Update from March 31

Big day of planting.

Put in 10 lbs of Irish Cobbler potato and 10 lbs of Kennebec. The method in which I am planting potatoes is to make a 1.5 ft diameter mound and place 1 good eye or 2 to 3 weak eyes in the mound. The mounds are then staggered so the rows can overlap and the area is intensively used. The area in between the mounds will also be planted probably with onions and possibly with some flowers.

I am trying different methods of planting the potatoes in the freshly tilled ground. I was kind of blown away when I saw the first batch I put in and the degree to which the grass clumps have reestablished themselves. I can see that the first section is going to be a weeding nightmare. My long term plan for that 20 ft section is to wait until the potato plant is about 6 inches tall and then I will put down about 4 inches of composted wood chips but I had already interplanted onion plants between the mounds so that might be difficult.

I tilled the rest of the 100 ft section for a second time to break up the reestablished grass. I then used a pitch fork to break up the compacted sub-soil the tiller did not reach. The second two sections I mounded the potatoes across the entire 6 ft strip in a staggered fashion. One of those sections has been mulched to a depth of 4 inches with composted wood chips and the last section is bare.

In between these sections of potatoes, I used a hard rake to pull the grass clumps to north side of the plot making a raised row 10 ft long and 1 ft tall. My hope is that the grass will dry out in the row and die. Later on I will try to plant a root crop in those elevated rows. The groomed sections were then lined out with onion plants and sown with Georgia collard seed. I have never grown collards before and do not know if it will work from seed in the plot.

Realizing that the potatoes and onions took up the majority of 6x100 ft food plot, tilled an additional 1,200 sq feet 15 and 24 feet north of the original plot. These plots will be for sweet/feed corn, tomatoes, melons, squash and peppers.

It has been dry and breezy since Wednesday. Hopefully we will get a nice sustained rain to get things rolling.

Soil Prep and Early Crops

Northwest green manure plots: A, B, C, D (100ft x 6ft) E, F (200ft x 6ft)

This past weekend Patrick and I built a 6x3 drag out of 2x4 boards and 3 inch nails with edging to keep three concrete blocks on top. The purpose of this drag is to scratch the surface of the ground for mineralizer and seed without disrupting the biology of the soil. Plots A, B and D were dragged, mineralized and dragged. It rained the following day.

Central veggie plots: 1, 2 (6ft x 100ft)

Using a tractor mounted tiller, I tilled plots 1 and 2. The machine did a great job tearing up the sod and soil to a depth of 5 inches. On further inspection the rotating tines also seemed to compact the soil just below the tilled soil. In response to this I have been using a digging fork on the tilled area before planting anything. The tiller also left large clumps of sod which will become a massive pain for weeding as the growing season progresses. This is the same issue I had to deal with in my new beds at home last year but on a larger scale. I know these plots will be a pain in the butt this year but will improve as the weeds are gradually removed and repeatedly cultivated. It is also encouraging to see the quality of soil in these plots and the worms present.

Yesterday I planted 7 lbs of Kennebec potatoes and 25 onion plants in a staggered pattern in plot 1. These potatoes were hilled taking up and area 20 ft long and half the width of the plot.

On Saturday, I hand broadcasted and dragged a pound of buckwheat into plot 2. It was beginning to sprout yesterday, 4 days after sowing. The reason for buckwheat is to choke out the grass and weeds that will try to regrow in the tilled plot. Hopefully this plot will produce a bounty of biomass, break up the soil with its roots and take care of the weed problem for the following year when it will be used as a garden plot.

Coming up in the next week:

Hilling 10 lbs of Irish Cobbler
Hilling 10 lbs of Yukon Gold
Planting 50 onion plants
Planting an assortment of native seedlings on an unprotected waterway, maybe 50?

87 Acre Manifesto

87 acres.
Sod farmed for a decade.
Limited funds.
Unfettered mind.
Soil rehabilitation.
Food production.
No meat animals.
No chemicals.
Here we go.