December In The Garden

The leaves continue to fall here and the days have become cold and dreary. Thanksgiving  was enjoyed by all and the turkey is a distant memory. The children and grandchildren have all returned home and life has resumed here in Hickery Holler. 

We continue to work on the warmer days though in the gardens. We mow the leaves to chop them and small 3 X 3 compost piles have begun springing up in the beds and boxes. Never waste a resource. As we mow and chop the leaves the bags are mixed with bedding from the duck and chicken house, kitchen scraps, newspaper, cardboard and anything else that will compost. As the piles are built we cover them with blue tarps to hold in the warmth after wetting them down. On warmer days we venture out and turn them when the mood hits us. By spring they will be rotted down enough to spread them in the beds and lightly fork them in where necessary. 

By doing this yearly we add fertility to the soil in the beds and boxes and improve soil structure. After years it really makes a difference in the soil. I produce a great deal of food in a somewhat small space and this helps keep the soil in top condition and producing. Not to mention it helps keep all this out of burn piles and landfills. The organic matter helps the soil to hold moisture and it also improves fertility.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

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I can also be found at

https://thebackfence.freeforums.net/

Hot Compost

 

This time of year I always have lots of compost additions and also the fall when the leaves fall. But this time of year I'm pulling lots of weeds, mowing grass and doing lots of trimming and pruning. Add to that the kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and bedding and straw from the chicken, ducks and rabbits which are cleaned regularly and that equates to lots of compost additions. 

I keep large wire rings around the property for temporary storage but when they all start getting full then I start hot composting to break down those additions fast. Now I am not going to kid you. Hot compost is work. Lots of work because someone has to turn all those piles everyday. But the positive side of that is that you usually have usable compost in under 30 days. The last I composted was usable in 16 days. When you have lots of boxes and gardens that comes in handy. That means that I am less dependent on buying mushroom compost, soil additions or even seed starter and fertilizer. The other plus is that I know exactly what is in that compost because I am producing it right here on my own property. 

I use the Berkely method of composting. Below is a link to a printable with instructions on how to do it.

https://kerrcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hot_composting.pdf

For me it works great. I stack my inputs in 3' X 3' piles alternating between browns or carbon additions and greens or nitrogen additions. A good tip is to chop everything as small as possible before adding. I run the leaves through a mower with a bagger and take my snips as I prune and cut my prunings as I put them in the wheelbarrow. Add a little moisture, Cover with a tarp to protect from rain and turn everyday to add oxygen and I usually get a hot pile. From 2 to 3 weeks later I sift the compost through small wire and add to whatever needs it.  

Here is a YouTube video that might help.

Now some people go to the gym every day. Not me I turn compost piles every morning. Six of them right now. Man am I going to have some arm muscles by winter!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

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I can also be found at

https://thebackfence.freeforums.net/forum

10 Boxes To Start

Well here we go. My new raised beds for a garden are finished and placed. Each one is 2 foot wide and 8 foot long. They are constructed by O Wise One with local lumber purchased from the sawmill down the road and cut from this mountain. They are two foot wide because  I wanted  beds that I could reach easily across. Most are 10 inches tall. They will be left natural wood with no paints or preservatives. In the bottom are our cardboard moving boxes and packing paper from the move. Next are layers  of stick from the yard that fell with that February ice storm. Next are layers of leaves from the yard, grass clippings, peat moss, sheet rock torn from the house during a bathroom update with the paper removed and soaked in water(gypsum), and rabbit manure. Eventually the beds will be filled on top with mushroom compost from a local supplier. Kind of a Hugelkultur meets lasagna gardening approach.  I have no idea how this will work but should be a great start to a small garden as well as a useful way to dispose of yard waste and moving materials. Eventually we may actually prepare a small garden spot but for now this will give us someplace to plant a few veggies for summer eating and I will can any extras. We have so many other things to do that it is nice to get this one thing out of the way and move on to building a clothes line and a chicken coop.We also want to repair and upgrade the perimeter fence this summer so as you can see this first season will be a busy one. No major construction just lots of little repairs and updates.

The boxes are in the northeast corner of my yard away from all trees. I can plainly see them from my deck. Eventually we may put a small fence around that corner of the yard to keep the dogs and chickens out. For now we will just observe how things unfold.

We have lots of compost in rings that will eventually go into these beds as time goes on and they need it. We compost newspapers, food scraps from the kitchen and yard waste on a regular basis. 

As we trim trees from the recent ice storm  we are burning the wood and the ashes are also going into the beds in small amounts and the compost piles as well. 

Everything added so far is even local except the mushroom compost and the sheet rock. O Wise One is hoping to try his hand at vermiculture (worm farming) in the future which should also contribute to some nice worm castings for the gardens as well as fishing bait : ) We are making progress. Most importantly we are observing right now. Observing the weather patterns for our new home, where the sun is the brightest and little things that can so affect a garden but go unnoticed. Frost pockets and wind directions and where water stands on the property. Where the topsoil is the rockiest and where the top soil is the thickest. And most of all what our neighbors are growing is a great way to figure out what grows well here, when to plant and what to expect from this new climate. 

We still have to decide on where to put a small asparagus bed and maybe a little rhubarb patch. Maybe some fruit trees but dwarf so that we don't  have to climb ladders to prune and maintain. Blackberries and grapes as well. Not as many as on the farm but a few would be nice. We constantly have to reminds ourselves to keep everything small. The object is to scale back to allow time for other stuff as well.

So life goes on and we settle in to make our little acre as productive as possible, supplement our diet, provide us with exercise and activity into our golden years. We should be able to have the same things we did on the much larger farm but just on a smaller scale with much less upkeep. Fortunately our full freezers and jars of produce that we moved from the  farm will tide us over while we plan, lay out and prepare our new gardens and get started.

For those of you my neighbors please feel free to help us out and share what grows well in our area and on your own farms and back yards. Recommendations for flowers and shrubs as well as vegetables and fruits that do well in this area are greatly appreciated and we never get too many suggestions for anyone in the area that would like to contribute.  

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Still Composting

This is the time of year that all the cages, sheds and animal pens get a good cleaning before that winter snow starts flying. 

O Wise One cleans out the poop from underneath the brooders and takes the pressure washer to them. Once dry he will cover them with tarps until next spring when we again have babies to go in them.

Needless to say the gardens and compost piles are getting plenty of attention right now.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Compost

Remember that new compost bin that O Wise One built me? 

With grass cutting, and weed pulling and animal bedding being cleaned regularly we have been making regular additions to the bins. The above wheelbarrow load is from the pig pen. Lately we have been pulling up lots of old plants from the garden too. 

Can you believe that it is just the end of June and I already have two of the bins full. Sure hope it settles quick. After all I have a lot of gardening season yet to go.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Rabbit Hutch Improvements

O Wise one made some improvements to my rabbit hutches. He put a board and wire around the bottom so nothing can get under the pens such as dogs, coyotes and such. He also made it where I can compost the manure right under the pen. I just throw straw under there to catch all that urine and rabbit poo and let it all rot down. I don't have to worry about the dogs and chickens scattering it anymore.  Then it can just be scooped out like always to go on the garden. What a man!!

The rabbits don't seem to care one way or another as long as they get their pea shells for the day. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter