UNSUSTAINABLE FARMING PRACTICES AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIC MATERIALS

 Unique to this year, we really haven't had a winter yet.  And as such I've been able to put in some additional time building and documenting the cold frame/greenhouse, but not as much time to publish.  Briefly, these carrots I protected from the deer are still growing good and the composted strawberry plant has yet to winter down and is actually still growing. I finished harvesting the marjoram, and have brewed and applied 4000 liters of tea, done a # of tests mostly leaving the ground alone to see if any greens would grow through the daily frosts, and here are those results.                                                 As one can see the compost tea seems to be improving the soil so as to be able to support growth during occasional frosts. The circles are mostly the same except the 50/50 mixed one that i'll use to start seeds in planters. I'll ...

 Around here farming is close to being a year round affair, had I not had to direct attention toward financial matters, a passively heated greenhouse would have been well under construction by now, perhaps by next year. In the mean time these carrots have sprouted and i'll see if these can be grown w/o the heated greenhouse, and the spices continue to produce until the first hard freeze. The trick right now is too grow organic bacteria and reintroduce it too the chemically harmed soil as well as the virgin soil so as to see how much and how long before regeneration takes place. I normally don't publish results until I know they work in the field and this can take a year or more to determine this. So my plan this year is to make up to 10,000 liters of seasoned organic matter, and add it before seeding next years crops, I can make 2000 liters for every inch of rain that falls but recently have had another month+ long dry spell.  Now a dry spell might be bad for making organic ma...

 Over all it continues to be a great year and promises to get better. Shown to the right are my remaining 2019 marjoram harvest and my total 2020 harvest. On the left  the 2021 overall harvest and the large box is what I grew just so far out of the two organic containers, this item can now be checked off the list of needed items.  In addition the organic strawberry plant I started in the container has exploded in size and so I reintroduced it to the garden.  --------------------------------------------------------------But the big news continues to be all the soil being harmed by industrial chemical fertilizers, and once tainted and ruined , does not appear to come back until who knows how much organic goodie has been added, and who knows how much time before the soil rejection component has been neutralized.  These roots I pulled out of the cannabis garden show this in detail, a circular motion of trying to evade the poison while at the same time remaining aliv...

 Not that things aren't going well, they are going quite well, I've just been so busy that postings will be sporatic. There wont be a passive hot water green house or cold frame built this year, too many priorities.  But these strawberries are running like crazy and I think  i'll just let them run for a while and snow pea around them. I've grown more marjoram this year than ever before and these might even make it through the winter. And this parsley plant keeps growing and looking even better as the fall approaches. The cannabis garden has made a recovery but there is still a ways to go over there. More on that soon.                                                                                

 I made this title up over a year ago and held off on using it until I knew more what it was about. I know somewhat more now but the questions and research still outweigh the answers right now.  Here is a link to get one started.      https://piedmontmastergardeners.org/article/the-truth-about-compost-tea-making-it-using-it-and-what-to-expect-from-it/                          I began with some gallon jugs which I tried to shake up few times a week. The VT organic farm I visited last year was attempting something to this effect.                                                                                                            ...

 So much progress is being made that I dont have the time right now to list them in detail, but briefly it appears that parsley does have its own distinct fragrance much like a tarragon does and i'm looking forward to see how this changes the taste of some of my meals.   I am preferring  this one plant situation as the better alternative to the bucket as the harvesting is problematic on the bucket side. I made advances in the basil drying process and some thing brought this batch of yellowing canoed leaves back to its original green and i'm looking into that with different post.                                                                      I've grown and dried more marjoram in these containers than even I thought possible so that has been a big success. I've begun some spinach and caulifl...

 I am not only experimenting with full blown organics, the video side of operations has been questionable at best and so with some improvements I shall upload some old and some new and probably add explanation of  these file at a later date.                                                                                                                                                             

     Being able to preferably make seeds, and if not, buy the right ones, is as strong a link in the growing process as any of the many others toward the final process.        The days ahead are going to be challenging in this respect, I'm noticing the big box stores offering a lower grade seed as each year goes by, and the mom and pops outlets being closer to a hit or miss situation.      One of my biggest challenges still is the snow pea seed, they quickly mold with too much moisture and shrink as conditions dry, the line in the middle being very fine.   I have had some luck here and there over the years, but nothing steady.       And this year proves no different, because I was too busy to harvest properly, as a portion of the crop went to seed early rather than growth, yet the drying process has basically again lead to a large bowl of mostly shrunken dried seeds that I now add the ones from the later har...

 For the most part the year has been a raving success,  even though the snow peas haven't grown as tall from me being to busy to harvest and a portion going to seed rather than growth, I've still eaten snow peas just about everyday for the past 6 weeks and froze up a bunch too.                                                                              We've had a bout of extreme heat and little rain over the past two months yet most plants are doing ok. These tender and juicy strawberries are going to do just fine and expand outward from there location, and these cantaloupe will be the perfect future filler for the waning snow peas.                                    The bread and butter of the ...

  Over all things are progressing rather well, we've been very dry, one spell giving just 2 1/4 rains over a six week period where towards the end I had to install water devices or not get full potential out of the efforts. In addition to some cold snaps that left the potato's and squash rather tender after not being covered fully. I've been eating snow peas for the past two weeks, and even some melt in your mouth strawberries. Most all the plants are coming along in one fashion or another, the marjoram above being the lone holdout again this year.  I don't have much to show in the way of marjoram recruits this year so i'll go  back to container grown first and then transplant into the larger area.  I set up a weather station and am monitoring it. .The parsley, thyme and marjoram are doing fine but not one tarragon showed up so I'll attempt that a second time.     This is definitely the best way to start and grow the basil, it will free up some valuabl...

 After consulting a more experienced organic farmer, it appears that soil temperature is imperative during the early stages of plant formation, which is just another reason to construct a large heated cold frame, but instead of designing the structure around air temp, I will attempt to design it for soil temp and let the air simply stay above 32, while concentrating on keeping the soil temp at the to be determined best range. I dont have anything to show for it as much work needs to be done and there is plenty of time to do it so i'll concentrate on what has started this season, which is a lot.  The beans are coming along great and we've had no rain, but a couple fair waterings and off to races they go. I bought some summer squash and planted 3 of those in a large container, if this works out they, the broccoli, and the basil are strong candidates for cold frame starting. The organic transplant of the soil appears to be saving the streak of years grown at the same site, almost...

    I lost some month old basil, the cauliflower, and some different plants which are going to need a heated environment to protect them from the cold and encourage healthier growth while still young. I also want to see if I can do some winter growing of lettuces and such .  The rest of the plants did ok during this years winter cycle.    So what I have decided to do is build a large cold frame to test the ability of the passive water heater to transfer and store hot water under the raised cold frame, if successful a larger unit can be constructed in the future.  It starts with framing this tempered glass I've had sitting around for quite a while and building and insulating a cement container to hold a 55 gallon drum of hot water. The entire design will be organic, all gravity fed which requires no electricity to operate. 

What permits us to attempt to grow this early in the year is the battle between the late cold artic air and the warming sea water.  I created some maps below to show how even during the worst conditions nature can bring, this area has been very friendly to this plant, and this year appears to be no exception.  As the warm water battles and wins the artic battle earlier in each year, one can get started Feb 1st and as long as the plants don't super hard freeze, they just have to wait for the sun to reappear some 5-10 days later and explosive growth occurs soon after, that has been the past and I jumped a half a week early this year and so far the results are promising. So here are some maps to show once again this battle between the cold artic air, and the warm southern waters.  Some heat vs cold maps in feb 2021. So just take notice of this years battle between heat and cold and who pushes who back and the recovery time. Each push of warm air extends further northward wit...