunshine would be difficult, if not impossible to overcome, but lack of soil is no big deal. We can’t build water or sunshine, but we can, and do build soil. We do this, of course, by composting. To see what we use and how we build soil, click Composting.
What We Grow We grow a variety of plants including fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, trees and shrubs. We grow basically what we like, what we need, and what we already have. It's great to have diversity and we don't rely on one particular type of plant to become the only profit center for our farm. To see how we plant raspberries, visit our Raspberry Planting page. This is how we Propagate Plants. Bugs and Weeds... Everything grown here is done without any “cides” (pesticides, herbicides. etc.). By law we can’t officially use the word “Organic” because we are not “Certified”. When we sell our produce, we use the terminology "locally grown" and explain that nothing toxic is used on our plants, in our soil or in our water. This is not a marketing strategy, it's just our simple way of life. Why would we purposefully poison our body or our land? It never made any sense to us. Pest Control and our Weed Control methods on the farm.
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