3013 Seed Starts and plant order

     Seed Starting dates for 2013

3/12  Orange Bell Pepper - SSE

         Margaret's Pepper   -WVF

3/24  Petunia  -WVF

         Celosia

3/25  Amish Cockscomb

         Painted Tongue

         Jalapeno Pepper- SSE

         Petunia, old fashioned viking

4/1  Tomato, Wisconsin 55- SSE

       Tomato, Amish Paste - SSE

       Tomato, Gardener's Delight- WVF

       Lupine, bluebonnet- WVF

4/13 Siberian Pea Shrub

        Goji Berry

        Blueberry- BG

4/14  Basil, Sweet Genovese

         Basil, Lemon

         Basil, Holy

         Cilantro

         Parsley, Darki

     Also, we got our order of plants from Jung yesterday, it included;

Astilbe (1 each of 10 different varieties)

6 Cinnamon fern

1 Lingonberry

6 Wintergreen, Creeping

3 Wolf berry (Goji)

2 Blueberry, Northland

1 Blueberry, Pink Lemonade

1 Currant, Ben Sarek Black

1 Currant, Pink Champagne

1 Currant, Rovada Red

Not sure where all of this is going yet, but we will be working on that and planting some more cool weather seeds outside this weekend.  We have planted Peas, Lettuce, and Kale so far.

Making Seed Balls

Masanobu Fukuoka - "The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."

     This is my first attempt at making seed balls as inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka.  The theory is that by encapsulating the seeds in a mixture of clay and compost they are protected until conditions are right for germination.  This allows seed to be sewn on top of the ground without the need for tilling and was a critical part of the way Fukuoka grew barley and rice out of the same field without plowing, fertilizing, or pest control.  In his small farm he produced extremely high quality food without any of the machinery or chemical inputs that were standard for his time. My plan is to use them to seed our forest garden after the chickens have destroyed the lawn.

    Digging a post hole last fall produced some good clay which I dried in a bucket in the garage.  Pulverizing it to a powder proved to be fairly challenging.  At first I tried using a hammer and a piece of flat rock inside a plastic tub to catch the dust, but this was a very slow process.  I had much better results by rubbing the flat rock across a 1x4 piece of wood and crushing the clay pieces in between them.  If I am going to do this more than I couple of times I think it will be a good idea to make a large wooden mortar and pestle out of logs like I have seen Fukuoka's people using.  Using a small piece of window screen I sifted the powder into a jar.

     I never got around to sifting and drying some compost for this project, so I substituted some seed starting mix instead.  For the fist batch I started with just white clover seed in a smooth bucket.  holding the bucket at an angle, I lightly misted the seeds with water then sprinkled some powdered clay and a little of the seed starting mix, then turned the bucket to mix.  Repeating this process until balls started forming.  The mix tended to stick to the sides of the bucket and needed to be scraped off frequently.  A rubber scraper is a handy too to have for this.  The balls that resulted from this process were rather uneven and rough, and a lot of seed remained free.

     I did not manage to get all the seeds on my original list.  Time being a factor I ended up going through my seed box and making a mix out of what I had available.  I have to admit it did seem a little crazy to be dumping dozens of packets of seed together in a bucket so hopefully we get something good out of all this.

Here is the final mix

(In no particular order)     

White Clover

Petunia

Parsley

Rhubarb

Fennel

Chard (Fordhook & Gold Glebe)

Daikon Radish

Yarrow

Chicory

Kale (Pentland Brig)

Nasturtium (Mixed Dwarf)

Chamomile (German)

Hairy Vetch

Lupine

Apple

Pear

Jung annual flower mix 

Wild flower mix (wedding favor)

Blueberry

Arugula

Bachelor's Buttons

Pea (melting sugar)

Columbine (Deep blue alpina)

Spinach

Black Locust

Safflower

Marigold (Harlequin)

Millet

Oats

Carrot (Dragon)

Spring Greens mix (sand hill)

Delicata Squash (just 2 seeds)

Lettuce (various)

Beans (various)

Shasta Daisy

Zinnia

     Using the same technique as my first try, I coated the entire mix with clay and seed starting mix.  I ended up running out of clay and spreading the mix out to dry on some brown paper bags overnight.  The next day I crushed another jar of clay and re-coated the mix.  Still not satisfied, I began to roll small balls out of the mix between my hands.  This seemed to push the seeds in and leave a nice coating of clay all around.  I squished the round ball flat so it wouldn't roll then worked it like putty to close up the cracks that formed when I flattened it.  I then rolled it in some dry powdered clay to coat the outside and keep it form sticking.  I did this for the entire mix, frequently needing to re-wet it or add some more clay to bind the loose seeds.   Eventually I got better at getting the right moisture level to avoid cracking, and got quicker at making them. 

      About 1/2 of the balls formed deep cracks when drying and many of them broke apart when I put them in paper bags for storage.  This might be a good thing, as I made them somewhat large and each one could contain dozens of different seeds, so some smaller chunks are nice.  Many of the large seeds especially beans and peas broke free of their coating.  Many of the seed balls, though, were more solid and stayed intact.  So I think there will be a diverse range of protection on the seed offering a staggered germination rate and greater chances for success.  We will see.  It won't be long before the chickens have wrecked the lawn on their first paddock and it will be time to sew.  Then we are taking Fukuoka's advice to throw the seed balls with a child like mind and let nature guide us on the details. 

First Spring Blooms!

  The crocus blooms provide some of the first nectar of the season out here, nourishing pollinators and other important beneficial insects.  These hardy bulbs can even survive in a lawn, as they bloom early before the grass needs mowing then die back to bulbs for the rest of the year.

Chicken update 4/4/13 Fencing

     We got our fencing yesterday and it's keeping the chickens contained even though we have not electrified it yet.  I obviously overestimated the chickens reasoning capacity in thinking they would try to break free to get to their favorite foraging spots.  They really just deal with what is in front of them right now.  I had to laugh as I saw one of the ameraucana pullets try to figure it out.  She stared at the fence for a bit then started following the perimeter.  After about 10 steps she got distracted by something in the grass.  About a step away from the fence, she froze as if she just realized she was supposed to be doing something important, but couldn't remember what it was.  Bird brain.  They still make me laugh every day, and the  daily chores don't seem like chores at all.

This will be their setup until it is warm enough to uncover the hoop coop and put the wheels back on.  I put our picnic tables and some pallets in for overhead cover.  It's good to get some control over the situation.  Now I can plant some peas and lettuce!

Food forest update 3/29/13

A Rhode Island Red Pullet.

One of our Ameraucana Cockerels.

    Life with chickens is good, but my plans have not survived the experience.  The past 6 months of hands on chicken care have really changed my thinking and I am now leaning toward a fixed coop for our setup instead of a mobile one.  I guess I feel that the dream of zero poop shoveling is not worth the stress on the birds and the security difficulties of constantly moving a mobile coop in a small paddock shift system.  I also can't see using so much good growing space to have enough paths and parking spaces for the mobile coop to work.

The chickens are digging up our bulbs!

     We  really need to get the flock under control.  As the ground thaws they are starting to dig up the flower beds and eat every bit of green they can find, even though we currently only allow them a few hours to free range most days.  If I want any hope of spring greens and peas this year we need to figure it out soon.  I am a little worried about how that is going to work now that they have had the run of the place.  Hopefully just moving the coop and fencing it off will do the trick.

      The layout for the food forest has undergone several revisions.  My head is swimming trying to reconcile the needs of the birds with the needs of the plants with the layout of the fencing and the spacing of the trees and the movement of the water and the angle of the sun and the so on and so forth...   So the "master plan" approach has been scrapped and I am going back to the basics.  Make small changes to the landscape and observe the results.  Starting with water conservation. 

     I still feel it is important for us to have a layout that works with the fencing, but since I haven't figured out what that is, our approach for this Spring is going to be to get the mobile electric netting system and muddle through the best we can.  We have been saving up this Winter and plan to purchase our electric netting from Premier this week along with a 12v battery energizer.

The above map is one I made after observing the water flows across our land this Spring.  I realized that a huge amount of water is coming down the driveway and veering around the barn and down the steep hill north of our property.  The runoff is starting to form a gully among the box elder trees there.

     What I envision is adding gutters to the garage and barn.  The North Side gutters will be directed East, where I plan to build a small swale type structure to keep the water on top of the hill and divert it back into our yard.  I know a swale is not the correct term for an off contour structure like this but the proper name escapes me at the moment.  I guess it's time to re-watch some Geoff Lawton videos. 

The small "swale" would get directed to a larger wood filled swale and then to a pond in the center of the yard.  The South gutters I would like to send to a large tank for use in irrigation and livestock.

      There is a high spot just beyond the pear tree that I am thinking will be the best place for the permanent coop.  This Spring we will park our hoop coop there and setup temporary fencing to see how it all works out.  I am really glad we chose a relatively inexpensive and mobile design to get started.

     As far as the seed ball plan goes I have gotten as far as pulverizing and sifting a jar of clay and acquiring most of the seeds I plan to use.  As usual I have more ambition than time and energy, but hey, at least it keeps me moving.

That's it for now.  As always your questions and comments are most welcome.