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.