Harry Marr

Hi Jen,

I couldn't agree more and plenty of times going against the grain has worked really well for us. Just wanted to flag up the misinterpreting.... I'm an engineer by trade and bad science really gets me

Stick with the corn, it's really hit and miss here ( mid England ) but when you get a good year it's priceless!

May Lotito wrote:Here is from the plant science textbook about crop yield vs planting density. https://www.rseco.org/content/642-yield-components.html

Going from extremely low of 1.4 wheat plant per square meter to highest of 1078 per square meter. Maximum yield is from a medium density of 35/ m2, but planting 5 times denser only reduces yield slightly. As long as you keep up with water and fertilizer, your crowded corn will produce just fine. I intentionally plant many things closely too as long as the seed cost is not a problem.

Old post I know but needed to point out that this is completely wrong / misinterpreted. The charts yield is in grams per m2 so you so 5 times more seed per m2 and get less grain.... you get substantially more grain for sowing less seed!

😂😂😂😂

Who else can remember exactly the same argument for plastics in the 70's? Look where it got us and decide for your self!

Hi Catherine

I wouldn't use pvc pipe it is very brittle and like glass when it is cold.
We had an old bin with 4 wooden posts as supports driven in 6 foot deep and it didn't take long for them to drift and end up wonky. We have a similar one now with 4 corner posts driven in and then some steel rope run around the top of posts in a loop to stop them splaying out and it has been really good so far (3 years)

This was one of the biggest reasons for us going no till heavy mulch and intensively cropping a small area. We can cover everything for a reasonable cost when it needs it and uncover it as soon as the pest species moves on to let everything else back in.

I think there is a real sharp point of diminishing return where more land just brings in less and less yield unless you throw money at it and then it's pointless because it's profitless

We have invasive American signal crayfish this side of the water that have to regularly netted and destroyed in large numbers.
They make great compost / fertiliser just mix them well with plenty of browns as with any meat your composting. The outer shells break down a lot faster than bone in a hot heap

We are always looking for new methods and changes we can try so I will play devil's advocate for composting here

We have a small (120m2) vegetable garden

Have been no till for 5 years

All beds are under 100ish mm of compost that's topped up each year and has shown huge benefits in time spent on weeding and watering

Last year we went zero input ( no manure etc ) apart from unavoidable household waste ( food waste and cardboard etc ) nothing goes to the plot that didn't come from the plot

Any bare ground and in winter the majority of the land is under a green manure that is felled in spring and composted for application next year


If we were to avoid composting:

What do we do with a chicken carcass?
What do we with bind weed?
How do you direct sow things like carrots in to a bed of chop and drop mulch?

The biggest issue we always had with composting was the workload to turn it around quickly. We solved this by having a large compost area and having one year where we were " behind" on nutrients. I.e we grew a winter green manure but didn't out the compost back onto the soil until the following year. This means everything has a year to break down and doesn't get turned at all.

We tried trench composting but suffered way to much with rats
We tried chop and drop but here in rainy old England it just became a slug party

All thoughts welcome 😁

As May has found just be careful, lots of fabrics claim to be 100% cotton but generally they are allowed to excludes threads from this as it is such a small amount.
Buttons are another thing that are nearly always plastic now as well

I have to agree with Tom above.

Unfortunately even selling high end organic from a financial point of view there just isn't an easy win. We nearly went for it last year until we did a full business analysis....

Pick a crop, work out spacings and crop volume for a common land size in your area ( we used 1 acre ) and multiply that by what a local organic supplier charges. If we went full zero input farming and had a perfect 1 acre crop of calbrese it came out at around £600 profit and that's assuming everything went perfectly. People make a lot more on higher profit crops like bagged salad etc but it's a huge amount of work.

We came to the sad but very real conclusion that growing our own produce under conditions we were morally happy with but along side a normal job is as good as it's going to get.

Not sure about that side of the Atlantic but in the UK house prices have out stripped all other bills to the point that anything even remotely artisanal as a job just isn't viable anymore

Yes European but cheap German blade and I am pushing my luck trying to use it on grass.

Il give the pre filing a go this weekend thanks for the idea! I knew the jigs were somewhat flawed but i had to try and strike a balance between finances and how likely I was to actually get on with / stick with the sycthe.
Il try the filing and if that gets me a bit further forwards I'll be convinced enough to get a proper anvil and start learning

Thanks,
H