Land Stewards: Gerald Wisner passes the torch. - October 2017
Wow, where to begin, breaking new ground on the new farm has been challenging, exciting and totally overwhelming for the 2 of us.
For a slew of reasons, which if explained here, would render this blog post a novel.... Last fall we decided to purchase a farm in Weed. It came with a lot of perks and alot of works. The works have slowed us down on getting to the Farmers Markets this year, but soon we'll probably have too many squash and cucumbers. This is a year of soil building, land preparation and acclimating ourselves to the region. Below is a pictorial of our adventure so far.
Echinacea transplanted from WV in October '17
Echinacea transplants in June'18
Prime bus parking. Unfortunately this spring we had to dig the bus out of the mud when the axle's were threatening to hit the ground because it had sunk in so deep. The bus is now moved up top by the house.
Garlic Planting Prep October '17. Stripped the grass off with a stirrup hoe..
Hoed out a path down the middle, on contour. Then placed the cloves of garlic right on top of the ground and covered them with a very thick layer of straw and leaves.
We "composted" all of our winter kitchen scraps on the garlic bed and occassionally added a little more straw or leaves.
We have more Garlic Scapes than we can eat. June '18
Our new farm came completely furnished, including the shop. This is what the shop looked like BEFORE we moved our 2 10x10 storage units to the farm. Afterwards you would not see a big open space. Simply walking through was very difficult. Much of the winter months were spent selling, dumping and auctioning things that were here and not needed.
We brought 2 Elderberry trees with us from WV, planted 1 on each side of the pond shortly after arriving. They both are doing well and this summer we discovered a large patch of Elderberry trees along the driveway. Apparently they had been getting mowed down regularly.
Meet Stan, Francine and Peter. The WAF Fleet. Our new farm came with a nicer van than the one we had and a truck that is good enough to haul stuff around the farm. Peter is currently being used as a water buffalo moving water from the catchment at the shop out to the field.
The pond froze over for a while last winter and I believe that contributed to the algae bloom problem that we're just now getting under control. Managing a fully stocked pond has a learning curve. Freaked out by the persistent algae in my swimming/fishing hole; I put in too much beneficial bacteria creating a small fish kill because the dyeing algae sucks the oxygen out of the water.
Installation of a Pond Aeration Kit.
The 2 diffusers have helped a lot but the length of hose it came with is totally inadequate. 20 more feet has been ordered to get the diffusers out to the deep part of the pond.
There were a lot of Mimosa trees growing out of the foundation of the house they've been cut and slathered with used veggie oil to smother the roots. (it worked)
Beginning the rain catchment system on the shop. Installing gutters and the 1 IBC tote we were able to bring with us from WV.
South side gutters and 2 starter tanks. I was able to find IBC totes for $10 from the local mulch dye plant. Unfortunately I only got 6 before the source dried up. I need at least 4 more.
In WV we had built a 20x40 rebar and PVC Greenhouse because we had anticipated the possibility of wanting to move somewhere else and wanted to be able to take our greenhouse with us. This is my 1st attempt at assembling the pieces here in Weed.
This 1st version of the greenhouse lasted until it was hit with a late heavy snow fall and collapsed.
PVC greenhouse 2nd attempt. After installing more support poles and configuring the horizontal beams differently... this version collapsed in about a week after a flash flood.
Greenhouse 3.0 + shadecloth - I took a long hard look at the design and added even more support and rope rigged the roof and buried the plastic into the mini swale on the hillside. ... This is currently still standing, but it threatens to collapse with each rain or wind storm. We've not planted anything in it for fear of collapse. The plastic will be coming off soon and by fall we will install a proper greenhouse somewhere on the property.
June 21st is the 1st day of summer annnnd National Hike Naked Day; the opening day for the1st full farm loop trail from the house to the pond. The trail meanders through woods and fields for a couple miles each direction, it's lined with interesting tree and rock creatures.
Based on The Chickshaw design we turned an unnecessary lawn mower trailer into a mobile chicken coop with the help of some friends from The Garden.
The back end doors aren't yet connected. 6 nesting boxes, water and food are accessed from the outside. poop falls through to wherever it's parked.
The green door opens to be a chicken ramp. .... no, we still don't have chickens, too busy planting and setting up infrastructure.
Dyeing Hickory Tree Cut from Beside the House by some friends from The Garden.
Our arsenal of rain water tanks. Still need at least 2 more to complete the set.. That's a peach tree. It made 1 peach this year... but it didn't mature.
The dead looking strip is our Perimeter Fence: Onion, Milk Thistle, Wild Dagga and Cleom In WV we had good luck with remote plantings vs critters by surrounding the food with things deer don't like.
Transplant and Bulb Drill. This cordless drill attachment drills a cup into the dirt; saves time and works great for transplants and bulbs... not so much for seeds.
Freshly Removed Black Plastic Planting Area. After a month or so under the plastic the weeds are dead and the ground becomes much softer. The green stuff poking up was under holey tin instead of black plastic..
Sections defined, holes drilled, seeded and strawed.
The same bed in June. From left to right: Cucumber, Butternut, Zucchini, Patty Pan, Crook Necks and a variety of grape tomatoes. Lungo Bianca's were seeded into the tomato area but they didn't come up. This planting area is sandwiched between 2 large Walnut trees. Squash and cucumbers don't mind but the tomatoes are not supposed to grow well with Walnut. It's an experiment, we've got more planted elsewhere. In the back is a row of corn that's suppose to get 16 feet tall.
Black plastic crop space cover. This No Till growing technique kills the grass and weeds, turning them into mulch in a 3-4 weeks. We had to weigh the plastic down with anything and everything we could find, it blew away a couple times before we found enough stuff.
Freshly Removed Plastic. Seeded for ground cover and soil admending with Diakon Radish, Cow Peas and Nasturtium. After spreading straw, we sectioned it off, drilled holes and seeded it with a variety of beans, herbs, melons and peppers with some help from friends from The Garden.
Left hand section drilled and seeded. Freshly removed plastic on right scattered seeded with Diakon Radish, Cow Pea and Sorghum.
Straw on the sorghum. Each section is 20ft by 100ft. 4 more sections in the back still have plastic on.
The same bed in June. Diakon radish everywhere, croppy crops on the left and sorghum on the right. We had very poor germination on all of our crops. The seed we'd saved from WV had a hard life before it got in the ground.
The edger attachment for our 80volt electric weed eater is used to make seeding trenches for Popcorn in a freshly uncovered space.
PopCorn planting rows made with the edger attachment. Our heirlom Popcorn is planted next to the sorghum to soak up the sweetness.
BIG Tomato Planting Prep. Mortgage Lifter and Beef Steak Tomatoes live here now.
Future Sorghum and Beans Space. With 4 20x100 foot sheets of 6ml black plastic we have been able to leap frog our No Till technique down the field. Once the sorghum get a foot or 2 tall we plant 1/2 runner beans next to them creating free fertilizer and giving us 2 crops in 1 space.
Our homemade A Frame Level for laying out Swales for our Food Forest areas.
Future home of berries and perennials. Markers placed with the A Frame Level for digging Contour Swales. This technique captures surface water and distributes it evenly across the landscape holding it on your property for as long as possible.
Future Food Forest: Markers placed with the A Frame Level for digging Contour Swales. Contour Swales (or ditches) are created across the landscape and in this area fruit and nut trees will be planted on the lower side of the Swale (ditch).
Next to our squash and cucumber bed is a Sassyfrass, Black Raspberry and Blueberry incubation patch. We have a ton of Sassyfrass here and this year is the 1st year this blueberry plant has produced... according to Gerald. They're really good. better'n Walmart. ;~)
Early stage of the art planting Garden of the Sun.
June '18 Garden of the Sun. this is host to plants that love to grow with Walnut and that birds love to eat. The Sunflowers will stand through winter and we will be placing a slew of bird houses in the tree. The layout is a working sundial.
40 x100ft of fresh no til mulch dirt - June 20th
After scattering the fresh patch of dirt with Diakon Radish, Cleom, Wild Dagga, Cow Pea and Mugwort. I used the spreader to distribute a healthy dose of Sorghum seed harvested from our patch in WV and covered the whole thing with a layer of straw.
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