Dry spring - wet day

Watching the weather forecast show a 40% chance of rain every few days for 2 weeks and getting not a drop, was not good for the newly planted windbreak, or my belated spring sowing. It was great for mowing the wetter areas and tilling though. Below is a picture from where I hope to build of the newly tilled and mowed area.

The newly planted hedgerow trees took a beating, even with me driving around with a IBC on the tractor folks watering.  I probably lost some 15% of the newly planted trees to the dry heat and will need to fill in the gaps next year. The budding orchard fared better with me watering more frequently.

I have now added a 40x200ft tilled area to use as my first year seed nursery. For all the now tillers - yes, I am hoping to just do this shallow and initially.

I mowed the long grass down with the rotary mower at a really low level, then used a 72" rototiller set shallow (about 3-4") and tilled the grass and clippings in. I rushed the tilling to planting as it was early June already and I was concerned heat would just burn some of the seedlings when hot dry summer arrived. 

There a few things I will do differently next season, when I plan on doubling the nursery size to facilitate next years plantings while this years continues to grow.  

1) I did not leave enough time between tills for the grass roots to dry out enough. Although tilled, some have sprouted again. A extra week between tills would have given more time for the grass to die completely.

2) Mulch - Although I tilled in all the grass, I have not had time to make compost or decent mulch (wood chips need some time). Clay soil needs large amounts of mulch to stop it turning to brick. For now I am just using hay - but a layer of compost would have been great

3) Weeds - yes, there is going to be many - one seems to be predominate already. A cover crop to suppress weeds and add even more organic content would be better. 

4) A hiller or bedder is something that save a lot of time

So the plan for next seasons nursery will start this season. Probably during the hot dry summer and perhaps even get 2 cover crops in before spring planting. 

Then yesterday we had 40mm of rain in 1 day and rain the forecast again almost every day this week. Great for the seeds, seedlings, my budding orchard and wind break trees, but that much will make doing any heavy work difficult for a few days, except some of the higher ground.

Planting Windbreaks

One of the first projects I set was to start growing some windbreaks, starting on outside edges and accounting for the more frequent wind directions first. I ordered trees from a web page treetime.ca which I had not previously used. The government programs all expected me to reforest the farm land, and not just plant breaks. I was not able to find one promoting windbreaks or hedgerows that offered any plants or plant discounts. If anyone knows of one...

Being a bit late in the season, some of the options I was hoping to purchase were sold out for the season, but in the end I got 2 boxes of plants this year. 

180 x Sundancer Poplar (Populus x ACWS151) developed at the Agroforestry Center in Indian Head, SK. It is very columnar at only 3m wide and 12m tall. It is seedless and considered very hardy (drought and salt tolerant)

270 x White Spruce (Picea glauca) 6m wide and 25m tall. Native to Canada. 

This Tuesday the Poplars arrived and Wednesday the spruce arrived for a total in the end of 450 trees needing to be planted as quick as possible. I will probably add some next season that I missed this year.

I spaced them both in row at 3m (a bit wider than recommended for the poplar, but right on for the spruce. I staggered the rows planting the poplar 2.5m in from the fence line and the first spruce 5m. A second row of spruce I put in the southern field at 9.5m in. I suspect I add a 3rd row, of some other evergreen next year for a truly dense break on the road side which is also the prevailing wind side. I tried to come up with some creative non linear planting model, but putting that into practice would just take too long.

I also purchased seeds for silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea) which I plan to plant closest top the fence. As a nitrogen fixer, local to North America and with high salt tolerance and low height it fitted well. The added benefit of the fruit for wildlife. These I will grow and transplant a bit larger once they can compete better. 

Now I am sure everyone has heard for the tree planter that plants 2000 trees a day, well, clearly I would not cut it. Yesterday I planted about 140 trees and came home and lay on the couch feeling all the aches. That leaves me with about 2 more days of planting these out. And yes, my lines are not all perfectly straight.

In the mean time, issues with my tiller and tillage plans have delayed the planting out of any seeds or annuals. I have got some of my genetics planted and some more arrived this week from a order I placed at bambooplants.ca. Ironically a local company that required me to ship the plants. They have some great cultivars, but ironically some of the plant labels came out during shipping, so when you ordered 2 cultivars of the same plant, its not ideal. These I am also planting in rows 3m apart. its wide enough to mow between yet not damage the plants and some will require that space. Not the progression I had hoped, but progress none the less.

A Late start to spring

Well, yesterday I got to actually walking about and formulating the beginning of a layout and plan. It was a beautiful spring day, after a week of rain and the place is coming alive!

 

 The Old Oak

 

The grass is green, the birds are around and the two ravens complaining ceaselessly of my intrusion. The best of all the bugs are out! I was extremely happy to see these Ladybugs emerging from the old barn.

 Lady Bugs

Even more exiting was as I walked past one willow (not sure if its a cracked willow or Almond leaved yet) I could hear the buzzing. Thousands of bees covered all the spring flowers.

I found barn swallows in the old pig shed, got swooped on by a red wing blackbird and tittered at by the robins as I slogged round with a measuring tape trying to get some idea of windbreaks/hedgerows. I even saw ducks nesting and neighbours said they saw turkeys. 

Poking through all the grass is now some dandelions and a some other plants, that just a few weeks ago were not visible.

Tractor, Wellies and a Hat

On this the 4th day of May in the year of 2023 AD, the journey begins.  

Today I take possession of just shy of 50 acres - to be christened 7chapels. Its a cold may day with rain, but the sun looks like it will be back tomorrow. There is so much setup and clean up needed, I am sure I will keep warm and busy. I have rented a trailer just to carry equipment, tools,  a patio table and of course a BBQ and outdoor sink. Trimmers, chain saws etc. Included in this is a 12 volt pump and gas based hot water shower. In short a bush camp - to let me spend time and clean up there.

I found a older used Kioti Nx 4510 HST as my tractor - which of course will be named "Wile E". This may have been a big mistake purchase, but choice was severely limited after last years"shortages". We will soon know. Kioti seems to be doing really well here currently and it was. I was reluctant to dish out twice the money for a new tractor for 3 reasons

1) Size - I suspect this is the right size ... for now, but I also suspect in a few years,. a smaller may be better. A lot of this depends on the use and that I am yet to discover.

2) Diesel - We all hate combustion engines now, so who knows what will come. Currently electric options are just not worth it. 

3) Experience - Mine with tractors is somewhat limited and my experience with limited experience is that you screw up. Rather not do that on a new machine. 

Its a bit late for April tasks, but we seasonally a little late this year and I am hoping I have not missed the window. I have been shopping for a 6 ft rotary cutter, but yet to make a decision. If it dries up as being forecast, I should probably cut early next week though, to prevent the early growth of those trees springing up in the fields. I am hoping to get some seed to over seed to add some diversity to the grass and not miss this window. One of these is going to be tillage radish and I am considering chicory (biannual) as well to loosen up some of the clay and at least clover - both as a pollinator and for nitrogen cycle.  

I found some sulfur at TCO Agromart and will be picking that up in the next few days. I am starting with just 200kg - way under the recommendations calculators but in part as sulfur leaches. I need to get the sulfur cycle established and working and not overwhelm. 

Other tasks this week involve clean up and starting with the layout. Measuring out future fields, wind breaks and picking locations for building etc. 

 

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.