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Growing Under Cover on a Market Vegetable Farm
April 13 @ 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
Pavel’s Garden is a 4-acre diversified market farm and CSA in Crestwood, managed by Pavel and Katie Ovechkin. Using cover crops and natural mulches, minimal tillage, crop rotations, intercropping, and biodynamic methods, they grow a broad diversity of plants to ensure a thriving ecosystem in their soil and an abundant offering for their customers. On leased land in Oldham County, their 1.5-acre market garden uses 6 caterpillar tunnels and a high tunnel for year-round crop production and weather protection.
At this OAK Field Day, Pavel and Katie will highlight what they have learned about growing under cover in 15 years of farming (10 years at current location), including
- Low-cost caterpillar tunnel structures and design modifications
- Challenges, benefits, and uses of caterpillar tunnels
- Bed preparation and soil fertility
- Intercropping, rotations, and crop selection
- Trellising systems and tools
- Pest and disease pressures and strategies
Any interested farmer or allied professionals is encouraged to join the walk around Pavel’s Garden with Pavel and Katie, and Krista Jacobsen, agroecologist and sustainable agriculture professor from the University of Kentucky. Registration is required.