Saturday 27 April 2013

Gearing UP!

We've survived the last of the nasty lingering winter temperatures.  At long last, the thermometer reads double digits ABOVE zero!  What a blessed relief THAT is :)   In the greenhouse, the recently seeded broccoli is sprouting up nicely and will hopefully be ready for transplant late May.


The greens that I overwintered (accidentally) have miraculously come back to life!  I am ABSOLUTELY going to do that this fall - ON PURPOSE!  What a good jump start on Spring picking...  won't be long before I can eat from these plants :)    The tiny seedlings below are lettuces that were seeded 2 weeks ago but due to the COLD nights, they really haven't taken off yet.


The tomatoes have all been seeded with the exception of a few more varieties.  All are heirlooms that we've either tried before and loved or come highly recommended by others.


Below are my irrigation buckets  :)  Yup, that's snow melting in there!  The greenhouse heats up really well during the day, so I place full buckets of snow inside when I open it up in the morning.   By late afternoon/evening, they are all melted and ready for me to irrigate with.  All that nutritive water from snow melt is GOOD for the soil.  



I've also been walking the land every day to discover what it's trying to tell me.  Can you see the faint horizontal line running across the dead looking grass (about 2/3 of the way up the picture)?  That is a debris deposit that was left following the snow melt.  The bold angled vertical line is from when we had to trench to bury a new phone line in the late fall.


In the next picture, you can see 2 other lines of debris that meet to form a Y intersection. This "meeting" of debris shows me where the water runs down to collect in a low lying area of our property.


Here's the long view... all those debris trails show me EXACTLY where the water likes to flow and as you can see, it collects in this one area and in another area a little closer to the house.


Instead of having the water run off and sit unproductively upon the grass, we plan to dig a pond in the low area to collect and store this water in a manner that will enhance the biodiversity on our land and provide water all summer for the future trees and gardens that will surround the pond.  I'm really excited about this project and I'm busy working on my design project to plan for the installation.

In other news, Jacques (our French Copper Maran rooster) is a very busy fellow these days... 


With the garden now mostly free of snow cover, he spends his days escorting his "harem" out and about so they can find the tasty morsels in the mulch and soil.  Because of the hen's increased insect/worm intake, their yolks are a vibrant orange once again.  


Jacques is a very protective roo!  He "cock-a-doodle-doos" constantly when we are close to his ladies lest we get any ideas of taking over his territory...  such a funny boy.  Isn't he handsome?  In spite of all that bravado, he is really very docile and has never charged at us.  For a rooster, he's very friendly :)


Thought I'd quickly update you on the state of the coop.  The level of bedding is now nearly up to the roosts!  I've layered straw, wood chips, alfalfa, shredded paper & shredded cardboard in various thicknesses depending on what I had on hand with the intention of alternating texture as much as possible (like the rough, looser texture of alfalfa before the application of fine textured wood chips and shredded paper).  The coop does NOT smell like ammonia in spite of the chickens being housed in here all winter!  We do have good ventilation to keep the moisture levels in check (important for poultry) and the action of the chickens scratching and pecking through the bedding has aerated it enough to mix the layers a bit, preventing (we hope) compaction.  The other added benefit of this deep bedding method, is that the FREE heat generated as it composts. This has kept our chickens toasty warm all winter.  We have NOT ONCE needed to turn on the heat lamp in spite of a long cold winter.  



Soon, it will be time to shovel this all out to let it fully compost and mature.  Because most of the material is fine, it's much easier to scoop out then previous years where I only used straw (which matted together something fierce!).   I don't plan to use this bedding in the garden until at least Fall, perhaps next Spring.  I'll keep you updated on it's journey into soil :)


13 comments:

  1. We tend not to think about the "volunteer" plants because they happen in all seasons though less in winter but I can imagine it would be a huge gain in spring picking.

    I'm wondering why the snow water would be so nutrient rich? Do you mean like rain water is better than mains water or is there something else in melted snow? What an exciting time of year for you Sherri.

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    1. Here's a really informative article :)

      http://www.taiga.net/wolfcreek/Proceedings_01.pdf

      Essentially, snow is full of nutrients picked up in the atmosphere during the hydrological cycle. This winter, I'll be sure to snow mulch in the greenhouse a lot sooner as a protective layer for the winter. I did it too late this year thinking only of irrigation and nutrients, not soil protection (as the soil is in the greenhouse). Truly, all soil needs protection. Greenhouse soil in particular needs as much exposure to natural systems as possible (not easy to do in a covered area, but a good old snow shovel will do the job). Our "new" greenhouse will have a removable cover so that we can expose the soil to the cleansing winter weather for a few months.

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  2. hello sherri,
    wow.....so many plants of broccoli. i have no luck with broccoli seeds. i buy young plants in the garten centre.
    wish you luck with your tomatoes.
    have a nice sunday,
    blessings regina

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    1. Hi Regina! There are certain crops that I struggle to grow as well - funny isn't it? We hope to have enough broccoli to freeze some for winter eats (if I can keep the cabbage moth off them!)

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  3. It seems funny that you are gearing up for planting and I am gearing down for some fallow months :). Love all the seedlings you have on "standby" for the right conditions. The future pond/dam sounds like you are using permaculture principles well. No point fighting nature when it's better to work with it!
    Cheers, Robyn xo

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    1. Hey Robyn,

      Yes, I always get a real kick out of the opposite seasons... I bet you are ready for some fallow time - whereas I'm ready to GET MOVING, LOL!

      I hope the pond area turns out... I'm trying to find someone nearby with a machine to dig it for me.... stay tuned!

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  4. Lovely photo of your home....is the tree wind-break on the north side of your home? You have a lot of exciting things happening with your new "permaculture principles". I like the idea of the pond.

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    1. We have treed windbreaks on 3 sides, actually (N, W and E). The worst of the wind comes out of the North and West. The only open side is the East, but I intend on planting a lot of trees there this year to help create a microclimate and block the road dust.

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    2. OOPS! Meant to say that we have trees on the NORTH, WEST and SOUTH side! Am going to be planting trees on the East side this year :)

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  5. How lovely to see the development of your homestead as you learn and apply this new knowledge :) You've inspired me to pay more attention to the patterns in our little plot of land here in the city. And what a dazzling photo of Monsieur Jacques - such a handsome guy!

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    1. Patterns in nature are valuable clues... i"m slowly learning to pay much closer attention to them... saves a lot of work!

      Jacques is handsome, isn't he?

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  6. It's all systems go at your place! Love the hustle and bustle of busy springtime activity. Your Jacques is indeed a very handsome fellow. ;) It's fascinating to see what the melting snow has revealed about the lay of your land..best of luck with your plans! :)

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    1. Thanks, Christine... All is brown and barren just now, but soon, that will change :)

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