We have picked the spot where we will be planting hardneck garlic starting this early autumn. A one acre plot out in one of many fields of mine, using measuring tapes we staked out a rectangular one acre spot. My soil testing showed this area was lacking in nitrogen, phosphorous but was good on potash naturally. Also the PH was quite acidic, we have plans on making it more alkaline for the garlic crops as they can handle near an 8 PH and we are at around 6 right now. We hope having a high PH soil the garlic will be happy, but will suppress everything else from growing there.
My plan is to add wood ash to the soil, and to add wood chips now and our previous years harvest of hay into the soil last minute. This will give us a long term release nitrogen source from the wood chips, but also with the hay we should get a more instant nitrogen source but more short term lasting than the wood chips. If I was just to add fresh wood chips, and fresh hay the bacteria inside would draw out the nitrogen feeding on it. But waiting for the heat to stop being produced from the hay it will then release the nitrogen instead of consume it. The wood chips have all spring and summer to break down so hopefully they will be good source of nitrogen by then.
Driving over to the fields we can see how they are starting to wake up, the grass has started to get more lush. Soon the clover, rye, orchard grass and oats should be coming up. And just a few months from now we should get our first cutting and bailing of hay from our new seedlings.
My property is connected to some power line cuts, so we drive down the easement and look for any fallen tree branches and collect them. There are many just laying on the road.
I drive the truck and my foreman drives the UTV. We load up a bunch of lumber and head back to the spot where we plan on using the wood chipper to grind it all up into mulch.
Wood ash has already been added to this area from my furnace, I took another soil sample and will find out soon if I raised the PH at all by adding a few hundred pounds of wood ash to the fields. Upon seeing the area it appears to be more green than the rest of the fields that were lacking the wood ash. So I think it is indeed helping. My markers are set for where we will lay the mulch, wood ash and then till it all into the ground.
The first haul of branches and logs. Hopefully none of these are too big for it.
Recently some tree trimmers came through the power line easement and trimmed back tree branches. Many just lay by the road. I filled my truck up with those, perfect for the wood chipper.
I have around 100 hay bales from the previous years harvest, it is no longer green and ready for use in the fields for a nitrogen source. Its all fescue, before we seeded the fields. That is what mostly grows native here. So they are not worth much, so glad we have a plan to use them up.
We pull out tree branches from a tree clearing project I did last year. Lol half it is buried in dirt. I need to come back and break it up better with the skid steer.
Still we formed a mighty pile of branches and we will bring them over to the wood chipper for use in the fields.
I head back down the easement to look for more wood, my foreman cuts up some logs in my woods up ahead.
We got a nice pile going, though I do not think it will be enough. But its a start, maybe another day or two of wood collection we will have enough.
Really glad I put my pickup truck to work, though I think this is quite light duty to what it can handle. Its great though, never gets stuck and quite reliable.
We head back home from a long day of wood collection.
I bring back a load for the wood furnace, and will cut it all up for keeping our homes and workshop warm.
A few days from now the wood chipper will be on site, then I can start making mulch. The sooner I do this the better, as it needs time to break down. But we have until fall for garlic planting, but that will be here before we even know it.
My first time seeing someone (individual) putting this knowledge of soil test, PH, salt and alkaline level in farming.
In my schooling days, I learnt a lot of this and did some soil test to detect the ridges to plug in and the type to plants to go with.
This is really nice👍
!BBH
@solominer! Your Content Is Awesome so I just sent 1 $BBH (Bitcoin Backed Hive) to your account on behalf of @kingsleyy. (3/20)
Yeah I am all about getting as much data as possible. When it comes to soil I think that will be very important.
Thank you
How great that you have the tools to obtain the soil properties of the land, and from there make the necessary corrections to guarantee planting and a successful harvest.
I love the plan you have made, plus you have enough wood and branches to do what you need
Cow or horse manure is also very good for this type of things, especially if you ferment it in water, and once fermented you water the place you need to nourish.
You are doing a great job in the soil of your planting area, without a doubt your garlic planting will be successful dear friend @solominer
Have a great day
I hope it all works out with all the work I am putting into the earth, time will tell but I am hopeful.
Oh cool we may make some liquid fertilizers at some point. Good to know, thanks for the info.
Hope you do too.
You know what. I am kind of loving this type of surrounding :)
Thanks man me too, its quite nice here.
Dang, you are dedicating a whole acre to garlic? The piece of land my house is on is only .25 acres! I can't even imagine!
Hah yup, we are thinking about doing up to 5 acres but decided to start "small".
Wood collection in Nigeria pays really good not everyone is privileged to do this over here.
Nice post the picture looked sharp.
Oh interesting, maybe firewood is more scarce in Nigeria. Here in the South East United States wood is plentiful, luckily.
thank you
I missed reading your post. Just a hard working man and his buddies building a great estate castle.
Im feel home now. My few months of training paid off!
Also where are zeeee ducks!
Well glad I could write another one to share with ya'll. One step at a time we will get there.
Oh nice man, the chicken and duck enclosure is almost done. I know I keep saying that, lol..
I got the rubber painted on the walls. And just built a ramp for the ducks so they can get up into their nesting boxes. And build a roost for the chickens. We plan on getting them this spring still.
WHat is this Fowl Condo Duplexe.
Im literally malding here since the barn animals have "PAINTED WALLS". My room looks like a Bunker from WW2.
Ohh right i should do i duck post as well. Since i mostly just share stuff in discord, but its like several months old already.
Not even sure of the duck situation anymore ever since i got kicked out.
But overall, great progress and dedication you have there.
We artist would yap about animations or artworks that would take weeks or over a month.
Farmer BOIZ out there doing Manual labor year round.
GRRRRR you just built different.
Very extraordinary activity. I quite like doing activities like this. And in the past few days I have also collected branches from bamboo trees to put in the fish keeping pond so that no one fishes here. I think my activities here are almost the same as your activities there and hopefully they are still the best for you.
Oh cool, I like doing the collection too.. Its peaceful and mostly easy work.
If you have a lot of bamboo you should use it. Just remember if you burn it to break open the chambers or they will explode.. lol
We have some golden bamboo here growing in the south, but its mostly Pine, Oak and Maple trees and a few others.
The work you are dedicating to your crops is amazing, your crops will be of very good quality this year, the compost from the same plants and wood chips will be what will boost your plants, you have a good knowledge, really the pictures are great, greetings.
Thanks man, I hope it helps.
It is good to have such a big piece of land where you can have such a large piece of land dedicated to garlic.
In comparison I did grow some on my terrace and It was very satisfyingly to say the least. I have got success with Onions, ginger and tomatoes.
Nothing beats the feeling of growing your own food.
Hope you have a good harvest.
It is good, but this will be the first time we are trying it on such a large scale.
Oh cool, I bet those were tasty. I plan on growing some in my planters this year as well.
Sure is, loving growing my own food.. Much appreciated.
Good luck with the large scale planting. It is still a dream for me.
I had maximum trouble with Tomatoes as they attract the aphids like a magnet
If the crop can be protected from them then the crop is good and very satisfying.
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