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[Dirtmechanic]

I have tried that, but my mower usually spreads them so thin I have to stop and rake them back into a row every pass. It's time consuming and I try to be efficient. I hate to say it, but I'm a a little lazy. I don't have a lot of free time for my hobbies, so I try to handle things as little as possible. If I can get handling leaves down to one afternoon instead of a multi-day project? Better all the way around in my book. That means I have more time to do the other things I have to do!

This will pick them up.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm a big fan of keeping things simple so shredding/chipping of materials seems pretty much a waste of time. for composting, the worms and soil creatures can figure it out, i don't have to even worry about what temperature, hot/cold/indifferent, they do it all. to me the idea is to encourage diversity and so to have different sized chunks of whatever buried in the garden works just fine. the bigger chunks provide habitat for the worms, etc and eventually it gets broken down. i don't need rapid cycling of nutrients as for most food compost here the worm farm takes care of those. so i'm left with once in a while piles of weeds harvested, any green manure, bits of branches or pieces of wood that can all be buried. chop and drop is perfectly fine too.

leaves, i leaves 'em as much as i can. pine needles we do rake up and use as mulch around some areas as needed.

i'm not lazy, i'm efficient. i'm also not liking to have yet another machine to maintain or listen to when it is working. i will be doing a happy dance the day i can get rid of the lawn mower. as a compromise for keeping some things chopped back once in a while i do have a hedge trimmer that i've used more for mowing the back green manure patch once in a while than for trimming anything else. at least that plugs in so i don't have to smell fumes/exhaust (my own are bad enough). i'd rather weed than mow any time. there's not all that much grassy areas or lawn left anyways - i think right now we mow more of the neighbor's property than our own.

oh, we do have a string trimmer, two stroke so gas and oil mix, it's down in the crawl space, i haven't used it in over 10yrs. it has a blade on it from the last time i used it to knock some woody brush back. since then i picked up a pair of loppers that will take down branches up to 3 inches across so i've never needed to get the string trimmer out again. for anything that gets over 3 inches i have a hand saw i use.

 

[henless]

@Beekissed - Your new garden plans sound wonderful! I can just imagine all the pollinators that will be coming in to enjoy your flowers. How are your sheep doing & your new dog?

@Prairie Rose - There is a guy on youtube that had the same trouble you did with herbicide in his mulch. He planted corn to pull the herbicide out of his soil to help get rid of it. Scott Head is his name/channel. He is located in Houston and gardens in his back yard. He is also a preacher. He gardens with his son & corgi.

Several other people on youtube have run across this problem. I used to buy my compost from Lowes, but not anymore. Unless you can track your mulch/compost back to it's source, you have no way of knowing if this herbicide is in there until it's too late.

DH is working on making some compost tumblers to help with my composting.

 

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed - Your new garden plans sound wonderful! I can just imagine all the pollinators that will be coming in to enjoy your flowers. How are your sheep doing & your new dog?

Sheep are preggers and fat as ticks, eating their way through all the hay stores....had to get three round bales today, but found a wonderful source at a great price, so it's all good.

Blue has been making great progress on and off leash, heels better than any dog I've ever had, and is learning the rules around here as time goes by. Hasn't killed anymore ducks, though they drink out of~and sometimes bath in~his water pan. Risky livin', right there, but it only took the one lesson at the time of his transgression to get it through his head....time will tell if it stuck in there. He's a sweet dog.

After the first of the year I'll have more time to work with him and I expect he'll make even bigger strides then. Ben is pretty jealous of him, so I expect there will be a battle one day when Blue is bigger and more mature. For now I keep them mostly separate....don't want Blue bonding too much with Ben and wanting to be with him when he's supposed to be with the sheep.

 

[Beekissed]

Will be trying something a little different this year with the garden. I'm expanding the garden but planting less veggies than previous years...going to take a little break off planting too much, as my stored canned goods are full and no room for anymore right now.

Will be frost seeding a cover crop this winter and also building some permanent raised beds(I think) so I can use the open areas for seed crops. Next fall I want to plant some red turkey wheat I have(was harvested and stored in the 70s), which I can let the sheep graze a few times in the winter and still harvest in the spring/summer.

I'll try to put in more perennial flowers and herbs in the extended version of the garden. I'd also like to put in a water feature of some kind for the ducks, using rain catchments to replenish the water basin/tub/receptacle.

I'll likely grow spuds, green beans, rhubarb, asparagus, squash and pumpkins but that's about it, besides the flowers, for the spring/summer crops. The garden may look like a hot mess this year, but how would that be any different from EVERY year?

I'm going to try to keep it very simple this next season, while still building good soil fertility for future gardening. Never grew wheat before, so that should be interesting.

Anyone else grow wheat?

 

[flowerbug]

...
Anyone else grow wheat?

i did once, most of it was turned under in the spring (all those roots do amazing things to clay) but i left one mixed patch of winter wheat and winter rye up long enough to get seed heads on it. then i chopped them all off and let them dry in box tops. i never threshed all of it out to get it to the edible stage.

towards the end the wheat was being raided by chipmunks that were fun to watch they would jump up and pull a seed head down to the ground to pull the seeds off it - they would do this with the poppies too.

i've always meant to get some perennial wheat to plant around the edges here to replace some of the grass that we have, but as i've found out how reactive i am to grass pollen i've never put a priority on it and gotten it done.

 

[digitS']

I hadn't heard of red turkey wheat so googled it. Southern Exposure Seed, okay. Wood Prairie Seed, oh okay ... then:

Turkey Red Wheat Harvest 2017 — Palouse Heritage

This past week marked the beginning of our Palouse Heritage harvest as our first crop of organic Turkey Red bread wheat was cut at our partner Brad Bailie’s Lenwood Farms near Connell, Washington. We have been raising this legendary hard red bread grain for the past two years in order t

www.palouseheritage.com

Okay! Well, I wasn't growing wheat on the Palouse or nearby in the 1950's. By the 70's, I was cutting it in a IH or JD combine like the one on that page. I also grew some wheat in my garden. The neighbor, a retired wheat farmer, and I enjoyed a few chuckles over my planting, never more than about 600 sqft . That was Black Bearded wheat, for ornamental purposes.

Steve

Then I see this: https://www.newscancook.com/recipe/bread-in-a-pot/

 

[Beekissed]

We've planted winter wheat many times, but mostly to cover the garden in the fall or as deer food, but never to actually harvest. Should be interesting. Sure hope I get some rodents playing in it....the cats will LOVE that!

 

[Beekissed]

Worked on the garden fence the past few days, extending the size of the garden to encompass a few apple tree saplings. Also reinforcing the existing fencing of deer netting and rabbit wire, with some free skids~heavy duty 10 ft. x 4 ft pallets. Unwieldy and heavy though they be, they were free and add a little rustic charm to the garden area.

The extended area will be dedicated to perennial flowers and flowering herbs and will be adding another apple tree there(hopefully a Honeycrisp), as well as another butterfly bush. I'll move the garden bench to that area and add a few other pieces of garden furniture as time goes on....possibly a swing and stone pathways. Hope to make it into bee and butterfly habitat.

If the Lord wills it, we may be getting a pond built on the place later, which will also benefit the birds and bees.

Trying to get the garden fence secured once again so I can plant a cover crop in there of all my left over seeds~greens, peas, squash, beans, flowers, clover and oats~so I can let the sheep in there come May to mow it all down and fertilize it well. I also need to build some raised beds in there, which will be fenced out temporarily for the great mow down. Those beds will have more asparagus, rhubarb, spuds at first and beans, a few maters and squash later. After the sheep graze it, I'll cultivate it a bit with the Mantis and plant wildflowers, sunflowers, zinnias, pumpkins and butternut squash.

Going to be a bit of a wild garden this year, which is fine with me, as I'll have little time to tend to it much....got too many irons in the fire this season~got lambs coming in April, need to build perimeter fencing of high tensile around the land, cleaning up from logging, building a wood shed/barn, and sorting pens. Will also be dealing with broodies and chicks, buying more sheep, and a million other things that normally happen in the spring and summer~family stuff. Going to be a great year!

 

[ninnymary]

My goodness Bee! You are going to be so busy and going to sleep very well. That's going to be a big transformation to your garden. Sounds lovely. Post pics.

Mary