Feral Mountain Farm recognizes it’s feral nature can lead to various questions, so here are answers to some common ones!
Q: What exactly are you farming?
A: Primarily flowers, but also fruit! The main characters of our flower farm include daffodils, peonies, zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers and roses. Of course we grow many other flowers and experiment with new blooms every season. The ever-expanding fruit orchard includes apples, cherries, plums and grapes. Feral Mountain Farm also tends to a private garden filled with berries, herbs, & veggies. We’re always growing new things and plan to add to our crops in the years to come.
Q: Why doesn’t it look like a normal farm?
A: Being successful in growing a wide variety of plants at altitude in the Rocky Mountains means finding little pockets of land where you can dig in the soil, protect from animals and irrigate – all tricky to accomplish in this area with the topography, weather, and critters of the foothills. So, we have a patch of peonies here, and a bed of zinnias there, a hillside of cosmos and sprinkling of sunflowers on the margins, instead of long straight rows on flat land that just does not exist here.
Q: Do you grow everything in raised beds since you’re in the Rocky Mountains?
A: No – the vast majority of our flowers and fruit is grown in the hard, rocky soil that we have. We find the spaces between the solid rock, amend the clay and gravel with organic matter and work year round on improving and protecting the soil. We have more trouble with pocket gophers than we care to admit, and actually kind of love the patches of clay we find in the rocky soil.
Q: Are you saying you are a Certified Organic Farm?
A: No – from our understanding, the process of being “certified organic” is long and complicated, but perhaps one day we will pursuit that certification. What we do is grow completely without using any chemical, synthetic or organic sprays – as organics also kill your beneficial insects. When we are attacked by insects, we approach it with a multi-pronged counter attack from letting the birds and beneficials take care of it, to hand picking, to letting the ducks go after the problem. We’ve even vacuumed insect pests off our crops! We build and nurture the soil so that adding synthetic fertilizer is not necessary. The ducks help us make beautiful compost every year to feed the soil, and we mulch heavily with leaves, chips, straw etc. to protect the soil from sun, wind, erosion and weeds.
Q: Why do you farm using organic methods? It seems more difficult!
A: 15 years ago, I was really into growing giant pumpkins – and part of the challenge of that was to do so organically. The years spent growing giant pumpkins taught me that growing without synthetics can unlock the potential of your plants – and that you can team up with nature to grow some really amazing things! After you get in the groove of growing organically, insect and weed pressure balances out and it actually becomes easier. Of course, I still have pests to contend with, but on a smaller scale, and with so many tools in the arsenal I rarely lose a crop to pests. The most destructive pests we have are horses, gophers, voles and rats – mainly kept in check by the local predators & birds of prey on the night shift when our barn cat and rat dogs are sleeping.
Q: Do you ship your flowers and fruit?
A: No. I currently only offer pick up appointments and delivery to select locations.