BTE, hugelkulture, hydroponics and other unconventional gardening

Ordered 25 Honeyoe Strawberry plants, 1 Brown Turkey Fig, and 6 Double Gold Raspberry plants from Starks today. The Raspberry plants are a primocane variety: bearing fruit on last years canes in early summer, followed by a second set of fruit on the new canes from Sept to killing frost.

The fig will reside in a large pot, and spend the winter in my basement under a grow light if I manage to keep it alive.

Super heavy rains yesterday through mid day today. Lower lawn is under standing water. Can't do much more than continue mucking out insect infested raspberry crowns today.

First venture making Bio-Char tonight. It went so well that I will surely be doing it again. 1/2 hour to burn a huge pile of raspberry canes and roots. Then, pulled some soil from sides of trench over the char to put out the fire. It will be interesting to see if the raspberries planted in this area grow better than the ones w/o biochar.

Next plan is to lay plastic to solarize the area where the 2 raspberry beds will be. Then, amend with compost before planting.

I was looking at my comfrey in the orchard today, realizing that it's time for me to get out there and harvest. I plan to place a layer over the weedy grass clippings that are now mulching the potatoes. May make some comfrey compost tea also.

https://www.tenthacrefarm.com/7-ways-to-fertilize-the-garden-with-comfrey/

And, here's an other fun article:

https://www.thecapecoop.com/top-six-herbs-grow-chickens/

Hubby and I have been working on finishing the HK mound the last few days. Making slow progress. HK is not for the faint of heart. It is very labor intensive to build, but... the end product will provide years of great gardening.

I found my first flush of wine cap mushrooms in the orchard. many have gone by, but I picked 3 good mushrooms. Thinking pizza would be good for supper tonight! I will take the remaining wine caps and distribute them throughout the orchard, and some in the garden to inoculate more areas with the spawn.

I'm pushing the envelope a bit more this year: If they say "It can't be done." ... It's my intent to see if that's really the case.

They say, "Sawdust will rob your soil of nitrogen." I've heard such dire predictions that say that sawdust will render your soil unusable for at least a year. And, "they say" that sawdust should NEVER be mixed into the soil. I stumbled upon some spent sawdust bedding that was lightly sprinkled with horse nuggets and goat berries. I brought home several barrels full and laid it in a section of the garden about 8 weeks ago. Yet an other no-no! Not supposed to use raw manure in the garden. Though horse and goat manure are not considered to be hot, "they say" that there is risk of introducing pathogens into your garden.

This section was the last area to be renovated and planted. While that sawdust was doing it's supposed nitrogen robbing, the mint and garlic left from last year was going absolutely crazy in that area. It took a whole day to grub those roots out of that area. I might add that all the top growth was vibrant green... no signs of nitrogen depletion! The worms were also going crazy in that section. I might say... there was more worm activity here than in all other areas of the garden. IMO, a sign of good things happening with the soil life.

So... after grubbing the roots out, and digging out a huge crop of rocks, there was a fair amount of blending of soil and sawdust. Yet an other "Must never do" b/c it will ruin your soil.

First, I planted 6 more tomato seedlings (purchased plants) in the usual fashion: pull back the sawdust mulch, and plant the tomatoes in the loosened soil.

Today, I planted some potatoes: These plants were the result of my "What on earth were you thinking? That's not how you are supposed to grow potatoes!" experiment. (I had some nice spuds from the grocer. Set one on the windowsill this winter, and waited FOR EVER for it to sprout. No doubt it had been hit with an anti sprouting herbicide. Eventually, it did sprout. As each eye put out tiny little points that would become leaves and roots, I gouged them out with only enough flesh to prevent injury to the sprout tissue. They were potted, and grew into 6" single stem plants. That one potato produced 10 nice sprouts.

Half of them were planted in the usual fashion: loosen up the soil, plant the potatoes, then pull the mulch up around them (in this case, established potato sprouts) Interestingly enough, there were tiny little tubers in each of the 2" pots. Each tuber was about the size of my thumb nail.

There was room for one more row of plants. This area was already compromised with a fair amount of mixing of soil and sawdust from my battle with the mint and rocks. So... I decided to challenge the "they say" crowd a bit more. I loosened the soil a bit with the broad fork, and pulled the sawdust/soil into a nice loose mound, about 16" wide x 14' long. More sawdust than soil. Into this bed, I tucked 5 sweet potato plants, and the 5 remaining potato seedlings.

It is my intent to water as needed and fertilize this area if the plants appear to need it. I used some 5-10-5 initially. I will also add some epsom salt.

I don't trust the "must not do". Some plants like hot fertilizer just fine. I use lots of fresh chicken litter where I plant squash. It makes monster plants with lots of squash. Even works in containers. Mom was skeptical but tried it the next year and had extremely good results as well.

In the BTE orchard: The potatoes are just now coming up. Strawberries are ripening. No signs of the corky virus that plagued them when they were growing in the garden.

Sweet potatoes planted in the fine wood chip/horse manure long hill are looking good. No signs of N depletion. About 50% of the tiny little asparagus roots that I planted have sprouted. Note to self: Next time I buy asparagus crowns, spend the extra bucks and buy the nice big beefy crowns from the feed store. False economy to buy the tiny little packages, even though variety choices are greater. Strawberries planted in the asparagus beds are growing well, and starting to send out runners.

Pole beans are starting to climb. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant are blooming. First tiny little tomato set.

Hubby and I are finishing the HK mound. Much thanks to a friend who loaned his Kubota to us for a couple weeks. I'm hoping that the mound will be finished this weekend, so I can tuck the remaining squash plants in.

Hinotori said:

I don't trust the "must not do". Some plants like hot fertilizer just fine. I use lots of fresh chicken litter where I plant squash. It makes monster plants with lots of squash. Even works in containers. Mom was skeptical but tried it the next year and had extremely good results as well.

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That's probably the explanation of why my zucchini is doing so well this year. I made a 4x6' bed and dumped a wheelbarrow load of coop litter in it and one of garden dirt. The zucchini has been growing like crazy.

@Lazy Gardener, we have an HK started too. That tractor sure would be nice!

Ours is long, maybe 50', and about 8-10 feet wide. We've been piling wood as we clear brush. Our plan was to cover it with compost from the county (free), but the last several times I was there, the man wasn't there to load it. I'm hoping to catch him soon. Then we plan on covering it with old hay. Right now its a half completed mess and possibly a snake bed. I need to get it finished or gone soon.
Our hope is that this area will keep rain water from the ridge behind us from continually flooding the back lawn and directing the water along the HK mound to the drainage ditch along the edge of the property.

milkmansdaughter said:

That's probably the explanation of why my zucchini is doing so well this year. I made a 4x6' bed and dumped a wheelbarrow load of coop litter in it and one of garden dirt. The zucchini has been growing like crazy. View attachment 11572 View attachment 11573 View attachment 11574

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Mom put down 8 inches of aged horse manure then planted zucchini and tomatoes in it one year. The plants were taller than me. She wanted me to bring down enough chicken litter to replicate that. I don't have that many large fowl chickens. She got six 40 pound bags of dry chicken litter last time and it wasn't enough for her.