Just another Day on the Farm

Hugelculture-Making “hill” beds for garden use!

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

This was by far the best seminar at the event, it was hosted by one of Greenshire’s members for those of my readers that can watch video, here is a link to one that they have done that you might like, warning its long. They also have some small sqaure bale planting and also a short video on their own in work in progress food forest garden, one of the best things about them is that they are in ontario and gardening in the same zone as me!

This gentleman is a huge Sepp’s fan and is using him as his base for everything, the process is the same as what we used for our own beds

Part 1 -Step by Step with photo of how to make and build a Hugelculture Garden Bed
Part 2 -Learning as we go, I can see why the big boys all do this with a backhoe, ours by hand.
Part 3– How did they produce, the answer is they did Excellent!!.

So given the above between the Video and my own pages on step by step building, I am not going to repeat that but I will get into his Advice and Failure notes.

On the things that can lead is issues are

Side can erode rapidly- they do better with the proper 45% effect and you can load the sides with rocks and or plant them out to help create stabilty.
Not enough soil on the top
Your subsoil ends up on top of the organic layer-very hard on the plants, try and keep them apart when you are digging and on the placement of them back.
Sinkholes in beds, this is mostly looks, but just rebuild the spot, following the same method but on a very small scale.
Moles and voles- Not very common in our area, -get farm cats, allow them to do their thing, live trap if required.

Advice

Always GET more wood then you think you will need, stack it as close as possable to the site, it will sink as much as 1/3 to 1/5th in height within the first year
Build it as tall as you can, they made their seven feet tall, with a walkway on the top, so that by standing on the mound, they will be able to top pick their fruit trees.
Build it steep!, and if you do it to wide without the correct buildup, it can collapse in the middle and will have to rebuilt.
When planning, the outside edges at the bottom will endup 1 to 3 feet wider then the top.

I will be keeping an eye on this eco-farm and also on their different seminars, I am certainly not willing to spend a huge amount of money taking a course on their farm as I can build and learn on my own 🙂 but I have to admit that I would consider a longer course with him for a reasonable price indeed!

Posted in gardens | Tagged Garden, Hugelbeet, hugelculture | 2 Comments

Food Forests or Producing Hedgerows-Farmgal Style.

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

so while I will share the offical seven layers of the basic idea of a “Food Forest“. I am also going to take this back to Farmgal first hand experance because it turns out that what I have been making for the past eight years as a “Food Producing Mixed Hedgerow” that surrounds the whole front yard is in fact with very little tweeking a working food forest.

So I have mixed it up just a touch from the things listed above and I will explain why, so my own personal being created and added and growing personal food forest (don’t you just love to find out that there are “names” given to things you are already doing) is based on creating mixed producing hedgerows.. I am going to make the worst hand drawing possable but it will still show you what I have been working on, and later this year, I will do a follow up to show different parts of the yard itself.

So the front yard is around 3/4 of a acre, and it came with two big spruce, one huge overgrown crab, two massive willow tree’s and one popular tree..and the rest was in natural grass and cut short, it has a natural slope down to a area that drains and can and does stay fairly wet more of the year (which we are slowly turning into a cranberry producing bog)

So this is the basic’s of what we have now.. I know, I know, I can’t draw worth a darn but it gets the general idea, which is that we have a two row system around 2 full sides, the front and the field side, we have filled in both top’s of the area with fruit and a few nut tree’s, we have planted another spruce in between the two big ones and then added in a number of small tree’s and bushes, we have dug out in the wet area and put whole peatmoss bales in and allowed them to soak and then worked to create and grow a natural cranberry bog in that area.

Now we are limited on the heights on the edges, on the front we are limited because it has the power line, so all the bigger fruit or flowering tree’s have been carefully picked that they fit under the line even full grown, and on the field side, we have stayed mostly to bushes (the biggest will get 15 or so feet high) as we are in farm country and there are rules and regs about placing bigger tree’s that close to the farm fields with the roots moving into Farmer R’s fields, so the semi and dwarf fruit tree’s are placed in the yard raither then in the food producing hedgerows.

The hedgerows high fruit tree’s are mainly Elderberries, High Bush Cranberries, Pincherries, Saskatoon, the blooming higher bushes are hedge Lilac, the smaller bushes are a mix of currents, black chokeberry, Gooseberries, honey berries, Currents, Josta Berries, Blue Berries Black Berries, Black Rasberry, Red Rasberry, and Yellow Rasberry, Wild Rose Bushes, they are under planted with a mix of garlic, herbs, healing or eating flowers, mints, strawberries, Lily’s, we are working to grow a sunchoke patch.

The only thing we are really lacking is the climbing vines and the root veggies, I am not certain that its really effecting the overall ability of the system but I can certainly add them in this season and see if it improves or has an effect.

Now I would love to tell you that I was working to create a 3/4 acre of food forests but that would be a fib, I can honestly tell you that I was determined from the start to make that area a “wild” food producing area, that everything that has been bought, or found and transplanted or split and put out into that area has always had a eye on can it be eaten, can it be used herbally, can it be used, if it can’t or does not produces something I consider as a “working” plant, it didn’t get put there by me.

I’m not saying that there is not some pretty flowers in there but they are all natural and they showed up on their own 🙂 So do you have a area that folks think is “wild” but in truth is loaded! with food producing tree’s, bushes, plants and groundcover?

Posted in gardens | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Frugal, Garden, Health, Soft Fruits, Wild Foods | 3 Comments

Basic Idea’s of Hugelculture Gardening Style

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

So I am going to get my “low of this part of the seminar out first” and then get on to the good stuff, I didn’t like how one presenter made this type of system a “lifestyle” and I do mean it just that way, he gives examples in the same way someone would if they were taking about the church, and I didn’t go to a garden seminar to have folks talk to me about using a garden idea in my business and or personal life as a moral compass.

Now for the good stuff! I love this quote.. ” The health of your soil is tied directly to the health of your own family or farm” At that point he talked about if you had children, and recommended ” Allow them to have some small business on the farm/land as soon as possible to allow them to connect directly to the land, otherwise, they will pull away as its their parents thing” examples for even very young children, grow flowers, sunflowers, worms, etc.

Gave ten basic things to keep in mind.. I will just work down the list with you..

1) Always Observe and learn from Nature examples, before you go to plant, look at what is there and see how it has figured out the sun, the winds patterns and how the water lays or where frost will dip down etc.

2) Start Small and Slow- Work a four by four space at a time, it’s about the amount of space that the average person can get done in a single working time and go from there, ideally you are working to create layers and spacing that with time require less work with time, rather then creating garden spaces that require the same amount of work year after year.

3) Multiple Fuctions-Always look at Stacking your functions Each time you look to add an element to the system it should ideally serve multiple purposes and give ideally multiple yields in different parts of the process. An excellent example that was given is chickens, they provide eggs, meat, feathers and compost, but they also can be used as living tillers and also as a bug control method, they are a good first choice as a living example of something that works well as a stacking example

4) Redundancy-Everything you need to have happen in the system should have a redundancy built-in, Every vital function is take care of by multiple parts. The example given was planting the same plants in different parts of the garden and or having a couple different gardens around your property so that if one fails in one area, you have redundancy in other area’s.

5) beneficial Relationships, Stability and resilience come from having many different but useful connections between the different parts

6) Biological and renewable resources, and the interesting one about this one was that if focused not on the garden so much as on being aware and using people for their knowledge and skills as a renewable resource.

7)Cycling Resources and energy Basic Closed loop systems, kitchen waste goes to the chickens, makes eggs and compost, the compost is in turn goes into the garden and round and round it goes!

8)diversity and edges Edges are those marginal places where two systems meet and mix, they are the most productive, walk you land and learn your edges.

9) Evolution and succession-Work with time and the evolution of creating mature self-reliant systems.

10) Be Creative -The problem is the solution, The yield of the system is limited to only the creativity of the designer, and remember “Your attitude affects the overall Design” The example given was- You don’t have a snail issue, you have a duck deficiency.

Posted in gardens | Tagged Frugal, Garden | 7 Comments

We all said it..it was bound to happen! Thankfully my tree’s are not in bloom!

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Woke up to a winter wonderland at the end of april! The photo on the right was taken this morning..that is my rhubarb under that blanket of snow! How hard did you get hit if you got snow this morning?

Posted in gardens | Tagged Garden | 12 Comments

Cheese and Onion Pie Recipe

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Miss L and I made 15 of these lovely’s for the coming SCA lunch menu in May and we had some leftover pie dough which we shared, so I got home and made one for our supper, so this was a butter pie dough crust, two large onions peeled and sliced and then pop out the rings, 1 cup of grated cheese, some salt and pepper, 2 beated eggs, and because I had it and wanted a heavier supper meal, I added maybe 1/2 of cubed baked ham to it, but its not required.. Bake until golden, its good hot and its good cold, served it with a side bed of spring greens and it was just perfect!!

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Food Production and Recipes | 14 Comments

Food Storage Friday- Garden Monday- This and That Post!

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Wow, its been a crazy busy week, filled to the brim with great things but by the time I get done, I am crashing into bed and sleeping the dead LOL

While this is offically a Food Storage Friday, its also a Garden Monday and this and this post! Expect anything and everything on this one!

So first up, how is your spring calander looking, mine is full, there is something on it I swear every single day and on the weekends, I have few days coming that are double or even triple booked, I am not sure how it happened.. O ya.. about six weeks ago (before gardening really started) I said to my hubby, i need more things to do off the farm this year! and started looking!

Well, let just say I jumped both feet in! I broke down and joined the local (well its a bit of a drive but its only a few blocks from my regular feed store) Gym, mainly so that I could start swimming again and taking aqua fit classes, once I get to the point I am happy twice a week water workouts, I hope to add in a once a week weight lifting class for an hour. So let me tell you, I hurt! I’m not kidding, the day after at times, I feel like I have been beat up to a point, once I stretch and get going, I’m good but if I sit, I stiffen up and o-yva! LOL

It will get better, and I feel so good doing it, but the old body says.. whoa the next day, which means it’s doing its job!

So this past weekend, I have a little meeting set up for some fellow ladies that have the same interests as me in regards to gardenings and looking after your own, I was sad not to get to meet one of the ladies, and hope that at some point in the future to do so, I think from that I have read about her, that is would be a great person to get to know, however we did have one lady (waving hello ) show up for lunch and little plant giving, it was a great visit and I know that I was a bit amazed at just how much we had in common in a number of ways.. I know that we both would like to get together again at some point later in the year when the gardens etc are done, I think I will see if we can’t have a mid summer meet as well as a fall one. If you love gardening, camping, farming and believe that we should stand on our own two feet and your in the ottawa area, write me a message and I will put you on the list to be let know about the get togethers 🙂

Then comes one of my old hounds, she had a hard week and so we have been providing extra care in that regards, but I can see a slow steady recovery at this time, it won’t happen overnight but each day, she is a bit more herself and I have to admit that I have cried more times this week then I want to admit, so I can’t honestly express properly just how happy I was that she felt well enough to join in the barking of the pack yesterday, both DH and I laughed that it would be something to be happy about, but for a couple days there, no barking and just barely tail wagging was just heart breaking.. so to see the tail up and going, and the woofs was uplifting!

Got out to a fellow SCA house and we made and froze 15 cheese and onion pies for a coming event in May, and had a good visit at the same time, I can see that I will very much enjoy getting to know her better and that we work well together in the kitchen, always a good thing when you are planning a meal for a hundred together 🙂

This weekend I have been able to find out about a Hugelculture event, (Thanks again Wilderness for the info) and while I will only be able to attend the morning events as I already had plans for that evening, I am very much looking forward to the list of seminars being offered, and will for sure do a overview of them on the blog. I think? that Dh might be willing to come with me, which would be a good thing indeed as there are two seminars in each morning time slot for a total of six, and If I go alone, I will only be able to take three of them but if DH comes, we can split up and take in all six and then take notes and share.. Ya Teamwork..

So many things are being planted in the garden at this time, its a daily thing, but everythign planted in the manure hot bed in the horse trough are up and going strong, I will take a photo next week for you 🙂 The rhubarb is up and the biggest are at least six inches long, the mints are going like crazy and the wild voilets are up a good three inches or so, the daylily’s are eight or nine inches high and the baby elderberries are popping up like wildfire 🙂

We got a good soaking rain last night and boy did we need it, it will go along way to help the pastures, the garden and to filling up my waiting rain barrels, we did get a single hard frost this week, it was not a bad timing to be honest, it didn’t do any damage and it hopefully told everything to “slow down”

In regard to food storage itself, I butchered out five roosters this past week, and lost one duck to a being egg bound, sad that one, but it does happen now and again.. My big thing in regards to the food storage is doing inventory! I really, really need to go though everything and figure out what we have left, while it was hinted at that we could just count empty jars and get a overview that way :).. I want and need to go the other way and count and put down what I have left in each thing, it will really help me figure out just how much to put up this year in the big pantry.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and see you all on monday!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Chickens, Chores, compost, Farm Life, freezer camp, Frugal, Garden, Health, Hobbies, Weight Loss | 2 Comments

Building a stone boat for Girl..

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I have not given up on the idea of a proper cart for girl, I am putting away the funds for her proper gear and wow, I don’t think I ever really understood the money involved with in regards to tack, it was just always there in the barns when I needed it as a child and as a teen and even into my 20’s when I went to work with horses.

My poor DH is having fits at the costs of outfitting my darling draft cow, but we have reached the point where it “just needs to be done” I can’t move forward in her training or to be honest, move forward in using her, the training is there, its time to get off the pot and get it done!

Thankfully I already have my single draft garden plowing tool, I am really enjoying the trail’s and packing with Girl but as nice as it is, its not very productive at this point.. and I am giving up what could be productive time on the farm to take the cow for walks, good in some ways, she got to meet stranger folks and dogs and horses this weekend and I just love her manners, sometimes she surprises me, as she tends to have better manners with vistors at times then she does with me at times, granted to be honest, she only pushs it when out of gear, never in gear.. and she always meets folks while in gear..

I was asked this weekend if I was going to take her to the local fair this summer, I will have to think about it.. I don’t know if I want to do that or not.. it might be very good training for her but I will have to figure out a number of things.. I think next year is more likely..

So as a proper stone boat can be built in a day, its on the hit list for this spring, updates will follow!

Girl in her Fancy New Black with Bling Black Leather Halter, I love it, so much easier to put on then her old one, this one is simple snap on and off and while I know you can’t see if easily in this photo, it has a moving side to side action on the bottom ring, which is great, as long as it’s self hanging and the rope is loose, then I can “see” that I am not guiding her with the rope even when she is on it when using commands.

Posted in oxen | Tagged Family Milk Cow, Oxen | 3 Comments

Digging for my lunch! I’m having Burdock and Dandelion root with a dessert of nettle…

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I had Girl tied out for grazing in the main yard and she was within reach of a old compost pile that grows stinging nettle, dandelion and Burdock root for me as a kind of spring wild kitchen garden and I didn’t think anything of it, until she went wild at it..

She dug it, pushed it, and even used her shoulders to break it apart and dig out those yummy! roots, I had tossed the roots when I would dig them out of the garden over the fence to her all last year as she was growing up and I guess she could smell them in the pile.. I can totally see now why I read that they would dig up turnips and beets if you planted them in as a alternative feed.

She sure is not a wallflower 🙂

Posted in Critters | Tagged Family Milk Cow, Farm Life, Garden, Oxen | 4 Comments

Small Wound Care

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Its bound to happen between having a older barn, barb wire fencing, and just general life, the barn critters will get some cuts and scrapes, now I know that some folks just feel that they will heal on their own, and in most case’s that is true..

However the time of the year, the overall condition of the animal has a fair amount of effect on that, example, in fly season, you need to worry more about fly strike (maggots in wounds), or if a mother is nursing twins, and has dropped condition a bit because of the amount of milk she is producing, or if they are young, they are clearly going to not heal as fast as a adult with no stress’s is.

Now I am still not sure how Marty got this scrape, its oddly placed on his back, with no way for him to keep it clean, it does not look like a barbwire poke, nor could it be a bite from girl (which would be odd anyway, she tends to keep him in line with a push) and yet the height is all wrong for anything in their loose box stalls, so the best I have come up with, is that he did it on a tree in the pasture.. Boys will be Boys after all!

Now I have trimmed out the hair to allow open air flow around the scrapes, they were already starting to heal a bit with no real sign’s of a issue but as often is the case, looks do not tell the whole story, so I wanted to make sure I did a little care on them, I carefully soaked warm cloths on it till it soften, so that I could take the half healed scab’s off to make sure I could clean under them, and while one is smaller, the deeper bigger one on the right did in fact have green puss in it.

I flushed it with hydrogen peroxide and the truth came out on if it was infected or not.. and it took two more flushes before it stopped bubbling white.

then time to give it a dab of healing salve, which I will touch up twice a day at feeding time, and it should be healed up in a matter of days.. Now I’m not saying that his body would not have healed it, but why not give a helping hand and put our knowledge of germs to use.