End of a hard day

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The frost is on the pumpkin

Well...we don't have any pumpkins, but it did frost last night, just a little. The good news is that it's supposed to be 68 degrees today, at least at sea level in town. We're at 1,700 feet and sometimes it's actually warmer up here because we're above the marine layer. This time of year, though, it's probably several degrees cooler.

We found MORE great compost, at a reasonable price on Craigslist. Here's half, about 5 yards, the rest will arrive next week. Leilani's truck wouldn't make it up the hill with a full load - it's pretty steep.


Turns out Leilani was a good find. She's an expert on gardening in general, greenhouse gardening in particular, and she is a regular speaker at Sunset's Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle and at garden clubs, etc., etc. We may need her advice, as well as more of her compost, later.

Speaking of advice, thanks to regular reader Becki, a renowned expert in agricultural products and methodologies, for telling me where and how and why to get some of that rooting hormone stuff.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Garry Oak Dr,Sequim,United States

Cover cropping

I keep hearing about cover cropping, but I've never done it. Advocates say it:

- Keeps the weeds down
- Prevents erosion
- The leaf litter adds organic matter
- The roots loosen the soil, bring nutrients up, and add organic matter further down in the soil

Hey, we better do some cover cropping - with all those benefits, how can we not?

Turns out, there are dozens of choices of cover crops - some annual, some perennial, some nitrogen-fixing, some cool weather, some warm weather, some better than others at opening up compacted soil. So after much research, and in the end determined largely by what the local co-op was selling, we selected:

White Dutch Clover, a short (6-10 inch tall) perennial clover, for the hedgerow area and other areas where we will want to leave it in place. This may include overseeding on our "lawn" areas and on the soon-to-be formed pathways. When we plant the hedgerow seedlings in the spring, we will just open up a spot in the clover and pop them in.

Gardenway, an annual blend, for the areas where we plan to have smaller plants and/or vegetables. We will plant now, then hack it back and possibly lightly till it in, next spring - before it goes to seed (very important). This blend is 40% ryegrain, 25% Austrian winter pea, 20% triticale, 5% crimson clover, 5% common vetch, and 5% Gulf annual ryegrass.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Nursery

It would be VERY expensive to go to the local retail nursery to buy the 50 plants we will need to get the hedgerow started. Fortunately, we have some options. Both Kitsap Conservation District and Clallam County Conservation sell native plants that we can order in January, pick up in March. Their new plant lists aren't out yet, but last year, for example, you could buy 10 bareroot Snowberry plants (8"-12") for $11.00. Not bad.


Another option is to set up our own nursery, and do our own starts from existing garden plants or from native plants on our property. Okay, let's try it. For his birthday this year, I bought Husband a book called, "Propogation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants." It says things like, "Strip the basal end leaves and treat the cutting with a medium-strength rooting hormone, stick into a perlite:vermiculite (1:1) mixture and set on a misting bench with light mist at 21 degrees Centigrade." So...we took cuttings off some stuff, dug up some other stuff, and stuck them all in pots of dirt. After all, Nature does this stuff on her own without a misting bench. Some of them will probably survive.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Hedgerow

What is a hedgerow, anyway? Hedgerows differ from typical hedges; they include a variety of plants, rather than a single species that is usually pruned into an unnatural shape. Although you might not see them on farms in your area, they have been used by farmers in Europe for 5,000 years (according to a quick Google search). Hedgerows can act as fences and windbreaks, provide wildlife habitat, attract beneficial insects, prevent erosion, reduce noise, help hold water, and provide edibles such as berries or nuts. Wow, we should plant one, right?

We're hoping ours will also be an effective deer deterrant, most likely aided at first by a hot wire.

The area we are preparing for a hedgerow is about 80 feet long and 8 feet wide. For two rows of plants, placed 2-3 feet apart, we will need at least 50 plants. Plus we'll fill in with some smaller herb-type plants to make a third row. That's a lot of plants! What kind? Fortunately, we have all winter to figure that out.

The hedgerow area now has a layer of topsoil on top of the compost. Some people might say that seems backwards. It might be; we make no claim to knowing what we're doing.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:N 5th Ave,Sequim,United States

Sheet composting

What we are doing is called sheet composting, composting in place, or sheet mulching. According to The Book (again, Gaia's Garden) it's easier than regular composting because there is no need to babysit and turn the pile, and then when it's finished, haul it all back to the planting bed. So far, it does not seem particularly easy to me. Many wheelbarrow loads later, we have moved about half our mulch pile onto our future planting beds.

Let's review. In our hugelkultur areas, starting from the ground, we have logs, sticks & branches, leaves & brush, hay, purchased compost. On our planting beds by the house, we have paper & cardboard, lots of hay, manure from the neighbors, purchased compost. We are working on wetting it down (the rain is helping) and crossing our fingers that composting will begin.

Will it work? Well, it will almost certainly work - you couldn't stop the rotting process even if you wanted to. The question is how long it will take. Right now, it pretty much looks like a big mess, though less so now that the manure layer is covered up. Patience! Faith! A watched pile never rots - go south for the winter!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cherry Ave NE,Bainbridge Island,United States

We're committed now, or should be

Prior to today, it was just elbow grease, no moolah. Today, we paid $700 for compost and topsoil, 15 yards of each. We're doin this.

Our guidebook, Gaia's Garden, says to start small, 50 square feet or so, next to the kitchen door. Where's the fun in that? Go Big or Go Home is our motto.












- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

More About Hugelkultur

A month or so ago, we had never heard of hugelkultur. Suddenly it's everywhere. We went to a free hugelkultur workshop last Sunday at a farm near Port Townsend (40 miles away) as part of the Jefferson County Farm Tour. Interestingly, the county is providing some funding to teach people hugelkultur - how to make use of their own yard debris, rather than sending it to a county-run, expensive-to-operate, composting facility.

Photos of us making a keyhole shaped planting bed at the Sunfield Farm Waldorf School:





















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:N 5th Ave,Sequim,United States

The Truth About Manure

The truth is that manure is poop. It may be necessary for making good dirt, but it smells bad and is gooey. It helps that we actually know neighbors Raleigh and DeeDee...at least it's not the poop of strangers.

Raleigh (horse) and DeeDee (damn donkey) gave us six pickup loads of poop mixed with bedding straw. Thanks a bunch!

We tossed all six loads on top of the hay in the front planting bed and in the future hedge row.













- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Topsoil

Sustainable agriculture - I struggle with calling what we will be doing agriculture or even farming, it's just gardening really. So let me start again: to be sustainable, gardening should not require major inputs to be brought in each season. By inputs, I mean fertilizer, mulch, topsoil. herbicides, pesticides, etc. The goal is for the land to be healthy enough to take care of itself.

All over our planet, topsoil is being depleted (used up, washed away, blown away, buried under asphalt) far faster than it is being created. I'll find the horrifying statistics for a future post, but believe me, we need to care about this. You know we depend on topsoil for our food, right? It doesn't work that well for me to buy topsoil from the store, because that topsoil was taken away from somewhere else. Instead, we need to MAKE topsoil, using our own fallen leaves, cow poop, branch trimmings, rotten tomatoes, apple cores, etc. For Hardrock Ranch, that is the goal, but it's not going to happen right away.

So, we got some inputs coming. Boy, did we. 110 bales of hay arrived on site last night, and we have 15 yards of compost and 15 yards of topsoil coming sometime within the next week. We're going to add that to our hugelkultur piles, or just pile it on top of the ground in some areas, and hopefully start to make some really good dirt. Also, we ran into our neighbors this morning, and they said they would just love to give us some "compost" created by their resident horse and donkey. Now we're talking.

Photos below of the hugelkultur area partially covered with hay (still more to do), and an area heading south from the house, where we want to get a deer-resistant hedge started ASAP. Hey, Ruth Stout says 12 inches of hay will kill the grass and the weeds and turn into beautiful dirt by spring. Hey hay.

Hugelkultur

The commune activities began last weekend. I would like to thank Cousin David for giving his blessing to the project (I believe his exact words were, "you must be crazy") and for helping kick it off. The essential problem, in addition to the elevation, short growing season, devastating winds, and north-facing slope, is that there is very little topsoil. This land was clearcut in the 30's and again in the mid-90's, shortly before we bought it in 1997. The result is...there is not much topsoil.

In 1997, this was a stump farm. Today, as a result of forester re-planting (Douglas fir), nature working on her own, and our efforts at planting and thinning, we have LOTS of trees. To create a sunny spot to grow food plants, we selected a spot not too far from the house, which is next to the driveway and hopefully a "sun trap." Then the chain saws came out and we cut down a dozen or so trees, mostly alder and bitter cherry but also a couple fir, a hemlock and a willow.

Now what about the topsoil problem? We are experimenting with a technique called Hugelkultur, in which brush, branches and logs are buried beneath compost and topsoil. That seems to make sense for us because we have a nearly endless supply of brush and logs. In fact, as luck would have it, we have a dozen or so felled trees, right at this spot. If we can get the wood to start rotting fairly quickly, the idea is that the decaying wood holds in moisture and provides a long-lasting, rich soil.

We separated the brush and branches from the logs, put the brush on the bottom, then the logs on top. Whew, it was a lot of work to make this relatively small area; I think we can let the gym membership go. What did we make? In front is a 6x30 raised bed, two or three feet deep, for berries. We feel confident we can grow berries since there are lots of native species on the property doing just fine. Behind the berries we made six widely-spaced raised planting sites for fruit trees by mounding up the wood. We'll begin researching hardy varieties.

We still need to buy compost and topsoil to put on top of the wood and are hoping to find spoiled hay and manure locally for a cheap price. We'll get that done this fall and be ready for planting next spring or fall.

Our thanks to Cousin for suggesting Hugelkultur is withheld pending positive results.

What is Hardrock Ranch?

For a couple years now, I have been talking about starting a commune. By "commune" I do not mean: 1) shared finances, 2) free love, and 3) no toilet paper. What I do mean is: 1) living more cheaply by sharing the lawnmower and rototiller, 2) building a community of similarly-minded friends, 3) having enough land to grow food and enough people to share goat-milking duty, 4) sharing the work, with everyone chipping in their expertise, 5) eating some meals together, 6) living more simply and leaving a lighter footprint on the planet.

Lots of people, certainly not everyone, but lots of people, agree with this in theory and several have told me, "count me in." However, it is difficult to actually make it happen. Twenty good acres for 5 couples seems like it could work. A big vegetable garden, a few fruit trees, some chickens and ducks, a nice communal kitchen/dining room, and five reasonably-sized cottages. So what's the problem? Lots of them; namely, zoning, money, timing, and ALL the details including the fact that we probably don't know four other couples we want to be partners with.

So, here we are, with twenty not-so-good acres which however do have some things going for them. Primarily, we own them. But also, they are not in Death Valley or on Alaska's north slope. Where they ARE, is 1700 feet above sea level on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula (80 miles and a ferry ride northwest of Seattle). Can a mini-commune work here? Let's try it. For now, it will just be me, Husband and Dog. If you want to join us, let me know.