So it has been a while since I have done a general update, and I really have not been that consistent on posting. This is probably because of business, lack of a nice motivating post and in general lower rewards here on hive and other sites. But Hive is still better and giving me good rewards so I should still be posting consistently and any deceases can be also attributed to my lack of consistency.
So far I have got about 9 wheelbarrow loads of compost out of the compost system I setup in October at the resort. I have another pile of more raw compost that will now be turned into the area that i just cleaned out. I am sure we will find more ready compost somewhere in the pile during this process. The compost has all be augmented with bio char that I made and I will do a post soon on the process of making bio char. I will also be working on a video that is long over due on the whole process. I think next time I can send everything through a screen to get smaller pieces to work with but I am in a hurry to get a jump on the rain so after I laid the compost and as I do my planting I just throw some of the bigger pieces into the swale out of the beds.
I am being a little stingy and careful with the compost because I do not have enough for full coverage of the farm, some of my beds are still mulched from last season, and my soil is not completely depleted of nutrients anyway since I was putting down chicken manure last season and I will be getting some more this season soon hopefully. Since a number of my beds still have some mulch I did not want to till them and mix the mulch into the soil because this can actually pull some nitrogen out of the soil. So for this bed above I pulled the mulch aside and filled using the compost. This bed I planted corn down the middle, I then planted beans, and butter nut squash around it, making a 3 sisters planting much like the native american's did with complimentary plants. I also added some marigolds for pest prevention and attraction of polinators.
This bed was not well mulched last seasons so I put compost on top and worked it into the bed a little bit. For this bed I did a series of smaller rows in it and it will be mainly greens so I wanted them a bit more compressed to shade the soil and create their own micro climate. Here I planted green onions, lettuce, basil, broccoli, and two times of rocket. The bed behind with the framework is my seed nursery bed.
Here is my seed bed that I put a net over to keep the heat of the sun off of it some. I have amended it with some compost and coco peat on top, I did not have enough left over coco peat. So far I have planted here for transplant into other beds later some chili peppers, egg plant, more marigolds, dwarf pawpaw, tomatoes, bell peppers, and barage. I still have about 3/4 of the bed to fill. These seedlings will grow very close together and I will then dig them up and transplant them around the farm in other beds.
This is where I grew my tomatoes last season and it is always important to rotate growing to avoid diseases and soil depletion. This season I have planted some cucumbers here each surrounded by some radishes to keep pests away and then some marigolds and flower mix with dill on the edges.
In this bed I am doing another high density greens and herbs bed. I did some horizontal rows on this through the mulch again and filled with compost. I then planted so far some onions, red cabbage, green cabbage, Nasturanius, Cilantro, and lettuce.
I have an oddly shaped bed next to the water tank and swale that I threw all the chafe on from when I was doing my basil seed harvest. It is now alive since I have started watering it with lots of little basil seedlings.
I have a high erosion potential area on where my path cuts through the bottom side of the first swale. I have planted some lemon grass here to hopefully help with that and of course provide some nice tea there are a few little green babies coming up now.
I had a whole bunch of black eyed peas that had been infested with little beetles that had bored through them all. I did not think they were going to be any good for planting or eating but hedging my bets I dug a hole and put them all in the hole and started watering it. Now they are like zombies coming out of their grave and I am quite surprised at their vigor. I have started planting some around the farm now.
You can see here that the Pawpaws are now responding nicely to a little bit of watering. Now that they tank is here I have put them in the watering schedule also and I even have one with two small pawpaws on it now. We also have more in the seedling bed that I will put on the two lower swales.
Thanks for following up update, I hope things will be looking a lot greener on my next farm post.