Trace Oswald

I love what you've done there.  It's beautiful.

I just ordered the book.  Thanks for bringing it to my attention.  Should be here Sunday :)

It will work, but I would expect the wood to break down fairly quickly.  After all, the purpose of composting is to break down organic matter.

Your hay bales are composting.  Hay has a good ratio of greens/carbon to compost.  Don't be surprised if the interior temperature of the bales gets 120 or 130 degrees.  It won't stay that high for very long.  I have to keep turning my piles to keep them hot.  After a few days without turning, they will cool down.  If you can, you can also water them often.  Watering cools compost temporarily.

megan francine wrote:New here, hi!  Technology is not my thing; I work with bodies, babies, earth, and food. I can’t find any place on this site to CREATE a post... only how to reply to other posts.   I am wanting to see if there are any gentle permie souls along the northern front range in Colorado. I live in Boulder and helped on a homestead with Sunny and Sequoia down in New Mexico right after my son was born, and am now looking for something in these parts.  I am an earth mama to my bones and am looking to connect with other homesteaders in the area.  What button Do I push to create a post? Or do I need to earn my keep/pass a permie test first?

Hi Megan.  If you click on any forum, near the upper right of your screen you will see "New Topic".  If you click that, a box will open up and let you put in a title for your post, and beneath that, the text you want to post.  You'll need to be logged in to post, but you obviously have that part down   Welcome to permies.

Just another suggestion.  I wouldn't get caught up on the idea that you have to plant one thing. You can make a really useful and beautiful hedge by mixing species, or by taking S Bengi's idea of using privet, and then make a mixed species row directly inside it.  I don't know enough about bamboo to comment on that.

I'm creating a living fence right now that started with a row of Osage Orange as the main fence, but inside that with be a mixed species where the trees and bushes will be more randomly placed.  More diversity means more type of food species, as well as creating a much better habitat area for small creatures.

John C Daley wrote:Sorry about the Engineer speak!!
A like to use the correct terms, so that over time the community has it correct.
The worst is "cement', when people mean, "concrete".Cement is a component of concrete,
just as flour is a component of a cake, but nobody calls the cake, flour !!
Toe of upstream dam- the base of the dam at the downstream side of that dam.
Tailwater - when water backs up behind a dam, it sits at a level consistent with the height of that dam.
Where the water level backed up, strikes the natural stream running into the dam, that area is called the tailwater.

Got it. I appreciate the explanation.

I wanted to post this publicly rather than keep it in the PM's.  T Melville and I agreed to a trade, his seeds for my comfrey roots.  I just received a box with 16 varieties of seeds that weighs several pounds!  I'm certain I got the far better end of the deal, but in case there is any question in anyone's mind, you have nothing to worry about dealing with T Melville.

Thanks much for the wonderful gift.  I can't wait to get planting.  

Thanks Tel.  I built one myself and built a Warre style insulated top for it but I lost my bees.  I think I'll clean the hive out and put it out and see if I can just catch a swarm with it.  I really want the hive to work as well.  If it never produces honey in the supers, I'm okay with that.  I just want to have a really strong hive on my land.  I may try a couple different style hives as well, but I'm done buying bees.  If I can't catch a swarm, I'll live with my thousands of bumble bees :)

Jodie Usher wrote:Hi,
So I have access to woodchips (stem, branch, leaf) from a local tree service. Mixed types possibly some black wattle in it (nitrogen fixer). I want to spread this out 5 inches thick on top of my paddock to start a large no til garden. I’d love to plant in that area in a couple of months in spring. Pumpkins, sweet potato, potato, melons.
I want to add something to the woodchip so that’s it breaks down a bit faster (as it’s mixed, I could end up with very little green matter in it if I’m unlucky) and so that it ends up being a good amendment. I’m in Australia , low phosphate soils, it’s slightly on the acidic side due to high iron content in the ground water in the gulley down from the paddock. I’m thinking cow manure, or blood meal (or both?) the manure partly because the pumpkins will send down those little roots along the stem and if it’s straight onto raw woodchip that might not be great. The blood meal as a nitrogen boost to speed up the process. Generally quite dry here.
Any thoughts? Thank you!

The best way in my opinion is to put down your wood chips as deep as you can and when you are ready to plant, open up a hole in the chips down to the soil, fill the hole in with compost, and plant in that.  If you want the wood chips to break down faster, you can add your manure or blood meal, or just add it on top.  Another option is to find all the mushrooms you can, grind them up in a blender with water and pour that around on the wood chips.  The mushroom water will break the chips down much faster.