I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I will be
embarking on a no-till project
I do this partly because the soil is poor and partly because I'm on a
slope . I have figured out that my steadily declining yields are because
I've allowed the best part of my soil wash away ... this year will see
terraces and dedicated walkways to prevent soil compaction . I'll also be
mulching heavily both as a weed control measure and to add organic matter to
the soil . Samples will soon be sent off to the county ag office for soil
analysis - can't amend until you know what you lack ! I'll also be copying a
raised-bed technique and "compartmenting" areas just big enough that I can
just reach the center and planting stuff closer together . I need to do some
studying on companion planting - not so much to find what does well together
but to determine what will NOT grow with what .
I'm also not planning on starting my seedlings quite as early this year
....
--
Snag

On 1/4/2016 5:38 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I will be
embarking on a no-till project
I do this partly because the soil is poor and partly because I'm on a
slope . I have figured out that my steadily declining yields are because
I've allowed the best part of my soil wash away ... this year will see
terraces and dedicated walkways to prevent soil compaction . I'll also be
mulching heavily both as a weed control measure and to add organic matter to
the soil . Samples will soon be sent off to the county ag office for soil
analysis - can't amend until you know what you lack ! I'll also be copying a
raised-bed technique and "compartmenting" areas just big enough that I can
just reach the center and planting stuff closer together . I need to do some
studying on companion planting - not so much to find what does well together
but to determine what will NOT grow with what .
I'm also not planning on starting my seedlings quite as early this year
...

We're still harvesting sweet chilies and eggplant Terry. Low this
morning was about 39F then warmed up to high fifties. Still cold to me
when it gets below about 80F.

We're on flat ground and garden in above ground boxes, 4' by 16' and two
that are 4 by 8. Plus the entire fence perimeter inside the backyard has
plantings also.

Sounds like you've got a plan now, seems like a lot of work too.

George Shirley wrote:
On 1/4/2016 5:38 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I
will be embarking on a no-till project
I do this partly because the soil is poor and partly because I'm
on a slope . I have figured out that my steadily declining yields
are because I've allowed the best part of my soil wash away ... this
year will see terraces and dedicated walkways to prevent soil
compaction . I'll also be mulching heavily both as a weed control
measure and to add organic matter to the soil . Samples will soon be
sent off to the county ag office for soil analysis - can't amend
until you know what you lack ! I'll also be copying a raised-bed
technique and "compartmenting" areas just big enough that I can just
reach the center and planting stuff closer together . I need to do
some studying on companion planting - not so much to find what does
well together but to determine what will NOT grow with what . I'm
also not planning on starting my seedlings quite as early this year
...
We're still harvesting sweet chilies and eggplant Terry. Low this
morning was about 39F then warmed up to high fifties. Still cold to me
when it gets below about 80F.

It's already down to 26° here headed for a low of 22° - according to
Weather.com and it's usually about 3-5° colder up here than down in town .
I've recorded temps in the last few days as low as 18° , and now that winter
is here that will be closer to the normal overnight temps .


We're on flat ground and garden in above ground boxes, 4' by 16' and
two that are 4 by 8. Plus the entire fence perimeter inside the
backyard has plantings also.

Sounds like you've got a plan now, seems like a lot of work too.

Not as much work as it may seem , I try to only walk in specific places so
I don't compact the soil . Just a matter of driving pegs and running strings
to define the growing areas . I've already got most of it semi-terraced , I
just need to straighten the edges out some .
I'm hoping doing this will also help me to control the grass that has been
such a problem the last 2 summers . I have come to realize that tilling it
under just plants all those seeds it made last year ... last week I went
over the worst patches with a foundry burner (like a weed burner just
smaller) and burned as much of that dried grass as I could . I'll probably
try to burn some more before spring gets here .
--
Snag

On 1/4/2016 8:59 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 1/4/2016 5:38 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I
will be embarking on a no-till project
I do this partly because the soil is poor and partly because I'm
on a slope . I have figured out that my steadily declining yields
are because I've allowed the best part of my soil wash away ... this
year will see terraces and dedicated walkways to prevent soil
compaction . I'll also be mulching heavily both as a weed control
measure and to add organic matter to the soil . Samples will soon be
sent off to the county ag office for soil analysis - can't amend
until you know what you lack ! I'll also be copying a raised-bed
technique and "compartmenting" areas just big enough that I can just
reach the center and planting stuff closer together . I need to do
some studying on companion planting - not so much to find what does
well together but to determine what will NOT grow with what . I'm
also not planning on starting my seedlings quite as early this year
...
We're still harvesting sweet chilies and eggplant Terry. Low this
morning was about 39F then warmed up to high fifties. Still cold to me
when it gets below about 80F.

It's already down to 26° here headed for a low of 22° - according to
Weather.com and it's usually about 3-5° colder up here than down in town .
I've recorded temps in the last few days as low as 18° , and now that winter
is here that will be closer to the normal overnight temps .


We're on flat ground and garden in above ground boxes, 4' by 16' and
two that are 4 by 8. Plus the entire fence perimeter inside the
backyard has plantings also.

Sounds like you've got a plan now, seems like a lot of work too.

Not as much work as it may seem , I try to only walk in specific places so
I don't compact the soil . Just a matter of driving pegs and running strings
to define the growing areas . I've already got most of it semi-terraced , I
just need to straighten the edges out some .
I'm hoping doing this will also help me to control the grass that has been
such a problem the last 2 summers . I have come to realize that tilling it
under just plants all those seeds it made last year ... last week I went
over the worst patches with a foundry burner (like a weed burner just
smaller) and burned as much of that dried grass as I could . I'll probably
try to burn some more before spring gets here .

When we gardened in the ground we had problems with St. Augustine grass,
damned stuff would grow out over concrete, grew into our pond years ago,
stuff would climb a tomato plant given the chance. Gardening in above
ground boxes has done that in. We do get the wind and bird blown weeds,
mostly nut grass, but it is easy to remove from the man made "dirt" in
our raised beds. As we age, we're in our mid seventies, I'm thinking of
raising the beds up to at least waist height. Gets really hard to squat
and bend anymore. I have one of those tractor seat scoots that does well
for me but still end up with a sore back. Mostly due to two old back
surgeries, a pot belly, and little exercise. Today is just to cold to
get out there. I keep hoping the eggplant and pepper plants will die at
any moment but they just keep on producing.

In article ,
"Terry Coombs" wrote:

I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I will be
embarking on a no-till project
I do this partly because the soil is poor and partly because I'm on a
slope . I have figured out that my steadily declining yields are because
I've allowed the best part of my soil wash away ... this year will see
terraces and dedicated walkways to prevent soil compaction . I'll also be
mulching heavily both as a weed control measure and to add organic matter to
the soil . Samples will soon be sent off to the county ag office for soil
analysis - can't amend until you know what you lack ! I'll also be copying a
raised-bed technique and "compartmenting" areas just big enough that I can
just reach the center and planting stuff closer together . I need to do some
studying on companion planting - not so much to find what does well together
but to determine what will NOT grow with what .
I'm also not planning on starting my seedlings quite as early this year
...

IIRC, Ruth cheated on her own system a bit and tilled or plowed every
few years, but got away without it other years. More an issue with clay
than other soil types. If organized and planning to till, planting a
winter cover crop (rye being the classic) is good. If planning a bit
further ahead a planting of daikon radish can help with the
sub-structure (even if not tilling - it does some "tilling" as it grows,
and if left to rot in place adds benefits.) There is also the "no-till
roller-crimper" method of dealing with cover crops (and turning them
into mulch), which might give you another welding project for the
tractor. http://www.covercrops.msu.edu/crimper/about.html

I threw caution and my usual procrastination to the wind and ordered
seeds on January 1 for a likely too-ambitious garden. General philosophy
is moving towards more perennials (berries, etc) that don't need effort
when we have no time, but I went right ahead and ordered leeks (never
have had them work, but giving it a shot again) carrots (spotty with our
soil of clay) basil (work ok if we can keep them from getting eaten by
other things), cabbage (never have tried it since I don't like it fresh,
but the sauerkraut experiments went well) lettuce and spinach and New
Zealand spinach (often disappointing in the past) corn (usually
disappointing or eaten by raccoons) peas (can be OK if not chewed off by
rodents) tomatoes (eventually do OK, getting them anything like early is
a lot of work and or a crapshoot) and beans (usually OK, trying soy for
edamame for first time.) Also trying a "decorative spring wheat" just
for giggles. Got my garlic planted, finally, on Boxing day. That is
usually fine if I don't wait until spring.

As for amendments, compost is always good, and if you are not using the
garden for a while, composting in place works. Sort out what else you
might want to add later, but fire up all the compost you can handle now.

I don't find a lot of benefit in most of my observed experiments with
companion planting, YMMV.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

On 1/5/2016 5:45 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:

IIRC, Ruth cheated on her own system a bit and tilled or plowed every
few years, but got away without it other years. More an issue with clay
than other soil types. If organized and planning to till, planting a
winter cover crop (rye being the classic) is good. If planning a bit
further ahead a planting of daikon radish can help with the
sub-structure (even if not tilling - it does some "tilling" as it grows,
and if left to rot in place adds benefits.) There is also the "no-till
roller-crimper" method of dealing with cover crops (and turning them
into mulch), which might give you another welding project for the
tractor. http://www.covercrops.msu.edu/crimper/about.html

I threw caution and my usual procrastination to the wind and ordered
seeds on January 1 for a likely too-ambitious garden. General philosophy
is moving towards more perennials (berries, etc) that don't need effort
when we have no time, but I went right ahead and ordered leeks (never
have had them work, but giving it a shot again) carrots (spotty with our
soil of clay) basil (work ok if we can keep them from getting eaten by
other things), cabbage (never have tried it since I don't like it fresh,
but the sauerkraut experiments went well) lettuce and spinach and New
Zealand spinach (often disappointing in the past) corn (usually
disappointing or eaten by raccoons) peas (can be OK if not chewed off by
rodents) tomatoes (eventually do OK, getting them anything like early is
a lot of work and or a crapshoot) and beans (usually OK, trying soy for
edamame for first time.) Also trying a "decorative spring wheat" just
for giggles. Got my garlic planted, finally, on Boxing day. That is
usually fine if I don't wait until spring.
Our plantings are so small nowadays a packet of seed generally lasts two
years and sometimes three. We keep them in the fridge sealed in an air
tight container.

We grew leeks two years ago and they got very large. Neither of us cared
for the taste so quit growing them. We broke up some clay soil back in
Louisiana years ago with a Mexican plant that got as big as your head.
The taste was good when immature but we didn't care for the taste of the
full grown root. Don't remember the name anymore. With the raised beds
and Mel's Mix from Square Foot Gardening we don't have soil problems
anymore. Reminds me I need to start mixing the mix to add to the raised
beds before to long.

Going to cut loose about a ten lb cabbage head tomorrow and turn it into
kraut. There's a six or seven lb cauliflower out there too. Wife likes
cauliflower roasted, grilled, or sauteed, I only like it pickled. Looks
like we can have all of the above with this head. Kale is going nuts as
is the chard and other winter plants. We've had so many hot days
followed by cool nights the whole garden is going nuts. The pear tree
still has its leaves, generally gone by December. Now I'm worrying it
will bloom and then we'll get a frost.

That's Texas weather, if you don't like it wait for tomorrow and it will
change, one way or another.

As for amendments, compost is always good, and if you are not using the
garden for a while, composting in place works. Sort out what else you
might want to add later, but fire up all the compost you can handle now.

I don't find a lot of benefit in most of my observed experiments with
companion planting, YMMV.

In article ,
"Terry Coombs" wrote:
studying on companion planting - not so much to find what does well together
but to determine what will NOT grow with what .

Nudged me along a bit and I went looking for free/open source planning
software (other than graph paper and #2 pencil) that appeared to
function and be getting worked on still (which came after looking at a
few that didn't function so well and had a corresponding considerable
age since last update.)

Currently playing with this one; does seem to have +/- companion plant
info, also supposed to inform about good/bad rotation planting choices
with multiple years data entered (which I haven't got to yet - though
there's remarkably little data for last year here, when bleep-all would
be what we did in the garden other than grow weeds and a very few other
things, and to complicate matters I'm trying to change-up the bedding
for next year and going forward.)

"Kitchen Garden Aid" on sourceforge. A Java-based thing (Java 7), which
will make some folks avoid it, but which also makes it cross-platform.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/kitchengarden/

I feel some holes (such as being able to put in specific varieties for
record-keeping at least, and no sign that it groks the typical
spread/scale of a plant. or gives any guidance for number per square
foot), but I haven't looked very carefully to see if they are just
interface issues or holes, and at least it is being worked on, so they
might get dealt with. It is rather square grid oriented, coming from
square foot gardening. Overall garden size is not something you can
enter to start, you just need to keep putting things in edge cells to
expand the grid (or zoom out to a small magnification, which is clunky
but does eventually work.) It does save files locally (they are also
pushing a variant that shares it to a cloud server, but that's not my
preference.) I haven't tried printing from it yet. so I don't know how
well that works or not.

This is one of the ones that looks potentially interesting but seems a
bit moribund (May 24, 2013), if aimed a bit more at farms:
https://code.google.com/p/cropplanning/ I suppose it's also moribund by
virtue of being at google code, but I haven't found it updated elsewhere.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

Derald wrote:
"Terry Coombs" wrote:

I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I
will be embarking on a no-till project
I am a great fan of "no-till" gardening but, unfortunately, I must
shake up my beds at least once/year and dig them every third-or-so
year due to incursion of native tree roots. I read Ms Stout's first
book in the mid-'70s and, IIRC, she minimized the fairly significant
fact that she _already_ had a thriving truck garden before she
decided to stop digging.
Unfortunately, new gardeners who see her book and/or who give
credence to the great mass of "Pollyanna" (and largely fictitious,
IMO) BS that abounds on the W3 about "no-till" and "lasagna"
gardening often conclude that all one need do is pile a bunch of crap
into a bed and wait for magic to happen. Well, the "magic" is
(almost) certain to occur, in most climates, but the expectant
gardener could be long dead. I am a strong advocate (and long-time
practitioner) of
chemical-free, wide-row gardening, especially for new installations in
areas with less than perfect soil texture-that is, most of North
America;-) Toward that end, I found early issues of "The Mother Earth
News" (first five or ten years) as well as Dick Raymond's _The Joy of
Gardening_ (1982, Garden Way Inc.) informative. Raymond's _Dick
Raymond's Gardening Year_ (1985, Linden Press) is also quite useful
but one must adjust the relevant dates to conform to ones latitude.
FWIW: Garden Way is the company that manufactured and sold the
"Troy Built" brand of gasoline powered rotary tillers and which also
sponsored Raymond's teevee "infomercials". However, regardless of
ones view of rototilling, the principles and information remain valid.
Through it all one cannot overemphsize the importance of succession
planting (so-called "relay planting") and of crop rotation. If you
don't already do so, start a garden journal that at least record
planting dates and location, 80% germination date, date of first
harvest, date of removal from the garden. After a few seasons, that
information will prove useful in planning companion and succession
planting.
The URLs following are sites that offer companion planting
guidance, much of it redundant, and all to be taken with the
proverbial GoS: One should always, always, take the evidence
perceived by ones own lying eyes over _anything_ some unknown-to-you
"expert" presents as "gospel", although it might pay to determine why
any divergence between your experience and The Truth exists. The
following are valid a/o this writing.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/companion-planting-guide-zmaz81mjzraw.aspx#axzz2nTqprCoo
http://www.burpeehomegardens.com/VegetableHerbGardening/_CompanionPlants.aspx
http://naturewiseplants.com/documents/CompanionPlants.pdf
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/compatible-plants-onions-garlic-22804.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants#Vegetables
http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/Companion_Planting/companiontables.asp
http://www.sgaonline.org.au/companion-planting/

All of the above links are from my W3 bookmarks. However, IMO,
contents should be regarded as largely anecdotal and inherently
unreliable when used in any specific application. Although it seems
obvious, that "companions" must have common nutrient and water
requirements often is overlooked. Failure of individual varieties to
thrive when interplanted in a community garden might be interpreted as
"antagonism" when the cuase really is nutritional deficiency or
imbalance or even disease. We gardeners seem to have a bit of the
gambler's fallacy about us but, then, would a pessimist be gardening
in the first place?
Finally: Nothing to offer about when to start seeds in your part of
Arkansas(?). As a rule, all I start in pots (and not indoors) are
tomatoes, peppers and eggplants and that's usually some time in
February. I do so only because the juveniles don't survive well in
the wild down here. Seedlings are extremely effective cutworm and
grasshopper bait until the stems toughen a bit and for a while
thereafter the leaves remain at risk.

Thanks Derald ! Lots of good info there . My biggest problem here is that
I've let what decent soil I have get washed downhill . Thus the terraces ,
and heavy mulch to help keep rainwater from washing what I do have left
away - and to get that organic stuff into the soil . I will till this year
to incorporate what organics I have into the soil and to be sure I start
with it loose . Also to finish defining the terraces .

--
Snag

Derald wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:

I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I will be
embarking on a no-till project

I am a great fan of "no-till" gardening but, unfortunately, I must
shake up my beds at least once/year and dig them every third-or-so year
due to incursion of native tree roots. I read Ms Stout's first book in
the mid-'70s and, IIRC, she minimized the fairly significant fact that
she _already_ had a thriving truck garden before she decided to stop
digging.

yeah...

Derald you do have to recognize that the OP is
dealing with sloped areas and that's always a challenge
when one combines that with clay and the potential for
heavy rains. surface mulching (whether you call it
lasagna gardening or whatever else) is going to be an
important part of any gardening in such an area until
it gets covered again with vegetation.

terracing and soaking in rains can only go so far too
without it being a potential hazard (soak in too much
water and you end up having the entire hillside slip).


Unfortunately, new gardeners who see her book and/or who give
credence to the great mass of "Pollyanna" (and largely fictitious, IMO)
BS that abounds on the W3 about "no-till" and "lasagna" gardening often
conclude that all one need do is pile a bunch of crap into a bed and
wait for magic to happen. Well, the "magic" is (almost) certain to
occur, in most climates, but the expectant gardener could be long dead.

hmm, while i don't practive no-till in all of the
gardens here those gardens which are not tilled are those
that are very productive vs. how much effort i have to
expend on them.

i practice minimal soil disturbance methods in 80-90%
of the veggie garden area and the rest gets moved by
shovel so it isn't shredded.

depends a lot too upon what i have extra to bury too
as i'd rather stash extra organic materials underground
where the worms can get at them.

minimal till, i'm not into doing things just because
- i am into doing things which improve the soil the
most and so far i'm liking how it is going with what
i'm doing and how little effort i actually have to
expend for most of the gardens.

as i keep consolidating gardens it has made it a lot
easier to work in them. dedicated pathways, the less
of those i have the better. if you must have them use
organic mulching materials and then at least you can
come through later and turn it all under and plant it.


I am a strong advocate (and long-time practitioner) of
chemical-free, wide-row gardening, especially for new installations in
areas with less than perfect soil texture—that is, most of North
America;-) Toward that end, I found early issues of "The Mother Earth
News" (first five or ten years) as well as Dick Raymond's _The Joy of
Gardening_ (1982, Garden Way Inc.) informative. Raymond's _Dick
Raymond's Gardening Year_ (1985, Linden Press) is also quite useful but
one must adjust the relevant dates to conform to ones latitude.
FWIW: Garden Way is the company that manufactured and sold the
"Troy Built" brand of gasoline powered rotary tillers and which also
sponsored Raymond's teevee "infomercials". However, regardless of ones
view of rototilling, the principles and information remain valid.

heh, well as i've found out here they don't work well in
clay when it is either too wet or too dry and destroy the
creatures in the soil that i most want to encourage so i've
not done it since. the worms are much happier now (yes i
take a poll ).

the other trouble we had with them is that for the small
garden plots we had they made more of a mess than a help.

the money spent on the tillers (two, several hundred each)
could easily have financed my seed, tool and hose buys for
the next 10 - 20 years.


Through it all one cannot overemphsize the importance of succession
planting (so-called "relay planting") and of crop rotation. If you
don't already do so, start a garden journal that at least record
planting dates and location, 80% germination date, date of first
harvest, date of removal from the garden. After a few seasons, that
information will prove useful in planning companion and succession
planting.

crop rotation is how i make my amending efforts go
as far as possible. very efficient.


songbird

On 1/6/2016 9:32 PM, Derald wrote:
"Terry Coombs" wrote:

Also to finish defining the terraces .
How defined will the terraces be? If you really are starting over,
have you considered raised beds? I neglected to mention that since
2008, I've gardened in raised beds that my wife built in 1997 and
gardened in for a few years and, despite a few drawbacks, find them
advantageous over attempting to maintain the native soil, as I had done
previously. In this part of Florida, the only thing that changes within
the first 20-30 feet of digging is the color of the sand.

And that's the reason we now garden in raised beds. It's hard to make a
garden on five feet of Houston gumbo clay fill. The beds of flowers are
amended each year as they are in the clay. We dug out three full size
pick up beds of clay, hauled it around to the back fence, which was
teetering on falling over, and packed the clay in there. Saved the sorry
ass fence, which will be replaced this year, and kept the critters from
the detention pond from coming under the fence and eating our garden.
The snakes alone kept us busy for a while. Mostly harmless water snakes
with the odd water moccasin thrown in. The rat terrier no longer has to
patrol the back fence and bring us trophies of the kill.

Another plus is that we have rolling garden seats and use them along the
sides of the raised beds, helping elderly backs and still getting the
weeding, etc. done. Weeds seem to have an affinity for raised beds,
either that or the birds like to seed them. G We get free fertilizer
as one of the beds is under the power lines to a point and the birds
rest there frequently.

Heavy rain last night around 10 pm, lasted until the wee hours of the
morning. Knocked the power out twice. It seems our portion of Harris
Cty, TX needs some new electric wires and stations, don't know when we
get it though. Neighbors two doors down are on a different sub station
and their lights are always on. The rain makes sleeping better, the
thunder makes it difficult for the dawg to sleep. Oh well, such is
gardening and sleeping for old people.

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

the money spent on the tillers (two, several hundred each)
could easily have financed my seed, tool and hose buys for
the next 10 - 20 years.

That's something I've never done. The closest I've come to a power
gardening tool is my dad's Derald-powered push plow. As you know, by
"tilling" (as distinct from "rototilling"), I mean using hands,
four-tined spading fork, or shovel, pretty much in that order of
priority/frequency. Hands and/or fork blend in a pretty standard blend
of amendments plus a healthy dose of alfalfa and a fair share of
whatever compost may be available along with whatever volume of
legendary horse dung looks "right". Sometimes, though, I just push back
the mulch and plant, just like Ruth Stout.

it was done long before i moved back here, and both
were destroyed along with other equipment before my
time. now all that extra dead metal and wasted space
hogging stuff is gone and we're down to one large
weedwhacker which i've not needed to use since 2006, the
lawn mower and the hedge trimmers (which are useful for
chopping back the green manure patch).

there are some gardens here that i can do some work
in without having to use a shovel, but other than those
most of the rest of the gardens would break your hands
if you tried to stick your fingers in them. they are
getting better as i keep putting good organic stuff in
them and the worms do their magic, but like you said
before it takes time.


Harvesting compost from my "everbearing" compost pile and digging
in the garden with hands are, respectively, my two favorite gardening
activities. The shovel gets used, maybe once each year to loosen the
soil deeper than the reach of the fork and every two-three years to dig
deeply enough to cut invasive tree roots that the fork won't handle. As
you observe, tools, tillers, and such put earthworms and insects on
which I depend heavily to maintain the garden's health at risk. Hell,
no: I AM NOT OBSESSIVE with this damned gardening jones, it's just a
phase....:-)

it's a good phase IMO. respect for the earth is
something so many people either don't care about or
they just have no connection to it at all. go outside?
what's that? bugs? eww! etc. *sigh*

the other thing that gets me cranky is to watch the
farmers around me turn their fields into dead subsoil.
when i was a kid, when the farmers would plow the birds
would follow along behind so they could get the bugs
and the worms - now when they plow you don't see the
birds out there much at all. wish i could afford to
buy them all out around us and do a community farm
and gardens space, but i don't have that kind of $$$.


songbird

Terry Coombs wrote:
....
Thanks Derald ! Lots of good info there . My biggest problem here is that
I've let what decent soil I have get washed downhill . Thus the terraces ,
and heavy mulch to help keep rainwater from washing what I do have left
away - and to get that organic stuff into the soil . I will till this year
to incorporate what organics I have into the soil and to be sure I start
with it loose . Also to finish defining the terraces .

sometimes people dig up the soil at the bottom of the hill
and haul it up to the top again.

is the cold weather getting down your ways?


songbird

songbird wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
...
Thanks Derald ! Lots of good info there . My biggest problem here is
that I've let what decent soil I have get washed downhill . Thus the
terraces , and heavy mulch to help keep rainwater from washing what
I do have left away - and to get that organic stuff into the soil .
I will till this year to incorporate what organics I have into the
soil and to be sure I start with it loose . Also to finish defining
the terraces .

sometimes people dig up the soil at the bottom of the hill
and haul it up to the top again.

is the cold weather getting down your ways?


songbird

Up here they call it "ass-bitin' cold ". It was around 15° this morning at
3 when I was outside trying to get the generator running because the power
was out . With around 2" of fresh snow on the ground ...

--
Snag

On 1/18/2016 5:07 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
songbird wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
...
Thanks Derald ! Lots of good info there . My biggest problem here is
that I've let what decent soil I have get washed downhill . Thus the
terraces , and heavy mulch to help keep rainwater from washing what
I do have left away - and to get that organic stuff into the soil .
I will till this year to incorporate what organics I have into the
soil and to be sure I start with it loose . Also to finish defining
the terraces .

sometimes people dig up the soil at the bottom of the hill
and haul it up to the top again.

is the cold weather getting down your ways?


songbird

Up here they call it "ass-bitin' cold ". It was around 15° this morning at
3 when I was outside trying to get the generator running because the power
was out . With around 2" of fresh snow on the ground ...

39F this morning upon rising, now it's lots of sunshine and in the low
sixties. Winter here should be over in a few weeks, maybe sooner. Almost
time to put in the spring garden. Have a couple of huge cabbage heads to
harvest very soon, harvested a six lb cauliflower head last week, good
thing my wife likes the stuff. Her cauliflower soup does manage to stink
up the kitchen. Bah!

Terry Coombs wrote:
songbird wrote:
....
is the cold weather getting down your ways?

Up here they call it "ass-bitin' cold ". It was around 15° this morning at
3 when I was outside trying to get the generator running because the power
was out . With around 2" of fresh snow on the ground ...

uhg! that's about what it has been today. night time temps
are in the single digits. we've sometimes been able to get
out for some walks but i hate it when the eyelashes freeze
together when you blink.


songbird