Hugelkultur

Sorry again for the delay in posting.  We've been doing a lot of digging. 

What kind of digging? First of all, all the trees we ordered back in February came in, so we planted all of those. (Pictures to come). Then, we tried to hack our house's drainage. But before both of those, we built hugels.

We were introduced to some avid gardeners here and asked them what the best way would be to grow vegetables on our very wet, clayey soil. They told us to try out hugels. These are basically raised beds in layers. First you dig a little into the ground. Then on the bottom you put tree branches. On top of that, you put straw. Then you add dirt on top of that. The idea is that the plants are always in well-drained soil. At the same time, though, their roots can always access the water that has pooled down by the branches, and they can benefit from the decomposing organic matter in the bed. The result is "Hugelkultur" (as they would say in Austria). We did a bit of research and built a few. Our hugel's progress:

Step one: remove sod and add lots of sticks from the woodlot out back.

Step two: add more sticks!

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Step 3: take straw from chickens that they've, er, "nutritionally enhanced". Though when you pile up the straw, they  like to play around in it.



Step 4: Put the straw on top of the sticks and mix it with dirt in a desperate attempt to add organic matter to your soil. Our soil is very lumpy.

And that's pretty much it. You are now the proud owner of a hugel.

We've made two hugels so far and are working on a third. We just planted them, so we don't know how well they work yet. Though the seedlings are coming up. So far, so good. The only problem is really that these hugels take a lot of shoveling dirt, and a lot of picking up sticks. It's hard work, and it takes quite a while - I'd say a full afternoon to get a 4 by 8 foot bed. Covering our land in hugels is going to take years if we'd want to do it.

There was one moment of satisfaction that I didn't manage to get on camera. We'd used some straw as mulch on one of the hugels. One evening a week or two ago, we were weeding the hugel and L moved a clump of straw...to reveal a toad sitting at his ease in the wet dirt. I was going to shoo him off but he moved himself deeper into the dirt. So finally we covered him up with straw again and let him be.

Strong fences make sane farmers

J already apologized for the lack of recent posts, so I wont do so again, but rest assured, I had good reason. The reason being:

THE CHICKENS ATE MY VEGETABLE SEEDLINGS

No amount of bolding or readily available fonts can accurately convey the appropriate level of horror and despair. I have only just emerged from a fog of sadness and moping to tell you about it.

This happened while J was away in South Africa.  Prior to leaving he built and posted about a new greenhouse we were trying.   For a full two weeks it proudly presided over our backyard, gently heating (or being heated by) the mound of straw and compost we'd piled in there.  Meanwhile, I carefully prepared my seedlings for the long journey from the top of the boiler to the kitchen window, and finally, their first day outside in the greenhouse.

The great day arrived. I stocked the greenhouse with plants and then went off only to come home to find the greenhouse blown over and every plant ripped to shreds.  The plants weren't necessarily eaten- just strewn about among the pots and scattered soil like the day after a chicken kegger.

Greenhouse remains

Anyone that knows me knows that I love plants.  Possible more than people (sorry).  Definitely more than chickens.  I suppose I could have been mad at J and his carpentry skills or the wind or myself for putting ALL of my brassicas out on the first day, but I wasn't.  I was mad at the chickens and everything they did filled me with rage.

And so I made a fence around the coop with a bunch of log/sticks and deer netting.  Luckily the soil had just thawed and it only took about an hour to dig the holes and get everything set up.

The chickens were confused at first, and I felt bad about confining them.  But then I looked at my dying plants and hardened my heart and said "haha suckers, chicken jail for you!"

And then they escaped through a gap I hadn't sealed well and, because they can't really see the fence netting, they then spent the next 20 minutes body slamming themselves against it in an increasing panic as they tried to get back to their coop (but also evaded my assistance).  At least now they seem traumatized enough by the experience to not want to escape anymore.  For the most part they don't seem to care that they're confined, unless they see a human in the yard and decide they want attention (which is always).  Then they gather at the side and do this:




So now instead of the chickens rushing over to the house and trying to trip me every time I open the back door, I'm greeted with a very pitiful chicken cacophony, which is especially grating when trying to have a meal at the picnic table outside.

Unfortunately, the netting we used for the fence is very flimsy and has now started ripping where we part it to enter and exit, resulting in an increasingly elaborate pile of things leaned in front of it to keep the chickens from accidentally wandering out until we can frame a real door.

Its mostly been working.  But then of course the other day I was sitting by the window and saw a cardboard box roll by like a tumbleweed.  I went out to get it, and found that our door-barriers had blown down and the chickens had wandered out.  So what do they do with five minutes of freedom and 4.5 acres at their disposal?

 

And so I lost yet another tray of seedlings.