No we aren't hitting the bottle...

One of our apple trees, surrounded by lots of native wildflowers.

A few years ago, at a farmer's convention, I attended a talk given by Harry Hoch at Hoch Orchards in Minnesota.  This orchard is well known for being a successful organic apple orchard.  The people at Hoch use many techniques to manage their orchards in a way that will control pests and disease, without using harmful insecticides or pesticides.  One of these techniques is mowing their grass every other row.  When Mr. Hoch explained this technique, he said, "I decided to start mowing every other row in my orchard...all I could think was that my neighbors probably thought I was hitting the bottle, but it was actually something I was doing on purpose."  Harry went on to explain the importance of keeping beneficials around your orchard - insects that are useful for pest control and pollination of your plants.  The more pest controlling insects you keep around your orchard, the less you have to employ the use of insecticides to get rid of the bugs you don't want around.  And of course, we all know the importance of pollinators!  Without these important insects, we wouldn't have much fruit!

So we decided that at the risk of our neighbors thinking we were hitting the bottle, we would mow every other row too!  Our unmowed rows are beautiful, full of native wildflowers and grasses that keep all kinds of good bugs around.  We understand the value of these important bugs, and roll out the green carpet for them every spring and summer!

Stop by this summer and see us...eat some Bayfield berries and take an orchard stroll...we have mowed exactly half the rows just for you!