Heather Ulrich

Cole Tyler wrote:About 5 years ago I just started letting the weeds takeover any area I wasn't actively involved in landscaping/planting/gardening/keeping a grass patch mowed.  I went from mowing, trimming and hand weeding my entire yard every week for more than 3/4 of the year, to just periodic spotty upkeep.

The best thing I found was to just pile on the mulch (wood chips is my fav, but straw or the weeds themselves make good mulch too if you give them enough time and have enough to chop/drop) everywhere to cover up weedy areas if they get out of hand.

It got a little stressful for me to deal with neighbors/family members not approving aesthetically of my style, so I moved to a rural area to begin doing it my own way. The main thing I noticed was the "life" that letting the weeds grow brought to the yard...increase in EVERYTHING especially birds. Nothing better than seeing a Goldfinch land sideways on, and bend over a "weed" stalk you let grow to get some seeds...where otherwise might be a poison patch :)

I love this post so much. I keep the same philosophy, mostly.  In the last 2 years, however, poison hemlock has crept into our beautiful field. Last year we didn't mow at all, but being that we have a creek in that field that runs out to the River, I feel like it's my duty to take care of it. I'm still not sure what to do with it, because I refuse to use poison, it's in rocky and seedy terrain around the creek and it's too much to hand cut.

Michael Moreken wrote:I attacked water flow with a pool with inlet and outlet, and a number of 'channels' to get the water away.

Nice! I'd love to see a pic!

It's hard to believe my water problem was only a year ago!  Since then, I've managed it by adding gypsum and LOTS of organic material to the boggy spots. I also got a lot of water loving plants established and they seem to soak up much of the runoff before it gets to the garden. And in true "me" fashion, I went ahead and created another problem when I cleared another area (50'x40') that is sloped that I'm planning raised beds on. My solution (for now) is to dig a french drain ditch at the top and run it down the sides (messing with the idea of water collection at the bottom, but we'll see. We've got a ton of leftover pvc from our shop project, and after that, we learned just how easy running water lines really is.

Hey y'all! I've been MIA for too long, but a resolution of mine this year is to spend more time on the Permies forum and less time anywhere else on the internet. :)

I've been busy, as usual. The greenhouse got a double layer of poly with a blower in between the layers. It's working nicely, and is currently keeping us stocked with more greens than we're eating. Starting onion, leek and a few other seeds is on the list for this month.

Another project I'm planning is building a screen for sifting wood ash from our wood fireplace. I currently use the ash for the chicken dust bath and on the driveway and walkways as needed. I've found that my husband likes to chop our wood in very big pieces and doesn't often cut me any smaller pieces to get the fire started, so I'm going to start collecting the little pieces of charcoal from the ash and use them as fire starters. I'm also considering learning how to make soap, but that's not on the books, officially, yet.

In the coming months, I'll be adding a bee hive in the garden. We have a great little place in our hometown that does bee classes each spring and has an army of mentors. I'm really excited about it. Beekeeping for Dummies is my current reading matierial!

On the list today - build a flat carrier of sorts to put on the tractor forks so I can take the trash down to the bottom of our driveway to be collected, without having to lift them into the back of the truck. With my 40th birthday coming up, my back just doesn't deal with those heavy, dead lifts anymore.

Last spring, my son and husband got into a big mess of crappie.  We fileted them, dug a trench, probably 30' long, put the scraps in, covered with shredded leaves, wood chips and topped with peat moss. I ended up putting some boards up to make a bed around the area. The results have been fantastic so far. Luckily, our garden is fenced off, so no scavengers came sniffing around.

Along with some other great recommendations here, if I had those fish - I would simply chop and bury them in beds /rows.

Suyo Long cucumbers from Baker Creek. They are great for fresh eating and pickling!

We had a pretty big 2020 around the homestead. We had a large shop built (in the background), for which we ran all the electric and water, we built ourselves a 10'x10' garden shed, built a garden perimeter fence and lined it with buried hardware cloth for maximum predator protection and finally got our low tunnel put up so that I can use it for greens and starting seeds.

I've still got some final touches to do, but it's coming together. In the pics, you can kinda see a solution for the water intrusion problem I posted about earlier in this thread. I built a Swale, using limestone rocks, tons of new soil and planted bulbs to line the front of the garden fence.

Oh, and we got a new doggy - Kaiser. He's our second GSD and I just love him to pieces.

Hey friends! Ive been lurking around for a while, silently working on our home and gardens, cooking and eating lots of food and spending time with family..

I'm really wanting to put a plan together for some new bee hives this spring, but bees may be ambitious for this year, as I've got a couple more things I want to get done first.

Looking back at this thread reminds me of where the area started! It's crazy to look out and see the transformation. We got the fence up, which we're super proud of, and finally finished the hoophouse. Ill try to take some new pics and update my thread here.

I'm getting ready to start a few seedlings - onions, leeks and lettuces.  I've also got a yard or two of compost that needs moved today.

What's everyone else do in the winter?

Paul Ladendorf wrote:I'm thinking my best bet is to bring in a couple loads of topsoil for my garden as the sheer amount of work I'll need to do to de-rock the soil will be overwhelming. And even then I'll still end up with hard clay soil. Any thought? Thanks.

We have heavy clay soil. My solution was to place a layer of straw, then cardboard (the worms LOVE it) then a thick layer of compost and then mulch heavily with chopped leaves. I did this for about 8 months prior to planting. Right before planting, I hand tilled the ground and removed the large rocks, but left all the small ones - they're surprisingly welcome, as they contain lots of nutrients. Each fall I top dress my beds with more compost, then mulch with chopped leaves/yard clippings (clover). In the spring, I do the same, but don't add compost unless it appears it's needed. If you're planting carrots and radishes, or things that don't like rocks, a raised bed, filled with de-rocked clay/sand/peat should work great.  

Your timeframe may not work using this method, but it's produced great results for us.

I love this topic! We live on 24 acres of heavy woods, so leaves are abundant.  Funny tho, I always feel as if I'm robbing the forest when I pick them up!  

We have a mower with a vacuum/bagging system, as well a large "leaf vacuum".  The leaf vacuum is so cool. Its a pull behind (we use the 4-wheeler), has a 6" hose that sucks up leaves and turns them through a small "chopper" and then shoots them into a 3'x4' containment area. Once that's full, we pull it over to where we want to apply leaves and dump. Last fall we dressed all our garden beds with about a foot of chopped leaves. I plan to get out and collect more soon, and apply them to the walkways - as weeds are a very annoying issue we deal with all summer long.  I'll lay cardboard first in hopes of choking it out, then leaves, then will try to find some free sawdust - or buy some if I have to.

Please excuse my poor quality pics, I'd rather buy plants than a new phone/camera!  As you can kinda see, the tomatoes all got a big dose of mulch!