Markus Padourek

Anne Miller wrote:My thoughts are how did you prepare you current garden for planting.  did that work for you?  why not do the same now?

Most folks don`t consider landraces until later, so is now a good time when trying to start are new garden?

Just my thoughts ...

The differences now are scale, I don't have access to so much cardboard to smother the grass and I moved quite frequently so never really had to think about a long term approach. But that is different now.

But I guess one approach could be burning the grass and then make permanent beds with cow manure and straw on top of the soil?

Thom Bri wrote:Burning is a short term fix for invasive grasses. They come right back up from the roots. Around here some people burn grassy areas to encourage new growth. You would need to use the weed torch several times to make much progress, but I suppose it would eventually work.

That is also what I thought. When do you think it would be best to start though? Already now, to weaken it before witnter? Or best after winter/early spring, so the field is more covered?

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Copenhagen Hospitality College
October 19th or 20th.

Farm Tours 21st and 22nd.

I am not going to try to take seeds through 6 international borders...

Great. How do I sign up or buy tickets?

I have started this year working on my own landraces on a  1.2 acres field. Started with squashes, beans, corn, fennikel, kale and cucumber. Planning to extend it next year to at least peas.

Which farms are you visiting? Curios to hear if I know them.

I thought so much about the seeds, but thought I might as well ask.

Thom Bri wrote:That's a lot of land to weed by hand. Heavy mulch, cardboard, thick layers of straw, wood chips. Not sure what would be easily available in Denmark.

Grass is my bane too. No broadleaf weed comes close to being so annoying. You might consider having just the edge strips plowed to keep it from infiltrating.

Let us know what you tried and how it worked.

Part of the idea is also to create landraces that need minimal weeding. For example my peas needed no weeding at all, my best growing squashes, corn etc needed substantially less weeding than the worst ones.

I was thinking of using the weed torch to get rid of the grass, to emulate like some of the native Americans burnt their fields. But I wonder what the best approach would be. Doing it in the autumn and then mulching? Or doing it in late winter/early spring before planting? Does anyone have any sources on how it has been done traditionally?

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:We plan a European speaking tour for me in October. Visiting Croatia, France, Scotland, England, Denmark.

I am living in denmark, so would like to hear when and where in denmark you are speaking. Would like to make it. Are you taking any seeds with, that can be bought, by any chance?

The plants have yellowed a bit more in the past days since I have taken the picture. There has been some water stress, may and june where very wet and then at the end of july start of august we had a week without rain and quite warm, that is when I really started noticing the issues.

My initial guess on soil texture would be quite loamy and pretty good water holding capacity, but will take a sample when I get home to confirm.

Good idea with the lab analysis I will start researching that.

After a few years of growing a 200-300m2 (less than 0.1 acres) vegetable garden I got access to a field of 5000m2 (1.2 acres), with the possibility to get more next year.

Now we are starting to plan ahead, what to plant in the autumn and on how to prepare the field for next year. My aim would be to follow no-dig as much as possible, and only use hand tools. So I also do not want a tractor on that field again. We have access to cow manure, seaweed meal, a weed torch and different hoes. We could probably also get straw bales later on in the year. What can I do, once all the annuals are harvested (95% of the field), to improve the soil health for next year? And how to I get best rid of some of the weeds, especially grass that has started to creep in from the edges? I am fine with a fair amount of weed, but especially the grass has me worried.

I have some ideas myself, but would like to get some input.

As a background, I am based in denmark, the the whole field is 2.7ha or 6.7 acres and has been used for growing oats in the previous year. Before I got access to the field, everything has been ploughed and poorly harrowed. Then on 2.2ha (5.4 acres) a fertilizing flower mix has been planted.

A lot of the field received no amendments this year. I mulched mostly the high input crops, like squash and corn with goat or cow manure. It overall seems to be a mixed bag, potatoes have been doing ok, flint corn seems to be doing well, flour corn not as much, squash/pumpkin some are doing well, some not so much, leeks are growing really slowly, etc. We have also planted legumes (peas and beans) on around 1/6 of the field. The peas have been doing well, the beans not as well. The weeding has been minimal and there are also a fair amount of nitrogen fixing weeds, especially white clover.

I would really appreciate any help.

I received access to a 5000m2 (1,2 acres) field that had been ploughed and poorly harrowed by a tractor.  It all went pretty quick so I did not have as much time to prepare/plan as I would have liked to.

Amongst other things I planted bush beans , but they are really not doing well. They all just stopped flowering at a certain point and some of the pods also started turning yellow and falling off. I have attached pictures. Any ideas what the issue is?

From what I read it seems to me like it could be issues with the soil, maybe phosphorus and potassium missing. Or maybe a disease?

The beans have not received any soil amendments, but now I did started to add things like cow manure, wood ash to different parts of the beds to see if anything helps. But maybe it is already too late.

I also attached a picture of a pole bean, which seems like it leaves are starting to turn yellow, but it still is producing flowers and pods. Does that maybe have the same issues?

I also have planted runner beans and they are doing better but not great, they are flowering a lot, but only producing a small number of pods. I have also noticed some falling off.

Other crops have been doing better, I planted peas and potatoes without soil amendment and they have been doing fine. Summer squash, pumpkins and flint corn are doing pretty well, but they have also received some goat or cow manure.

The only other thing I know about the field is that the year before a farmer has been growing oats on that field.

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Nicole Alderman wrote:My periodontal pockets were 5 and 6 mm. I never have my gum bleed, though they are sensitive to cold and sweets, especially if I don't swish coconut oil.  

So, I went in yesterday for my 6-month dental visit. I can still see the roots of some of my teeth, and it doesn't seem like my gums have grown back at all. I still have cold sensitivity, and it doesn't seem like anything has gotten better. I still had quite a bit of tartar for my hygienist to scrape away.

Interestingly enough, they measured my gums with the dental probe, and the numbers were all 1s and 2s. That's a vast improvement over 5 & 6 mm! I don't think this means that my gums are regrowing, but I think it does mean that they are not as inflamed and--hopefully--I have slowed/stopped the recession.

I'm going to continue everything I've been doing:

-- coconut oil swishing for 20+ minutes a day
-- brushing very softly (I use a small, soft tooth brush, and either non-fluoride toothpaste or Sensodine. I don't think the Sensodine does ANYTHING for gum sensitivity! But maybe it's helping in some way)
-- manually scraping away plaque that is near the gums (I just use my fingernail)
-- wearing my retainer every night so my teeth don't shift
-- trying not to stress/clench-my-jaw (hahahaha, life is too stressful and busy right now to succeed at that.)
-- using the mouthwash at least twice a week (my mouth HATES the burning of alcohol)
-- not flossing deeply (my hygienist said I should, but until I can find a natural, thin floss, I'd really rather not be bonking my gums and traumatizing them any more than I need to!)

It seems like some of our issues sound the same. I also have a lot of plaque/tartar generated on some of my teeths, which then seems to then slowly lead to receding gums. Strangely it seems quite variable and most teeth have nothing/very little, but then one tooth has very much. How is it going now after 2 years? Are you still using that mouthwash? I started using a tea tre oil based mouthwash, but I am not sure it is doing much, so I am starting to investigate now making my own. There are not so many choices here. I also bought two books from a holistic german dentist abouth mouth care and mouth washes, so I will see if they provide some useful information.

I have also read that a baking soda paste might be able to remove/dissolve tartar - any experience with that?

I would like to nominate Mark Boyle - he has written two, for me, very profound books, The Moneyless Manifesto, in which he talks about gift economy and living without money, as well as his latest book, The Way Home, which he has written with pen and paper. There he writes about the latest journey in his life, living on a permaculture-inspired homestead/smallholding with no electricity, no running water and nearly no money. There he also built, with the help of others, The Happy Pig, a hostel based on the gift economy principles, where people can come and stay for free as long as it makes sense. While he was still making use of electricity he was also involved on permaculture.co.uk: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/search/node/Mark%20Boyle