Kolomona Myer

Hello fellow Permies,

I have no idea which forum is correct for this question.

Sadly our beloved French Mastiff of 7yrs in soon to pass away. She has brain cancer. We are trying to make her as comfortable as possible before she goes.

I would like to memorialize her by burying her then planting a food bearing tree over the grave site.

She's a large dog 110lbs

My questions are:

How shall I prepare the grave? depths, amendments, size etc.
Will her body inhibit root growth until she is more decomposed?
If so what should I do to mitigate it.

Any suggestions for trees? I would like a large shade tree that bears fruit or nuts. I was thinking possibly walnut.

I imagine one day in the future my grand kids sitting at a picnic table in the shade under her tree and enjoying the fruits or nuts.

The area where I will be planting is fairly wet during most of the year so a water loving tree would be best.

She will be missed but never forgotten.

Today it worked like a charm

Latest Firefox Windows 7

md5sum -b rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf 85e69eb6ff95ea31b9de0b906323e75d *rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf

Cassie Langstraat wrote:
so I am a bit confused. you downloaded it successfully the first time I sent out the email? and then it failed 3 times when I sent out the second email? to the plotskateers?

That is correct. When it was first offered I downloaded it just fine. Then I got the plotskateers email and tried 3 more times with no success.

I was able to download it the 1st time it was offered.

I am running Windows 7.
Latest Firefox, latest Chrome

Clicked on link from Firefox. I have it setup to always ask to download.
When opening the PDF in chrome I get a "Failed to Load PDF Document" Error

cli commands done from cygwin on the file:

md5sum -b rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf 0fd970c3f25b9641f8605f13ae018b9c *rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf ls -l -rwx------+ 1 USER None 17302964 Apr 1 21:45 rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf

Tried Right-click Save Link as method - Firefox

md5sum -b rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf 45649ec54ae30d0e1acd2413cce64f8a *rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf ls -l -rwx------+ 1 USER None 17314580 Apr 1 21:58 rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf


Tried using Chrome Right-click Save Link as method

md5sum -b rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf ea20bc1bc875ac75bdc8dc1224d2de4c *rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf ls -l ----------+ 1 USER None 17316032 Apr 1 22:06 rocket-mass-heater-manual.pdf

I got a different file size each time.
When viewed in a text editor the beginnings of each file seem to be the same.
The download seems to be ending prematurely.

I'm on a 1.5MB connection, maybe it's too slow and the connection is resetting mid stream?

Maybe server is having memory / swap issues? What does htop look like?

I hope this helps

UPDATE

Thank you everyone for all your help so far, I really appreciate your input.


So I made a large batch of manure tea using horse and chicken manures. I also put some compost in as well.



I added molasses and allow it to aerate for a day.

I then spread about 5 gallons per row on my garden, I didn't dilute it I just put it on full strength.

I kept the tea brewing and spread another 5 gallons of tea each week in the same fashion.

I tested the soil today and here are the results. I should have taken a picture of the tubes when I took my 1st test.

The 1st time I tested the water in the tubes was basically clear.



This is an improvement. It seems like I am getting more phosphorus then nitrogen and potassium.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be reading the color of the water or the overall color of the mixture. So I shook up the tubes and took another picture



Either way it looks like I'm making progress.

Any thoughts?

Should I be doing anything differently?

Is having an excess of phosphorus going to be a problem?

If so how should I mitigate it?

Mark wrote:However, if you are going to add manure, then you'll need to pull the chips back.

I have some manure tea brewing right now. It's a mixture of chicken and horse.

I plan on pulling the chips back and spreading rabbit manure then replacing the chips. Then liberally spreading the manure tea atop the chips. I think this will help speed the decomposition of the woody materials. Then instead of more wood chips I think I should use straw for mulch (as long as I can source some straw without toxic gick), maybe alternate between straw and wood chips each year.

I will also be planting nitrogen fixing annuals this year.

Hopefully this works, I had a very disappointing gardening year last year and I really don't want a repeat.

Thanks for all the help!

John wrote:I am assuming that you planted through the chips and cardboard and into the soil. Is there are reason you did not just plant into the existing soil?

Hi John, I have a layer of soil between the cardboard and wood chips. I planted into the soil above the cardboard and below the wood chips. The reason I didn't plant into the existing soil is that my ground here is very hard and rocky. It's nearly impossible to put a shovel into it without hitting grapefruit sized rocks. I was hoping the BTE garden would be like planting a raised bed garden without building the frames.

Thank you all for your responses.

Mark wrote: It is hard to say from your picture, so i must ask...did your top soil they sold you seem more like soil or more like a shredded wood product?

Mark, When I received the soil there was a lot of shredded woody matter, as well as sand and fine gravel. I suspect you are right that it's just a way for them to get rid of wood chips.

Kevin wrote:My only problem with the "Back to Eden" video is that he doesn't talk much about time. That soil that he is planting into has been developed over many years and is very rich. It is so rich that it can handle using fresh wood chips as mulch. The average soil, even from a garden center, cannot.

Kevin, I rewatched the video yesterday and I believe you are correct that in order for this method of gardening to work properly one should start out with high quality soil. Not the stuff that I purchased.

Ce wrote:Climate? Ag zone? Rainfall?

Climate: Pacific Northwest, Just south of Tacoma WA.
Zone = 8b : 15 to 20 (F)
Avg. Annual Precipitation (Total Inches) = 37.00"
Ce, I agree that the soil test probably wasn't very accurate but it was redily available and some measure is better than no measure at all. I looked into Garrett juice. I will definitely consider it.

R wrote:One of the little critical details glossed over in the film is the TYPE of woodchips. He gets chipped prunings mainly from powerline trimming--they have a LOT of green in them, both leaves and growing branches, and very little "wood." NOT what you get when you go buy wood mulch.

R, The wood chips that I got were just as prescribed, powerline trimmings, at least that part I got right

Justin wrote:I think you're correct on the soil analysis idea. Take a look at what you're underlying soil is. The woodchips are acting as a mulch and have very little impact on the nutrients available to plants for the first few seasons. Are your soil tests of the underlying soil? Or the soil + woodchips? Out of curiosity, what is your base soil like (i.e. the soil below the cardboard)?

Justin, I haven't tested the underlying soil, I'll get back to you on that

Kevin wrote:The next year I dig this wood mulch up and place it on top of my garden.

Kevin, this is sound advice, I also use these woodchips for keeping walking paths from getting muddy. I will begin harvesting last years path material for the garden before spreading new chips.


As far as what to do.
I was thinking of making a huge amount of compost tea using chicken, horse and rabbit manures. I have a little compost I can throw in as well along with some molasses. I will aerate the mixture using an aquarium air stone. Then pull back my wood chips and spray this mixture on the soil and replace the chips.

Does this seem like a good idea? Any suggestions regarding the amount of tea I should make and how much to apply? do I apply all at once or should I apply over some time?
My garden measures 24 feet by 20 feet

Hello fellow Permies,

Last year I became inspired by Paul Gautschi's "Back To Eden" documentary http://vimeo.com/28055108 and I decided to build my own "Eden" garden.

I started out with cardboard then about 6" to 8" of "garden soil", then about 4" of shredded wood trimmings.

The problem is that I went to the nearest place that sold dirt and told them of my plans for a garden. I purchased several truck loads of what the guy behind the counter suggested. I don't remember the name of the soil I bought, I think he called it 3 way or 4 way. Had I been smart I would've tested a sample of the soil before I bought it.

That year I planted lots of stuff into it. Direct seeded lettuces, carrots, onions, sunflowers, peas, green beans, spaghetti squash, zucchini, pumpkin, corn, and broccoli.

My lettuces never got above 3" tall, carrots never got more than a couple of inches long, everything else died with the exception of one sunflower.

I did a soil test last week and the results are, pH of 7 and there are no measurable amounts of N, P or K. No wonder everything died.

So How do I fix it? I have access to horse, chicken and rabbit manures.

I'd prefer a solution with the least amount of labor as possible. It was already a lot of work putting this thing in.

Any ideas?

Thank you


Laying the dirt on top of the cardboard



The garden completed



The garden as it looks today. I'm in the middle of building a wattle fence to keep my ducks out of the garden.

Update:

Due to a bunch of things that have happened in my personal life, I will not be able to have chickens this year.   

I am doing some gardening and will begin posting some of my trials and tribulations as well as asking many questions.