Posts Tagged ‘no tilling’

Plant Buckwheat for the bees!

Posted in Bee-loving flowers, Fossil fuel free gardening, Gardening, Hives, Log hives, Natural Beekeeping, Raised beds, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2012| 1 Comment »

Burying the very available crab shell and coffee grounds to spice up the soil is the first thing.  Warre hive is on the left and Bee Beard carved log hive on the right.  I’m in good company.

Potatoes…should we harvest now or leave them in to grow more?  If I leave them in, the voles might eat them…I better take them out.  Then I can plant buckwheat in both beds.

Red Pontiacs – Three at once

A mole tunnel…the moles dig the tunnels, the voles follow the tunnels to the potatoes. More than a few potatoes had been chewed on, so it was good idea to get them out of the ground.

Some of the potatoes harvested from this first potato bed. We could have left them in to grow more, but the voles would have taken a big bite out of our harvest. This way we can grow buckwheat in both beds for the bees in September.

We’ve been fairly successful in the “no tilling” method for a few years.  We think it’s important to use less manufactured energy and more physical energy.  Is spading  ‘as good as’ using a  tiller?  Probably not, but it’s important to be able to grow food without using fossil fuel for the possible time when we don’t have any.

We have dug in crab shell, kitchen scraps (no meat), comfrey leaves, and coffee grounds to enhance the soil. Now we’re planting the buckwheat seed.

The drip irrigation grid and the deer netting are in place.

Why do we need deer netting? Because of her…and all her offspring!

According to this article by the Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute “…buckwheat crop seems to improve soil tilth, and is reported to make phosphorous more available as a soil nutrient, possible through root-associated mycorrhizae. Buckwheat flowers profusely, making it popular with bee keepers and an attractive crop in the landscape.”

Sept. 9, 2012...about 5 weeks after planting, buckwheat is looking good. Bees are on the blossoms already.

Sept. 9, 2012…about 5 weeks after planting, buckwheat is looking good. Bees have been working the blossoms for a couple of weeks already.

Sept. 9, 2012...Honeybees attending to the buckwheat blossoms.

Sept. 9, 2012…Honeybees attending to the buckwheat blossoms under the deer netting.

A fly mimicing a bee on the buckwheat blossom.

A fly mimicking a bee on the buckwheat blossom.

My wife saved me the ultimate embarrassment of thinking I found some kind of new bee. “Honey, that’s a FLY!”  “Ulp.”

Another fly, this time with a red abdomen. My wife saved me the embarrassment of thinking I found some kind of new bee. "Honey, that's a FLY!"

Another fly, this time with a red abdomen.

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Enhancing the soil

Posted in Bee-loving flowers, Gardening, Raised beds, Videos, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 17, 2012| 2 Comments »

The first raised bed planted is usually the first to be harvested, enhanced, and replanted

This raised bed was planted in late March.  It’s time to harvest the lettuce and cabbages, add soil amenities, and replant. We try to keep the use of a car to a minimum so today we’re getting the crab shell and coffee grounds using the bicycle and trailer.

Loading crab shell from Tony’s Crab Shack into bicycle trailer

We like to use whatever is naturally available.  We’ll use coffee grounds, crab shell, kitchen garbage, leaves when available (in the fall) and garden trimmings.

Scooping up coffee grounds to add to the soil

Kitchen garbage is a surprising source of nitrogen for the soil.

Fresh crab shell gets chopped up. The soft parts will decompose by the time the roots reach it. I’ll be planting this within 3 days…can’t waste any time.

I’ve tried adding fresh crab shell to the compost pile…DON’T DO IT!!!  It stinks for days.  If you bury it, you won’t smell it, and you’ll be surprised by how fast the microorganisms in the soil will break it down.  Just keep the dogs out of it.

Getting filled up

I hate pulling out the kale flowers that the bees love so much, but if I don’t, the deer will get under the netting and eat up my little transplants.  I’ll hang it upside down in the greenhouse and save the seed.

I can’t believe I actually needed the shade cloth, but the little transplants were wilting…it serves a dual purpose in preventing (I hope) the deer from investigating. The old netting got tangled in the kale and had to be cut away.

Soil enhanced, transplanted, protected from deer and ready for Prime Time…no more wimpy shade cloth needed here

We started working on this bed 5 days before we planted.  That may seem like we’re not leaving enough time for the scraps to break down, but there are 4 to 5 inches (10 to 12 cm) of soil and we figure by the time the roots get down there, it will be decomposed enough.  We’ve done it many times and it seems to work well.  The worms love it.

Tap into this web site for more info on the use of coffee grounds in the garden.

Here’s a video of digging a short trench in a raised bed and loading in the goodies…

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Official Garden start

Posted in Gardening, tagged , , , , , , on March 31, 2012| 1 Comment »

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This bed has crab shell and coffee grounds. Both are waste products that I picked up last summer using my bicycle and trailer. Also buried within are autumn leaves.
Last weekend we covered the bed with a plastic tent over pvc hoops to dry out the soil.
Today a 3 hour break in the storm served as our chance to get this first bed planted.
The cabbage, collards, and lettuce were started from seed in the house under lights in late February. The soil was full of earthworms and just right to add amenities, rake smooth, hook up the water grid, and pop in the transplants. (no rototilling because we’re trying to avoid using fossil fuel in the garden)

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A floating row cover will be placed over the cabbages to protect them from the cabbage moth and cabbage fly, then netting to keep out the deer, followed by the plastic film tent to protect them from the high winds and driving rain from the next set of storms. March came in like a lamb and is going out like a lion.

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