Sunday, April 3, 2016

Spring Work


Things have been busy around the homestead!  As I mentioned earlier, we are putting in permaculture beds as yet another attempt at a successful garden.  We are digging (by hand, I might add!) a rather large raised bed.  We will dig the bed about 2 feet deep (and 4 feet wide), fill it with bulky organic material (branches, shrubs, downed trees) and mound it up to about 5 feet tall with a mixture of compost, sod and soil.  Because our soil is compact clay, we are having 12 yards of screened loam brought in so we can top our beds with good, humus(y) soil.

Digging the bed

One large bed that contours to the north
In addition to the permaculture bed, we built a sun trap out of culvert sections.  The sun trap faces south to catch the heat of the sun's rays and radiate that heat back on itself.  The steel will absorb the heat and continue to release its stored heat long after the sun has set.

The sun trap (before paint)


And after.....


Another addition to the homestead are two fruit trees.  We have tried fruit trees numerous times in the past, to little avail.  This time, after much research and reflection, we decided to plant the trees on a swale, just above a ditch.  We dug a large hole out of the side of the hill and filled it with permaculture goodness.  After filling the hole with branches and shrubs, we turned the sod upside down in the hole and filled the hole with compost and amended soil before planting the trees.  After putting the trees in the ground, we circled them with rock, both to provide heat (in the form of solar gain) and to provide extra stabilization to the roots to compensate for the wind.  We are very hopeful that these trees survive our harsh climate and poor soil.  The trees overwintered, outside, at a nursery about 40 minutes south of our home, so we think that with the proper care they may have a fighting chance!

Preparing for the fruit trees

Adding organic material

Sod, upturned in the bed

Adding soil and other amendments

Newly planted apple tree



More raised (culvert) beds
And so, spring work continues on the homestead.

14 comments:

  1. with your fruit trees remove the rocks and mulch them thickly with whatever is to hand. Keep it around four inches away from the trunk and put the stones on top of the mulch. Around the fruit tree put in whatever wind resistant plants there are in your neck of the woods to buffer the wind. The more buffering the quicker the trees will grow.

    Anyone nearby wanting to get rid of woodchips tell them to dump them on your land. These are an excellent long lasting mulch that gives the worms a wonderful home so use this all around your buffer plants and fruit trees. Then it is simply a case of expanding out from there.

    I see the clay soil well if there is a surplus of woodchip pile it up on the soil about six to eight inches deep over whatever area it covers. Leave it for a month or so then plant directly into the chips for veggies and for fruit and support bushes (nitrogen fixers) (anything that fixes nitrogen look up sea buckthorn I reckon that would do well where you are) wild lupins are a good nitrogen fixer as are any members of the pea family so plant them around the fruit trees as well.

    Another thing you can do if you have the equipment is scrape off the top soil and stack it. dig out the subsoil to make a mound around three feet high from the bottom of the hole to the top of the mound made by piling it on the surface (hope that makes sense) and then put the soil back over the mound and into the hole put some more woodchips and then cover the mound in woodchips and sow annual lupins or other quick growing ground cover directly into the chips or on the soil then cover with chips. The aim is to keep the soil covered at all times.
    if you make it a crescent shape with the curve into the prevailing wind this tiny earthwork will lift the cold winds over whatever you plant up in the lee of it for a stretch of around ten feet or so.

    Little and often is the name of the winning game with permaculture.

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    1. Thank you!! We will definitely mulch - we have plenty of wood chips from our log deck. We really appreciate your direction.

      Enola

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  2. Enola,

    Great idea using the culverts to capture the heat to help the garden bed.
    I hope your fruit tree's survive and produce plenty of fruit for years to come.

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    1. Thank you! We are sooo hopeful! I think the culverts will work too.

      Enola

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    2. Are you going to fill the culverts with something, or just leave them as exposed (empty) metal cylinders?
      it seems to me that bare sheet metal sticking up in the air would cool off fairly quick compared to thicker metal or some else with lots of mass like concrete or rock.

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    3. Jonathan;
      We will be filling the culvert sections in the huglekulture method - bulky organic material, sod, soil, humus. The culverts are MUCH heavier and thicker than a standard metal cylinder. They should (hopefully) do quite well.

      Enola

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  3. Interesting! Thank you for sharing. Wow, no more cabin fever. Winter is over! You guys are really getting back to work. I'd better get moving and do the same before Montana Gal comes home and sees your accomplishments!
    Montana Guy

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  4. You might research 'keyhole garden'. Essentially you build your garden beds in a circle. The middle of the circle is the 'keyhole' where you can either add water and/or compost or both in the center of the bed. A friend has used it with good success with her poor soil. SJ in Vancouver BC

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    1. Yes, I have read lots about keyhole gardening. Very likely, if we can figure this thing out, we will put keyhole gardens in along with guilds.

      Enola

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  5. Best of luck - your soil (ahem - clay) looks just like ours. It is a tough battle. And we are zones 4-3 with winds that don't stop. Natokadn

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  6. hugelkulture-the high mound you are building.

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    1. Yes, exactly! I've read Sepp Holzer's books and that is the method we are attempting to implement! And in other books I have noticed that method being referred to as hugelkulture! It seems to make so much sense.

      Enola

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  7. Sepp Holzer's methods are phenomenal and you should have great success going forward. I swear by Gaias Garden for a beginner in permaculture. Also, you may enjoy Eliot Colemans "The Winter Harvest Handbook". Eliot Coleman grows year round in Maine! Lastly, "Cold-Climate Gardening. How to Extend Your Growing Season by at Least 30 days" by Lewis Hill could serve you well. We are moving to a cold climate this year and I have been reading a lot about this specific topic. I embraced permaculture a few years ago and as you delve more and more into it you will see wonderful results. Thank you for posting and can't wait to see the results! ~Kentucky Red

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  8. It's such the useful tips to plant fruit trees. I will try to plant the apple trees in my garden. Thanks for sharing

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