Patrick McGuinness

thanks guys. I'm a little disappointed that i haven't made more progress, but it's all a learning experience/experiment. I appreciate the help along the way.

I'm finishing up a worm bin today, then i'm going to work on a black soldier fly larvae trap later. and over the next couple months try to get more fruit trees in the ground.

but, i have to get started on other projects. fix the roof, have a garage sale, etc.

more reading and dreaming up ideas for next year.

sorry it took me a while to reply.

That does look fairly painless Scott, maybe next year i'll give that a try. digging these rows by hand is a serious pain.
You said that you plant in what was the path last year, what was your reasoning for that? to prevent over feeding in one spot (crop rotation) or something else?

the chicken tractor has been done for a week now. having one that fit in between rows probably would be nice, but this one is done now. I did put a front door in it so if i want to, i can fence off an area and let them out into it.

it measures 7 foot by 7 foot (2.1m by 2.1m). in the one side view, there are spots for 2 five gallon buckets to sit. one for food, one for water. I'm going to redesign the moving handle. that one puts too much downward pressure on the cross bars, but overall it's working pretty well. just need to make their nesting boxes to put in there. but i have until mid august to do that.

Thanks Steve

the cardboard tube is a good idea for future planting. I've seen people use paper towel rolls for seed starting, i didn't think it would have more use after that as well. currently, i don't think it will help since i'm just casting the seed(ie throwing it on the ground), but i could work it in for future plantings.

I do have an air powered pellet rifle that i inherited. i did wonder if i would need to use it. surprisingly, there has been minimal rabbit damage so far. not sure why, but i'm going to go with it.

I wasn't too impressed with rabbit meat the few times i've had it. but, i've recently been trying brining meat. wow, is that a game changer for pork! maybe doing that to some rabbit would be good.

1.50 euros for a bare root tree? nice! do you get them at a local nursery or online? it might be worth the shipping and hassle of customs to order them from the U.S. at that price. at the local nursery by me fruit trees that are 3-5 feet (1-1.5 meters) are going for about $30-50 each (26-44 euros). I was going to go in there around Fall to see what kind of sales they might have.

I did order and receive some tree/bushes that i have been planting. blueberry, blackberry, fig and cherry. in the spring i might try to clone them through cuttings.

one thing i've learned so far is that businesses are oddly protective of their waste products. it took a lot of phone calls to find a source of newspaper, and even then i could only have a certain amount per week. the coffee places refuse to let me have coffee grounds. etc..
in the fall i am going to drive around on trash day and pick up the tree leaves people put out for pickup, and use those for mulch.
I started a worm bin, so i'll use those castings as well. I acquired 6 chickens too. once i get their chicken tractor done in the next couple days, they will be out there helping too.


Thanks for the reply Steve, I always appreciate the input
Patrick

Here's a drawing to illustrate my point

Learning as I go....

here's an update. So i noticed something about my methods. I've been making rows as I stated in a previous post. once the seed is cast, i cover the ground with a layer of grass clippings, and then water in the seeds really well.

So a few days after my first row was put in, i thought the grass clippings were really matted down to the ground. So i thought if i put a layer of straw then a layer of grass clippings it wouldn't mat down so much, and would "fluff up" the mulch layer. well this actually worked against me.

in the pictures the middle two rows are nearly equal in age. only about a 2-3day difference in planting. the one on the left has straw and grass, the one on the right, just grass.

in the second photo, i even changed my method halfway through a row and you can see the difference. (i made half of that row one day, and the rest the next)

the third shows the plants underneath the grass clipping/straw layer when pulled back. the plants germinated, they just can't poke through.

my thought on why this is happening, although the grass clippings make a mat in both the straw/grass and grass methods, the grass only scenario takes up less height. so the plants poke through before their Cotyledons get very big. with the straw and grass, the grass forms a ceiling that the Cotyledons can't get through.

Lesson learned.

Day 1 of Doing

marked out my raised bed. 30" wide with 24" paths. no contour to speak of , so i'm just going to make these ones parallel to the barn.

rototilled the path. used my buddy's front-tine rototiller. let me tell you something about front-tines, they're horrible. I'm pretty sure the person that decided to make them thought, "lets take a machine that's unwieldy on a good day, and make it worse".

broke up sticks and laid them on the raised bed. mini-hugelkulture. it's an experiment. I could probably go denser with the sticks.

started shoveling. I worried about trying to cover a 30" row with 24" of path. worked fine. my explanation, magic. my best guess at a real explanation, formally compacted dirt is now loosened.

30 minutes into shoveling I kept wondering why time lapse video isn't capable in real life.

2.5 hours later, I was done. covered my mound with tarps temporarily. going to take half the seed out of each packet and mix them all in a bowl with a little bit of white clover seed then spread.

sometimes they get unhappy with me, but overall pretty nice.

here's a random pic of my girls flying around today

ya, that's probably better terminology Chad. just got a better camera, here's some pics.

each fence post is 10 feet apart. ignore the mess. my tendency to collect free wood has gotten a bit out of hand. picking that up is on my to-do list.

well the soil test was a bust. not sure what i did wrong. i had a 1.5 gallon glass jar, dug a 6" diameter hole about a foot and a half deep put it in the jar with about a tablespoon of dish soap. shook it up a few times then let it sit for 30 hours and it never separated. i'll try again.

ya the bees are kind of close to the house. I'm sure the neighbors know i have them, but i'm trying not to advertise them to everyone too. and sadly, people steal hives, being closer might keep them from that.

I had thought about the zones a little, but on one acre, i could only come up with 2 zones. everyday stuff and weekly stuff. maybe in a year or two once the system progresses i'll be able to refine that a bit more.

thank you letting bounce my ideas off of you Dillon, it helps

I'll try to take pictures to show how it's coming along.

Patrick