Turtle Bend Farm is a sustainable vegetable farm in Polk County, Georgia. Adam and Mecca Lowe are growing vegetables on approximately 7 acres of family farmland using ecological methods without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. Our goal is to produce clean, healthy, fresh vegetables for our local communities while protecting and enhancing our local natural and social resources.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Irrigation is important...

Last year we learned just how important a proper irrigation system is for a diversified vegetable farm. I know it seems crazy to think about irrigation after all of the rain we have experienced in the past 8 months, but we can't forget last June, not to mention the previous years of drought. But irrigation ain't cheap, so we applied for a grant through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to install a drip irrigation system on 5 acres of our field. About a month ago we were awarded participation in their cost-share program, which would also include drilling a well. About a week and a half ago, Henry Duke of Abernathy Drilling in Armuchee, GA came down the old logging road into our field to drill the well. They had already come out and surveyed the road to see if their HUGE rigs could make it and decided they could do it in the drier weather. We got our well (200 ft. with 23gal/minute!), but what follows is our home video of two bulldozers who just happened to be in the nieghborhood pulling one of their rigs out of the swampy area beside the road. Just one tire ran off in the mud, but that was enough to strand the truck all day until both dozers could come and pull it out. Luckily, it was not the larger rig that got stuck! Thanks Henry Duke, Henry's son, Goat Cummings, Robin Brooks and the Rome NRCS for making irrigation a reality on our farm!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

More photographs from Emily Dryden Photography

Check out Emily's latest visit to our farm- notice the well drilling rig in the background of the last picture. This was a crazy, hot day, but we hit water at 190 feet!
http://emilydryden.com/2010/04/03/turtle-bend-farm-project/