Back From Vacation

Picture of the Garden early in the day before being weeded.

Another patch of weeds

A Picture of the Corn after cultivation and weeding

We had the chance to take a break from it all by going to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  It was a nice trip, but the sad part is that we came back to very dry conditions.  We also came back to a garden that was full of weeds.  The good news is that we were able to tackle the weeds fairly quickly using our favorite tools: the wheel cultivator and the stirrup hoe.  Taking advantage of the dry conditions of the soil, I made several passed with the cultivator.  This helped remove most of the small weeds and loosen the soil around the larger weeds.  I then passed the stirrup hoe through the loosened soil.  This loosened up the remainder of the larger weeds.  I then raked the weeds to the edge of the garden, so that they could be placed into the compost pile.

A mostly Cultivated portion of the garden. The Wheel Cultivator is out of gas at this point (At least the operator of the weed Cultivator was out of gas)

I tried again to use the collinnear hoe, but I must be doing something wrong with that.  I can’t seem to get mine to work well.
The one positive is that the weeds will be turned into compost later on.  This compost will turn a negative into a positive.  The weeds were stealing nutrients from the soil and the desired plants, but the weeds will return those nutrients back to the garden in the form of the compost.  I actually tried something new with the weeds.  I placed the big weeds into the cold frame and I will keep it closed.  This way, the weeds will cook faster.  It is just a hunch, but I will try it and see what happens.

I also took time to plant some pumpkin seeds and some popcorn.  The popcorn is a new crop for us this year.  I used a heirloom open pollinated variety.  This way we can save the seeds for next year.  I have been trying to use open-pollinated and heirloom varieties more and more.   I figure that I can save seeds for the future, therefore saving a bit of money down the road (assuming that the varieties are as good as the hybrids that we have used in the past.)  I planted most heirloom varieties as either new crops or as backup crops to ones that we have tended to rely upon in the past.

I often like to link to related articles as I go along.  Hopefully these provide you with more information than what I can touch upon in any particular post.  I also figure that this is a way to help out other bloggers that post good content.  I follow farm on a regular basis.

Related articles

• The difference between open-pollinated, heirloom, and hybrid seeds (thrivefarm.wordpress.com)
• Organic GMO-Free Corn – From WI Farms (wholefoodandmore.net)
• 4 Reasons Why Heirloom Seeds Should Have a Superiority Complex (livingseedcompany.wordpress.com)
• The Beauty of Heirloom Seeds (eatdrinkbetter.com)
• Heirloom Plants. Fruits, Veggies and Flowers (nicolebrait.com)

The difference between open-pollinated, heirloom, and hybrid seeds

Reblogged from The Adventures of Thrive Farm:

Reblogged from http://blog.seedsavers.org/open-pollinated-heirloom-and-hybrid-seeds/#.T7jq-xD_Nhk.facebook

Deciding which seed to plant can be a daunting task, and the decision is often more complicated than simply trying to pick which beautiful tomatoes to grow. Among the more important decisions every gardener makes is the choice between open-pollinated, hybrid, and heirloom seed varieties. Each of these seed types has something to offer, depending on the gardener’s needs, interests, and values.

Read more… 429 more words

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Raw Sweet corn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] Couldn't have put it better myself. This is a good explanation of seed types. We like Open-Pollinated Heirlooms for seed saving, yet we utilize F1 Hybrids for several of our crops (Sweet corn being the most prolific!)

Related articles

• Homesteading Series part 6 plant selection (heritagebreedfarms.wordpress.com)
• Organic GMO-Free Corn - From WI Farms (wholefoodandmore.net)
• Starting Seeds and Transplanting: A Beginning Farmer/Gardener Guide to Growing Healthy, Organic Plants from the Kerr Center (slideshare.net)
• The Beauty of Heirloom Seeds (eatdrinkbetter.com)

Homesteading Series part 6 plant selection

So now we move on to the selection of plants.  Again this may be higher on the list, but we will discuss it here.  The reality is that all of these parts are intertwined.

Selection of plants can be broken down into several categories.  First we need to consider what the animals will be eating.  So one consideration is the pasture, the other consideration is the crops.  Second we will look at the garden plants.  Third, and finally, comes the orchard and berry plants.

Plants for the animals.

Pasture:

Crops. View from a bridleway. The different textures and colours are created by barley in the foreground, wheat behind and young sweet corn to the right. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As can be noted from examining the blog here, we are fans of grazing systems.  This allows for less equipment and generally more self-sufficiency.  We prefer rotational grazing, but I digress.  So what plants do you want to have in your pastures?  Pasture should include one or two types of grasses.  Typical types include Fescue, Ryegrass,Timothy, Orchard Grass and Kentucky Bluegrass.  Other plants that are typically included in pasture are red clover, ladino clover, white clover and alfalfa.  It is recommended to have a variety of these plants within a given pasture to provide varying amounts of protein, vitamins, and mineral.  Certain plants also thrive at different times of the year.  By varying the types of plants within a given pasture, the grazing season can be extended both earlier and later in the year than normal.

Selecting Forage Crops

Carsington Pastures, Derbyshire (Photo credit: eamoncurry123)

Crops:

Perhaps crops are what many people think of when they think of plants on the farm.  Crops are used for many different purposes, the main one of which is food for the animals.  Field corn is a crop that is vital to many farming operations.  It is very versatile and can be fed to numerous species of animals.  Corn has traditionally been a very inexpensive feed source, though that had changed some with the subsidization of the ethanol fuel industry.  Soy beans are another crop that is grown in abundance in the United States.  It is used as a protein source and also as a way to fix nitrogen into the soil when used in a crop rotation.  Other crops that are commonly grown are Wheat, Barley, Rye, Oats, Spelts and many others.  Some of these, such as oats and wheat, can be used for two purposes.  The grain is harvested for use as a feed and the stalks can be harvested for use as straw (animal bedding).

Garden Plants

The vegetable garden is one of the main focal points of a homestead.  A garden serves to provide fresh food and also bountiful harvests that can be stored for winter usage.  The plants that can be grown in a garden are limitless.  We will discuss a few here, but the scope of this particular series does not permit for an in depth discussion.

USDA 98c0442 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sweet Corn is the starting point, as it is one of our favorites.  The only downside that I see with Sweet corn is the space required to grow it, though the space can be maximized by using interplanting (we plant melons within the rows of corn, which allows the melons to spread out.  Both melons and corn take a lot of space, but by growing them in the same row, we can capitalize on some of that space.)  Beans are another key crop.  We also raise green beans (Green Jade works well as a variety).  There are many types of beans, several of which can be dried.

Other vegetables that are traditional garden staples include lettuces, spinach, onions, beets, cucumber, zucchini, squash and many others. Heirloom vegetables are those that are passed from generation to generation. They serve to preserve the plant genetic variability. Heirloom plants (as long as they do not get cross pollinated) will produce seed that it is true, meaning that the seed can be saved and replanted. Once replanted, the seed will produce plants that are the same variety as the mother plant. Hybrids plants do not produce seeds that will grow predictable plant offspring. Oftentimes the seed is not viable. At other times , the seed will produce on of the parent varieties that was used to make the hybrid plant. An example of this is Incredible Sweet Corn. This is our favorite sweet corn. Saving the seeds and replanting them will usually produce a dent corn or field corn that was used in the cross pollination to get the incredible hybrid.
We utilize several varieties of heirloom vegetables so that we can save the seeds if desired. A few examples are blue hopi corn (Below)

and golden bantam corn. Heirloom seeds can be purchased from several suppliers. We usually make our selection from Fedco Seeds.

Orchards and Berries

The third and final category for homesteading plants includes Orchards fruits and berries.  This category will be finished in another post due to space and time constraints.

Related articles

• Start a Self-Sufficient 1-Acre Homestead (rajultrivedi.wordpress.com)

Better Late than Never

I contacted a local friend today to inquire if they had made their final seed order yet.  She is checking into it and thinks that I may yet have some time.  We order from Fedco Seeds.  I generally like their selection as they offer a wide variety of heirloom vegetables.  I often wonder if heirloom vegetables will adapt (notice I did not say evolve as they don’t change into something, just s regional variant) to the soil and local area to which they are planted.  I think this is the case personally.  During the soil seminar that I attended, the speaker mentioned that they had noted the same plant growing in different local areas that had better resistant to pests and disease.  He noted that one form of the plant was virtually pest free, while the other plant (which was located within 1/2 mile) was infested with pests.  Same plant variety, different soil and local environment.  Perhaps the second plant was stressed due to lack or water, lack of sunlight or poor soil nutrients.

Back to the seed ordering.  I am after a few varieties to add to our garden this year.  The big one that we recently discovered is brussel sprouts.  They are ugly and stinky,  yet delicious if cooked up the right way.  These are a great source of nutrition and supposedly easy to grow.  The yield per plant is very good as well.  I am looking forward to expanding into this newer vegetable.

My other desire is to begin to replant our pastures to provide a more well round forage.  In order to so this, I am going to take soil samples and try to increase the organic matter and soil substructure.  I am not going to purchase enough seeds to replant the entire pasture, rather I am going to plant a small plot from which I will collect my own seeds to sow into the larger pasture.  I will take any left over seeds and spread them sparsely around the fields, in the hope that they will begin to drop seeds as well.  I will probably get a few types of grasses, maybe alfalfa and several types of clover to try out.  Each of these helps to supplement the grasses that we currently have.  I also would like to use legumes to help fix more nitrogen into the soil.  In subsequent years, we may turn over and replant some or all of the various pastures, but this will take some time and money to do.  That is why I am hoping to grow my own plots of seed crops.

Well that is all for now, other than to say that our (Red Poll Cattle) heifers are getting nice bellies on them.  Babies due in April or early May.  We are eager awaiting.