Sorry I have been having a hard time posting due to internet issues, my post is a few days late.
October 5, 2011
Whoo Hooo the fall garden is PLANTED!
In the Garden
And I have been a gardening fool! I had Noah smooth out my permaculture beds and then spent two days filling the sandy soil with old hay, manure and anything of organic matter I could rake up out of the horse and chicken pens. I collected and hauled two truck loads of cardboard and striped off all the tape and labels. To me this was boring and hard work as I stood at the bed of the truck for what seemed endless hours with a huge pile of tape and plastic that was not going into my garden. I took one afternoon and layered all the cardboard into my new sheet mulched garden and wet it down, careful not to walk on it as little as I could. The next morning was our first cool day, the temperature was in the low 50’s when Noah piled the first of two flat beds trailers full of compost and we started spreading it. The first we spread with the tractor, the rest I did by hand and a wheel barrow. The cardboard had started to dry and the wind picked up on Saturday morning. I chased around getting enough compost over the cardboard to keep it from flying away into the other side of the garden. He brought the next load and I waited until Monday morning to spread it wheel barrow after wheel barrow into a spiral. Then on Tuesday morning I hauled another load on the little trailer to finish the spiral. I was getting very excited as I finished off the beautiful spiral with mulch in between the rows on the walk way and raked down the bed. The moisture in the bed is really incredible, the compost is holding the rich black soil and it really is in contrast with the sand in the rest of the garden. I set up a sprinkler in the center and wet it down several times.
I also set up two wooden boxed for my salad table and one to plant carrots. I layered the bottoms of the boxes with leaves I raked from the yard and sand. Then I filled in the compost and worm castings. I topped it off with fine compost I screened to give the seeds a strong start. These boxes too are holding the rich compost moist.. I set the boxes on the south side of the green house to catch the sun, throughout the winter this spot will stay warm and protected. I hope they will not be too hot there because they are too heavy to move. We have raised tomatoes and peppers there in planters every year and it seems to be a good spot.
This morning on my run, I saw maybe 15 deer out playing and feeding. They came closer to me than ever before and some ran in the woods along the road beside me. It was a nice morning to be out and seeing all the deer made me feel nature was calling me to plant. I left the sprinkler run on the spiral while I ran and came back to do my morning chores and then started planting. In the boxes I planted heirloom carrots and mixed salad greens. In the spiral I planted, collard greens not my buy but Noah’s, hybrids I am sure. Then two kinds of heirloom mustards greens, two kinds of heirloom broccoli and two kinds of heirloom cauliflower, heirloom snow peas and plenty of rooms for cabbage and Brussels sprouts when I find what I want.
Now I need to search out mulch from whatever source I can find and start lining the walk ways into the spiral. When my young plants start coming in and the first thinning is done I will mulch the young plants from the mulch in the walkway. I actually located a place in Bradfordville that sells oat straw for bedding.
All this seems to be a lot of work and I have worked like a dog for more than a week and the cooler weather has inspired me. What I am doing is building and amending my soil with sheet mulching. This permaculture technique has been used in gardens all around the world that has poor sandy soil and this give the garden a strong foundation. It is a lot of work but in the end it will pay off, or so Noah says "time will tell if it works". The way I look at it is that everything we do to improve the soil will pay off in the long run. It is much better than planting in dead sandy soil that has very little to support vegetables. But each season until the soil has been totally amended the process will have to be repeated again and again. Hopefully after a few seasons the rich black compost and mulch will state to give more to feeding the soil and building a micro-organic base with fungi and worms that will be healthy again. The cardboard works two ways. It creates a moisture trap to change the microclimate of the spiral, it traps both air and water, instead of running through the the sand it slows it down and it breaks down in time feeding the soil too. It also prevents the weeds from creeping through if done right. The garden spiral pattered also serves several purposes. It is beautiful for one. Everyone knows I love the symbol of life and spirit. But the areas actually gives more space than rows when it is done right, just walk it a few times and you will see how much room there is in a spiral than if the same space were in rows. Several years ago I planted my corn in a spiral and the rest of the garden in rows. My family laughed at me. But even though I didn’t plan it out well enough to give some width for the corn to set out the storm roots, it was the only time I have ever been successful in growing corn and we had plenty to eat and in the freezer. The corn I grew with Ken this year in the experimental beds grew well, but it was field corn and even though we did eat some of it, it was more for the animals and not for the table. It grew tall and produced two ears per stalk but our experiment was for the double dig and heavy trenched rows of compost. Point is I love the spiral and I have plans to do the spring garden in front of the winter garden in the same pattern but turning in the other direction. The spiral also creates a microclimate, it catches the light and air as it spins through the bed. It creates a trap for moisture as well instead of the rain just pooling up in the rows, that is when it does rain. I just love it and it feel so good to see it done. Eventually I will set up my irrigation system but for now I am just looking at it and the sprinkler does it’s job.
On the Farm..
More excitement here too. Last week we brought in 4 rescue horses. It is so sad to see what can happen to incredibly beautiful horses when someone totally loses it and starves them almost to death. It is a long and sad story I will not go into. But for the past week we have been very careful to feed and care for these neglected animals. I can see some slow results already but it is going to be a long haul. Horses that have been starved so badly can colic and die if you give them too much feed to fast to bring them back around to a state of health. There are times where horses just start losing weight and then there are old horses that just get old and poor no matter what you do. Personally I blame the feed that we are forced to feed horses. The GMO corn has effects on them as well as us but we really have very few choices. These are all very good well bred paso fino blood lines and once were top show horses. Where we go from here I do not know, but we will see, for now we are just saving their lives.
Last week we had a new foal born. She.. yes she is so cute and mom will eat you up as she let me know a few hours after she was born, she walked up and nuzzled me, mom tried to eat me. I got out of there before I could tell if it was a filly or a colt but Noah identified her. We have one of our yearlings going to a new owner in West Palm Beach this weekend and had a wild ride to the vet on Monday to pull coggins test. We haven’t been to Tom Bevis’s clinic in several years and never pulled our big horse trailer in there. We got turned around and went down a few wrong drives, but we made it. Both horses we on their first trailer ride. Coggins test have to be pulled on horse to sell them and when they travel through inspection stations.
So there was even more excitement on Monday. I was tired after a day working with horses, shoveling compost and such and I had a meeting at 7pm. Noah was working with two young fillies, we had loaded them into the trailer, lead them around to eat grass. I had put one up and Noah took the other into the back yard while I took a shower. I came out of the shower and heard dogs barking and looked out the window to see Noah in real trouble. He has three huge American bull dogs in a pen near the house. One of the puppies weighs over 100 pounds and his mother and brother not quite as big, but big. They had broken out of the pen while Noah had the filly on the lead and were trying to catch her. That is what bull dogs do. Noah was having a time trying to hold her and catch the dogs before the bite her on the legs. She was whirling and dancing on their heads but it was more than any of them could handle. I did not stop of even hesitate. I ran for the door in nothing but a towel and it was on my head. But managed to get out in the yard with Noah, the filly and the dogs. I garbed one and he tried to bite me. We went round and a round. Noah tried to tie the filly up to the plum tree so he could catch a dog and I tackled one and then grabbed another. The one that had the collar on was not the problem. I drug one over and put it in the pen but before I got back to the filly it had gotten out again. I sat on one and garbed another by the tail. About this time we were getting a upper hand on the madness and Noah was able to calm the filly down and grab a dog at the same time. It seemed like it when on for 30 minutes but I am sure it wasn’t more that 30 seconds, but in the end no one got hurt and everyone was safe. It wasn’t until the next morning I realized I had jammed my thumb and it was swollen for a few days. But if I had not been there, it could have been a serious situation. Noah now has a huge chain on the gate and the bar secured. I had told the naked dog and horse fight story to my circle on Monday night and they were just rolling in laughter. Noah really wished he had it on video, me naked chasing the huge bull dogs and tackling them in the dirt to keep them off the dancing filly, with him flying around the plum tree trying to secure her. Well one thing for sure there is never a dull moment on our farm.
Happy Gardening, feel the shifts in the earth as we turn the seasons, fall is here and things are a changin".
October 5, 2011
Whoo Hooo the fall garden is PLANTED!
In the Garden
And I have been a gardening fool! I had Noah smooth out my permaculture beds and then spent two days filling the sandy soil with old hay, manure and anything of organic matter I could rake up out of the horse and chicken pens. I collected and hauled two truck loads of cardboard and striped off all the tape and labels. To me this was boring and hard work as I stood at the bed of the truck for what seemed endless hours with a huge pile of tape and plastic that was not going into my garden. I took one afternoon and layered all the cardboard into my new sheet mulched garden and wet it down, careful not to walk on it as little as I could. The next morning was our first cool day, the temperature was in the low 50’s when Noah piled the first of two flat beds trailers full of compost and we started spreading it. The first we spread with the tractor, the rest I did by hand and a wheel barrow. The cardboard had started to dry and the wind picked up on Saturday morning. I chased around getting enough compost over the cardboard to keep it from flying away into the other side of the garden. He brought the next load and I waited until Monday morning to spread it wheel barrow after wheel barrow into a spiral. Then on Tuesday morning I hauled another load on the little trailer to finish the spiral. I was getting very excited as I finished off the beautiful spiral with mulch in between the rows on the walk way and raked down the bed. The moisture in the bed is really incredible, the compost is holding the rich black soil and it really is in contrast with the sand in the rest of the garden. I set up a sprinkler in the center and wet it down several times.
I also set up two wooden boxed for my salad table and one to plant carrots. I layered the bottoms of the boxes with leaves I raked from the yard and sand. Then I filled in the compost and worm castings. I topped it off with fine compost I screened to give the seeds a strong start. These boxes too are holding the rich compost moist.. I set the boxes on the south side of the green house to catch the sun, throughout the winter this spot will stay warm and protected. I hope they will not be too hot there because they are too heavy to move. We have raised tomatoes and peppers there in planters every year and it seems to be a good spot.
This morning on my run, I saw maybe 15 deer out playing and feeding. They came closer to me than ever before and some ran in the woods along the road beside me. It was a nice morning to be out and seeing all the deer made me feel nature was calling me to plant. I left the sprinkler run on the spiral while I ran and came back to do my morning chores and then started planting. In the boxes I planted heirloom carrots and mixed salad greens. In the spiral I planted, collard greens not my buy but Noah’s, hybrids I am sure. Then two kinds of heirloom mustards greens, two kinds of heirloom broccoli and two kinds of heirloom cauliflower, heirloom snow peas and plenty of rooms for cabbage and Brussels sprouts when I find what I want.
Now I need to search out mulch from whatever source I can find and start lining the walk ways into the spiral. When my young plants start coming in and the first thinning is done I will mulch the young plants from the mulch in the walkway. I actually located a place in Bradfordville that sells oat straw for bedding.
All this seems to be a lot of work and I have worked like a dog for more than a week and the cooler weather has inspired me. What I am doing is building and amending my soil with sheet mulching. This permaculture technique has been used in gardens all around the world that has poor sandy soil and this give the garden a strong foundation. It is a lot of work but in the end it will pay off, or so Noah says "time will tell if it works". The way I look at it is that everything we do to improve the soil will pay off in the long run. It is much better than planting in dead sandy soil that has very little to support vegetables. But each season until the soil has been totally amended the process will have to be repeated again and again. Hopefully after a few seasons the rich black compost and mulch will state to give more to feeding the soil and building a micro-organic base with fungi and worms that will be healthy again. The cardboard works two ways. It creates a moisture trap to change the microclimate of the spiral, it traps both air and water, instead of running through the the sand it slows it down and it breaks down in time feeding the soil too. It also prevents the weeds from creeping through if done right. The garden spiral pattered also serves several purposes. It is beautiful for one. Everyone knows I love the symbol of life and spirit. But the areas actually gives more space than rows when it is done right, just walk it a few times and you will see how much room there is in a spiral than if the same space were in rows. Several years ago I planted my corn in a spiral and the rest of the garden in rows. My family laughed at me. But even though I didn’t plan it out well enough to give some width for the corn to set out the storm roots, it was the only time I have ever been successful in growing corn and we had plenty to eat and in the freezer. The corn I grew with Ken this year in the experimental beds grew well, but it was field corn and even though we did eat some of it, it was more for the animals and not for the table. It grew tall and produced two ears per stalk but our experiment was for the double dig and heavy trenched rows of compost. Point is I love the spiral and I have plans to do the spring garden in front of the winter garden in the same pattern but turning in the other direction. The spiral also creates a microclimate, it catches the light and air as it spins through the bed. It creates a trap for moisture as well instead of the rain just pooling up in the rows, that is when it does rain. I just love it and it feel so good to see it done. Eventually I will set up my irrigation system but for now I am just looking at it and the sprinkler does it’s job.
On the Farm..
More excitement here too. Last week we brought in 4 rescue horses. It is so sad to see what can happen to incredibly beautiful horses when someone totally loses it and starves them almost to death. It is a long and sad story I will not go into. But for the past week we have been very careful to feed and care for these neglected animals. I can see some slow results already but it is going to be a long haul. Horses that have been starved so badly can colic and die if you give them too much feed to fast to bring them back around to a state of health. There are times where horses just start losing weight and then there are old horses that just get old and poor no matter what you do. Personally I blame the feed that we are forced to feed horses. The GMO corn has effects on them as well as us but we really have very few choices. These are all very good well bred paso fino blood lines and once were top show horses. Where we go from here I do not know, but we will see, for now we are just saving their lives.
Last week we had a new foal born. She.. yes she is so cute and mom will eat you up as she let me know a few hours after she was born, she walked up and nuzzled me, mom tried to eat me. I got out of there before I could tell if it was a filly or a colt but Noah identified her. We have one of our yearlings going to a new owner in West Palm Beach this weekend and had a wild ride to the vet on Monday to pull coggins test. We haven’t been to Tom Bevis’s clinic in several years and never pulled our big horse trailer in there. We got turned around and went down a few wrong drives, but we made it. Both horses we on their first trailer ride. Coggins test have to be pulled on horse to sell them and when they travel through inspection stations.
So there was even more excitement on Monday. I was tired after a day working with horses, shoveling compost and such and I had a meeting at 7pm. Noah was working with two young fillies, we had loaded them into the trailer, lead them around to eat grass. I had put one up and Noah took the other into the back yard while I took a shower. I came out of the shower and heard dogs barking and looked out the window to see Noah in real trouble. He has three huge American bull dogs in a pen near the house. One of the puppies weighs over 100 pounds and his mother and brother not quite as big, but big. They had broken out of the pen while Noah had the filly on the lead and were trying to catch her. That is what bull dogs do. Noah was having a time trying to hold her and catch the dogs before the bite her on the legs. She was whirling and dancing on their heads but it was more than any of them could handle. I did not stop of even hesitate. I ran for the door in nothing but a towel and it was on my head. But managed to get out in the yard with Noah, the filly and the dogs. I garbed one and he tried to bite me. We went round and a round. Noah tried to tie the filly up to the plum tree so he could catch a dog and I tackled one and then grabbed another. The one that had the collar on was not the problem. I drug one over and put it in the pen but before I got back to the filly it had gotten out again. I sat on one and garbed another by the tail. About this time we were getting a upper hand on the madness and Noah was able to calm the filly down and grab a dog at the same time. It seemed like it when on for 30 minutes but I am sure it wasn’t more that 30 seconds, but in the end no one got hurt and everyone was safe. It wasn’t until the next morning I realized I had jammed my thumb and it was swollen for a few days. But if I had not been there, it could have been a serious situation. Noah now has a huge chain on the gate and the bar secured. I had told the naked dog and horse fight story to my circle on Monday night and they were just rolling in laughter. Noah really wished he had it on video, me naked chasing the huge bull dogs and tackling them in the dirt to keep them off the dancing filly, with him flying around the plum tree trying to secure her. Well one thing for sure there is never a dull moment on our farm.
Happy Gardening, feel the shifts in the earth as we turn the seasons, fall is here and things are a changin".
