Soil tests

Well I took a front, middle (heavy Napanee Clay) and back (shallow) soil test in to TCO agromart in Napanee . They were super helpful and sent of the samples for me to A&L Canada Laboratories Inc. in London Ontario. I requested the S1B s7 package - for micro-nutrients as well. I eagerly waited the week out to see what the results would be. This was important test for me as it would establish the baseline and allow me to track the effectiveness of various approaches to soil health. 

 

It looks like PH is a bit high, I would like an average closer to 6.5 and perhaps some sulfur will help that. Phosphorus is also a bit low and some of the micro-nutrients could be bumped up. 

What is going to be a large focus for me is the Organic matter. I would like to see those numbers all edge higher. Overall it looks pretty good!

 

Korean natural farming anyone?

I been spending some time watching presentations on microbiology, especially mycorrhizae in soil. Its quiet fascinating, and the absolute lack of diversity at 7Chapels currently concerns me. Did I ever say how much I hate grass. The lack of insects and animals is painfully obvious currently and I assume the same is the case for the microbiology. 

There are literally millions ideas from burying you briefs to Korean natural farming idea of placing a host medium in a suitable place for a period of time, till this medium is showing the white fluffy mycorrhizae, then using this to inoculate various things. Rice is traditionally used as the medium, placed in a woven basket. Well, I am not weaving, and I have no idea what the basket at the store was subject to, to ensure it had no insects, so I built a quick wooden box. 

I place this box, with parboiled rice and in a few of the nearby locations I suspect are rich in different mycorrhizae. One is wetlands, one is pine forest and the 3rd is more woodlands. Leave it for a week to 10 days then check. If its looks white and fluffy, its going straight into my compost pile, which I hope to inoculate.  The compost in turn will be spread around. Its no were near as scientific as some would do it.

I don't want to bring things from outside into my bio containment area (the farm), but feel that for this the first season, it is important to do so in a controlled manner, as it currently feels very lacking in diversity.

Entrance set

One of the first things I needed was a approved entrance. This would greatly influence where I could/would build. Although I am a bit over a week from closing, I got a call from the county and they confirmed one of the existing farm entrances would be suitable to use as a residential entrance. Thank you County! To bring it up to code I would just need to get 6" of gravel laid down as everything else was in place.(well I need a working gate/posts etc...

The entrance is north of the old barn, just south of the midway of the frontage. That means a bit more than half the land will be to the north (behind) of the house. Although the view from the house will be truncated, it should offer view of the pond and the area I was planning on using as the nursery, leaving the area behind the house as the "orchard".

As soon as I take possession, I have to pay the permit fee and can then apply for a 911 number from the town. The address however may take some time as I don't yet have full building plans. Time to start working on those now that I have a rough idea of were to put the house. I was hoping to get a postal address sooner, as I could then get things delivered directly there and register all my services there vs move them all after the build, as I will probably be there more than here during waking hours.

Sadley the old barn does not have a bright future.

Yesterday I had a engineer look over the old barn. They had done a number of restorations in the area and I wanted a site visits, just in case, although I was prepared for the sad news. 

Some earlier care and maintenance was needed, but time and water damage along with old hay being left in the barn, has led to quiet a bit of wood rot This includes floors and some of the more structural beams. Though They did not forecast imminent collapse, it would be far more expensive to repair than build a new barn. A new barn would also have the some benefits in design flexibility. So throwing money is just not economically viable. 

Its such a lovely landmark, tearing it down for "space" seems a crime. Perhaps planting some creeper or vines on it and making it a landscape item is the solution.
 

Call them hedgerows or windbreaks

So I got my first on site visit and since it was over a month and really late winter when I last walked it, it was quiet a eye opener. I spent about 3 hours walking the perimeter and visiting various things.

The first shock was how quickly the pasture was being reclaimed - and not by desirables. The eastern red cedar, willow, and seedlings are rapidly taking over the pasture in huge patches.  The pasture was also extremely uneven with little tuffs of grass growing 6" higher than the valleys. Not a flower anywhere

The second shock was how little wild life I saw. I saw one Eastern Gartersnake out sunning itself. It lay there staring at me, totally unafraid. I saw 1 crow making a fair amount of noise and caught a quick glimpse of a few turtles that dived as I walked by. And maybe a dozen birds - no song at all frittering past. But I saw no squirrels, no chipmunks, no rabbits, dear, fox or anything else. Not even insects. Clearly there is no abundance of wildlife currently.

The soil on the front portion was in very good condition, the clay middle portion was totally waterlogged still and the the back soil was extremely shallow and stony. I actually broke my soil tester trying to take a sample.I realized that between the slope to the season stream and the howling wind, erosion on the back part has taken its toll. I could literally see for about 4km of uninterrupted fields with no windbreaks or hedgerows. No cover and no protection. 

Now the problem with hedgerows and wind breaks is that they shade your fields. If you growing a cash crop requiring as much sun as possible to achieve as much yield as possible, you don't just loose the space the hedgerow takes, but the shaded area also under produces. There is a wonderful app call suncal that allows you to calculate how long your shadow is for a given height for a given location. So for my area today, I would have just over 13m of shadow - during a time you desperately need the sun to get things growing. 19m in fall solstice - right around harvest.  So how often should you plant windbreaks. 

Thousands of articles later, I found this wonderful bit of research from the USDA. On page 12 it lays out that the distance between wind breaks should be "ten times the height of mature trees". So given a Canadian sugar maple mature height is about 20m, the distance between the windbreaks should be 200m. Or in other words the fields should be 200m. 100mx100m is a hectare, so if you do them in all, that's a 4 hectares or just under 10 acres maximum if you wish to minimize shadow. 

I went back to the satellite image and started measuring distances and plotting hedgerows and decided to do a 2x 200m2 fields near the road. 2 x 200m by 100m for the "wetlands" and 2x 200mx100m for the back poor soil. Leaving 2 smaller fields at the northeast back of the property divided simply into 2. This gives full sun, part sun and full wind erosion protection through the whole property.

More importantly though, I hope it encourages wildlife to return, offering them the much needed protection and cover that currently is just not there along with the rich diversity of hedgerows. 

 

Landed!

Well, with Covid and the "easy money", real estate went crazy. There were listings for hundreds of thousands for a couple acres of swamp and they were selling in hours. How different this year is - yet sellers were not willing to accept the change. 

So after a number of false starts (and although I do not believe the market has bottomed yet), I took the leap to get in this growing season and signed up to buy a small 49 acre (19 Hectare) neglected dairy farm in eastern Ontario, Canada in zone 5(just in b). I believe there is a great opportunity to create a wonderful micro-climate here though.

Is in a catchment valley with 3 distinct soil types ranging from a loam near the road, to "Napanee clay" in the middle to very shallow loam at the back. The only buildings currently are a rather dilapidated century barn and a few leaning sheds and an old grain silo. Most of the farm is currently pasture and most of the immediate neighbours are also cattle farmers. My hope is that this should limit any pesticides use in the lager area. I have not as of yet done a full soil test - yes I know I should have...

Its mostly pasture currently, with some clear erosion with few wind breaks. The term regenerative is definitely appropriate. I spent the last few hours repeating the mantra - "its a journey not a destination."  

I have not even walked it all yet. I walked a bit of it a few weeks ago, and I could see and "feel" the potential though. The diversity and range seldom found in such a small lot in Ontario. 

If all goes well, I take possession on the 4th of May. Yes "may the 4th be with me". Time to get planning.