On Friday they arrived

Planting party pictures soon

Last Sunday, the 16th, we had about a dozen people here at the farm,
where we dug small hills and planted corn in them; the first phase of
a "three sisters"-style planting, our best approximation of the native
American technique. A month from that date we'll have another party
and add the other two sisters, pole beans and trailing-habit winter
squash. The beans trellis up the corn and fix nitrogen that the heavy-
feeding corn takes up, and the squash covers the ground, suppressing
weeds and reducing evaporation. I've also heard that the spiny squash
plants are unpleasant on the legs of marauding deer, but that they'll
come if they really want. We want to experiment with other trailing
crops in the system, like melons. There will also be scattered plants
that are beneficial in other ways, like radish and amaranth.

Just a couple days before the party I decided to plant onthe hillside
rather than the field in the picture from an earlier post. The topsoil
has been almost totally removed from the large fields and the soil
test has the level of organic matter at 1.2%. Eventually dawning on me
that planting corn there would be an uphill battle and that we might
not have enough compost to make the little hills, the 4.1%, nice-and-
black, south-facing "future forest garden" slope was clearly the
better option. Tracing the shadow line of the large tulip poplar and
eastern white cedars, which are unfortunately toward the south side of
the slope, we still packed a lot of hills and seeds on there. A border
of sunflowers was planted on the north edge. Watered in with fish
emulsion, we called it a day and i led a tour through the woods and to
the far fields. As we walked back on the road and emerged at the main
farm, we were dazzled by how pretty the tesselated pits-and-mounds
were, dotting the hillside, and how they would look with ten-foot bean-
covered stalks on them.

The pits were excavated to build the mounds directly downhill from
them. We believe that we will experence very little erosion even
though we dug on a hill because runoff can't travel more than a few
feet before pooling in these little divots, where they will perc into
the soil, right into the root zone of the crops below them. I believe
this cultivation will actually be an improvement to the hydrology of
the site.

The party was also a potluck and we had a great lunch out on the front
lawn. All in all it was a great day and talk of future planting/work
parties was met with great interest. We already know the task of the
next one (beans and squash) but I want to try to make it a monthly
occurrence, maybe switching up the day so people who can't make it
Sundays can come sometimes. And I want to develop the camping-music-
and-bonfire element, which was present in embryonic form last weekend
but can go much farther.

My friend Matt Crooks was there taking pictures while not planting
sunflowers, and as soon as I get my hands on some of those I will post
them here, an probably repeat some things I've said.

They grow up so fast...

Nesting box indeed

All about the clover patch

This one is more recent.

Buckwheat sings

Buckwheat coming up in a starter patch in the vegetable garden.

Dorsal feathers...

This is old news. Their head feathers are coming in now. I'm getting a
lot of old posts out of the way. I'll be current soon.

We're Coming Out

First tentative steps once the door had been left open long enough.
This was two Mondays ago.

Another

They look like Carolina allspice flowers but dangle down like in the
previous picture. If you're in their range and these look familiar,
watch those trees for fruits in August...

Paw Paw

This picture is also a few weeks old and I haven't seen any paw paw
blossoms in a while, but this is what they look like, and they have
been everywhere. We shall see how well their pollinators have been
working because if there are anywhere as many fruit as there were
flowers, we are going to be up to our noses in it, innit?

Sisters' playground

Here's the field where we'll plant the large three-sisters patch. To
the left of the white tank back there is the six-mound trial patch.
This picture was taken a few weeks ago and the grass has grown up a
bit since then. But really, not all that much. This field is depleted,
hence the big load of compost back there. There have been several more
of those, and I should try to find some more for good measure. I hope
it isn't too hot for the plants...I should do a few more patches on
Monday to make sure.

Atop the pizza box

As you can see, they're outgrowing their pen. I bet they'll be ready
to go outside Monday morning, when I come back from Wisconsin. I
figure they need to be unable to squeeze through a chainlink fence,
which may be for a while yet, but I think they've grown just today. If
grass and such is kept tall next to the fence maybe they'll be
stymied...

Lookit them grow

Canary in the spring frost

As I drive around it doesnt look like real farmers have planted their
corn yet. This might yet get waxed but for now it's at about the same
level as corn planted in the greenhouse.

Chardonnay

Tough chick

The load-in

Loud Box

Ding!

The Call

I got it last night. Our unspecified assortment of fifty chicks is in
the mail, and I should expect it tomorrow morning. Time to go plug up
critter holes and make the corral in the doghouse, which will be the
brooder.

Peanuts

Peanuts going live----

Corn Action Now

This picture may or may not look silly to someone more experienced
than me but I am planting some Bloody Butcher corn in these the mounds
at the center of the BB cornfield. In a few weeks beans will be
planted to climb up the corn and squash and melons in the spaces
between. I don't know if this is seriously undercultivated or not. The
"topsoil" underneath is very soft and I expect to hoe anyway.
Hopefully the kinks will be worked out for the PLANTING PARTY time
TBA. I'm thinking Friday the 17th or the next day.

Water etc.

Jugs are our hose for now until I fix the inside shutoff valve for the
outdoor hose, hopefully today. My dad's old table saw which isn't
staying here, and a comfrey division from Ecosystem Farm in Accokeek,
where Liza is working. It hyperaccumulates nutrients and grows like
mad. It was half the size two days ago. Mulch and compost tea plant.
Never grown it before but see it in every permaculture garden.

Hole

I need to put some chicken wire on the bottom...

Potato towers

Double-digging potato towers. The uprights are old tobacco sticks for
hanging leaves. Bad news if they have tobacco mosaic virus on them...

First double-dug bed

First potato tower with megabeauty

Back at it

I had to be away from the farm for a while and then it was rainy, so
I'm getting going again. Last week we picked up this round bale at
progressive farm in harwood for mulching, composting, and filling
potato towers.

One layer back is the dwindling but still big pile of horse compost,
which the little plants in our potting mix seem to like, though it
clearly has the weed seeds in it.

In the background looking tiny is about five yards of woodchips; I
took the neighbors to the salvage yard and had to swerve around the
tree on the way there, on the way back the county was just finishing
up chipping it up. They followed me back and unloaded it. Must create
a turnaround for large vehicles...

The chips will be used for garden paths, "paving" over green areas
where we need truck traction, and deep mulching where we will plant
trees in the future.

What's up?

Cotton. Sea Island Brown, a long fibered variety. Maybe all 22 will
come up.

Dam pt. 2

Im trying to be cognizant of how water will flow around these holes,
because this great plug of organic matter is right in the crotch of a
ravine and concentrates the flow of a fan of land, some of which is in
roads or bare, and which has some animal pressure. I imagine that this
dam is an excellent and hygeinic filter for the water shedding on from
there. I also imagine that the increased nutrients in the runoff
provides enough N to take care of the extra carbon that is the sawdust
bedding.

I know I keep talking about this stuff and don't really know if it
will work yet. But a guy at the gas station asked to make sure what I
was going to use it for, and said "oh, that'll grow." And plants are
starting to come up, looking pretty good in the potting soil we made.

Matt Lowe
jeffersonpermanent.blogspot.com

Cover Crops

We need to get the soil tests in, but what grew in the L-field last year was pretty sparse and homogeneous. Last weekend Liza and I went to the Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association (MOFFA) conference and had a fine time. The talks were largely about cover crops, which is what I think we really needed to hear about. A summary of what we learned as applies to cover crop choices, pasture, and building fertility on our farm:

Going in there was the idea that the way to improve the whole field was by grazing a grass/legume mixture. We have neither of those in the area in question. It was suggested that the best early-spring planted cover crop would be oats and Austrian winter peas, which the good Dr. Morse said could be planted as soon as the snow was out of the way. Buckwheat (the cornerstone of Morse's beneficial-insect-attracting projects) needs a bit warmer weather to be planted. But the suggestion was to just turn the chickens on what is growing there now, let them eat and stomp it to the ground, and see what comes up following this different sort of disturbance. This is encouraging because it is definitely the cheapest of the options. I don't know how hopeful I should be, though, considering that over most of the field there was what looked like broom on 5-inch centers and bare ground between. I do home something good comes up.

Springing

The Snow is starting to fade to the ground, but even where the land is accessible it is just waterlogged. I imagine it will be a while yet before the land is well drained. I am thinking most about this affecting our ability to dig and haul compost from area stables. Perhaps some places have a front end loader and piles that are on high ground right next to a gravel road. We should be so lucky.


Here is a shot of the first and only load of compost so far, before I was sick and before the snows. Like I said before, it was dug out of a ditch where there were apparently once tall piles of it. This stuff has rotted and settled for years. It is beautiful, and is a tiny fraction of what they had there. We shall return.



Though we can't spread and dig now, the seed- starting season has swept us up and we are making use of the compost, some sphagnum moss and native soil to start seeds and make transplants. A little late, but I've heard this happens to others as well. The house is pretty dark so a well lighted place for the starts is overdue.

This is the frame i put together from scraps in the barn for a small, portable plastic tunnel/greenhouse. The top angle pivots and the obtuse angle is fixed. long vertical members are 6 feet, horizontal around 3 feet. I expect it will be necessary to stake the thing down when it is skinned, and to stake the side flaps as well. It's about tall enough for me to move relatively easily in, though a few inches shorter than I am.

I think I will like this design, as it is rigid and different work paths are revealed at different settings.



Here it is opened up a bit. I can get in here with the working-at-ground-level posture but as you can see there is a good bit more to the footprint. It opens up far enough for the cross-member to be horizontal, so it could span several planting strips. and i think will be good for an emergency frost cover, or to give a boost to heat-loving plants if the spring is cool.

But I misjudged the path of the sun and this site isn't as good for a starting greenhouse as I'd hoped. The solution was much more desirable anyway.


Inspired by Frank and Christina Allen's plexiglass-walled front porch passive solar heating, I rigged this up once I realized the front porch got a lot more sunlight this time of year than I thought. The area is already protected and semi-enclosed, adjacent to a warm body (the house), much larger and easy to work in, and most importantly close to the house, which means we pay it better attention.

We have high winds right now so the fastening is being put through the paces. Currently residing in the sun room are red russian kale, Black from Tula, Amish paste, and Henderson's pink Ponderosa tomatoes, chocolate habanero and fish peppers, and red and white cabbages. We need shelves in here and lots more seeds planted very soon, not to mention sunny weather so it warms up real well.

Making Landfall

I know it's been a loong time but please indulge me as this kind of updating takes a special kind of effort on my part.

The plan of attack has evolved, as far as this season goes. It has mercifully simplified a bit, as follows:

The general layout remains the same. The major change is that it seems likely that in general the planting of trees will probably be delayed a season or so. This is to allow us to focus on the more immediately-productive annual crops, and the fertility-generating combination of pasture/cover crops and livestock. I have taken the lesson that it may be possible that a fruit or nut tree may end up bearing better and earlier after allowing a full year for site preparation than just putting it in the ground at the beginning of that year. We'll still plant some trees, but it probably won't be full-farm scale. Plus it will give us time to learn trees, their varieties, and propagation.

This means that we get to focus much more on improving fertility, and on highly productive pastured poultry. We've started ordering seeds, and have enough corn to plant about 1/4 acre. This is probably lowballing our needs a bit but it's just one grain so far. It's one of my goals to eliminate the need to buy feed for the chickens, perhaps excluding mineral and probiotic supplements and the like. To meet this goal we'll probably have to plant a good amount of some other grains. This is hardly disappointing to me. I see brisk bread sales in our future.

We have also hatched plans to experiment extensively with the three sisters planting scheme (pole beans grow up corn stalks as squash shade the soil). This venerable native polyculture promises amazing results when properly executed. The search for old, explicitly suitable varieties was challenging but I think we found some promising candidates.

We are currently experiencing the highest snowfall in recorded history in the DC area. The third once-in-a-decade snowstorm this winter has us under a few feet of snow. This makes it tough to go dig compost. This is annoying because we got in one good load before I fell ill and the snow followed. But this old horse manure was jet-black, smelled great, had excellent texture even though it was soaking wet, and there were yards and yards of it...just at one stables. This, to my mind, bodes very well indeed, especially when John Jeavons says you can only add one inch max of compost when starting vegetable beds. He also says to sow grain seeds in flats and prick them out by the thousands, so like any good (former) Catholic I expect I'll pick and choose my labors a bit.

The other side of hauling stuff in will be (I hope) directing willing tree-trimmers to dump their chipped trees on our hillside, the site of our future high-diversity forest garden. This zone appears particularly worn-out, having a kind of sanbox look under the scraggly vegetation found there. My hope is that a few inches of (free) wood chips and the ensuing fungal action and decomposition will provide excellent food for ongoing plantings of nut- and fruit-bearing trees on that south-facing slope.

So to summarize I think that our big chores ongoing this year will be to work the garden, move the chickens in their tractors (for the shorter-lived males) and mobile, moving-fenced coops for the layers. We will also continue our research and design apace, and be ready for some thoughtful planting next year.

In other news it has been fun making contact with other no-chem producers and retailers in southern MD, an activity which for me basically all took place several days ago when I went on a field trip to the hippie-food-retailers in the area. It was great to meet all the people who will no doubt all get mentions on this page in the future, and I'm grateful to Frank and Christine for the information they've already given me: a whole community, chugging along.