Broadly speaking. Let me define R&D, i.e. Research and Development, terms that sound loudly and proudly, as they shall be used by me.
It's testing the grounds and gathering experience, making conclusions and decisions about what to do next time.
This time, specifically, but not exclusively, I shall be talking about plants. Growing food on land I have access to. But not in the ways of my forefathers. I shall try growing it without the pesticides this year and see where that takes us.
They say it shall lower productivity so much it will all be pointless. I do not believe that...yet. And I am looking for ways to make that non-belief a firm thing. Even if productivity is zero this year, I want to continue the way I now started...more learning will have to be done...Post experimentum.
The experiments so far...
Always the green peas activist ;)
There be carrots.
The important potatoes...
And the garlic flagship.
'So far so good', said the person falling from the tenth floor upon reaching the third floor.
I learned another saying from my father, that would apply to a lot of fields...get it...fields...
It would translate as:
Be a sower, not a knower.
So far, I was pretty happy that seeds turned into stems. Looks green and healthy. Let's see if we have food enough to make some diet diversification and...continue sowing next year.
When speaking of our garlic flagship, I mean it's the culture I have experience with, I know it grows well in these lands, and is kind of easy to let live on its own...except for a couple of dangers that should be avoided, one of those being a fly that lays eggs and causes rot. We kind of avoided it by planting After its breeding season was over. Accidentally, not by design.
Mulching...we try some. My brother paid for it and it's kind of expensive to start the system. Judging by trees we covered the ground around, it does a pretty good job at suppressing weeds and more importantly, to me, keeping the soil wet.
We spread some among the garlic and potatoes that you can see above. Experimenting. Again.
It shall be a tough task, going forward year after year. But we have the patch of land and we do not intend to sell it or let lose it to entropy. In fact, I intend to obtain more...
After some R&D is done.
One needs to know what one invests in. I am getting to know it, at a cost. (Hopes and Time are costly, too, do not forget that.) But it's a long-term investment. Knowing what does not work can save years of vain labor.
Peas!
Manol