permaculture – Page 4 – Peacock Orchard

Sainfoin, a perspective

We are three years into our sainfoin experiment.

The 5 acres directly behind our house is where the former owners kept their horses contained the most. It was highly compacted and had almost 0 vegetation. The sainfoin we planted here is doing well. (pictured above) It’s getting taller and it has been self seeding. It is a wall of pink blossoms we are blessed to stare at every day. It has been an incredible pollinator attractant.

It is slowly breaking through our compacted ground.

Areas that are not compacted, well there it’s flourishing. It is taller, thicker, seeding easier, where it does not have to work as hard.

This is sainfoin in a Krater.

Sainfoin in a swale.

The best growing sainfoin in what I thought was the worst faring krater.

I can’t speak to it’s palatability yet. The pigs have wandered through it and didn’t take a bite. The birds don’t seem to be interested in eating it either. I’m undecided on it as a forage. Time will tell.

Farm Scenes

Sometimes there are no words. Pictures are all that I have. There is so much I have not accomplished. So many things yet to be done. In these times of chaos it waters my soul to settle for a minute and photograph what has been done. The beauty that surrounds me but that I don’t notice in my busyness.

Cherry Blossoms

Plum Blossoms

Medlar Blossoms

Radishes

Sparta confused about what I’m doing.

Chicken Adventures

Ducks, Ducks, Ducks! The reason we never have clean water anywhere.

Turkey poults tasting some grass for the first time.

Piggie pics

Jiki found some fresh coyote poop near the barn to roll in. Yay…

Sparta running to catch up to us. Me thinks he’s gotten fat.

Pretty as a peacock.

Sparta peeking around the corner at the bacon bits.

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Testing Almonds

Despite what California farmers would have you think almonds are extremely drought tolerant. What they aren’t is particularly cold tolerant. At least that was what I believed. I have a few Russian Almond bushes flourishing but I really wished I could grow a few sweet almonds. Thanks to One Green World I think I might be able to. I am going to be testing two of their almond varieties out this year.

https://onegreenworld.com/product/all-in-one-almond-tree/

https://onegreenworld.com/product/halls-hardy-almond/

Planted inside the protection of the fenced yard with the dogs to protect them from rabbit predation. If these trees successfully survive winter in Wyoming I will be deliriously happy and graft out as many as possible.

So stay tuned to see if I can get anything else crazy to grow around these parts.

Futility of Mulching

Nebraska must love me. They have to with all the mulch I’ve put out to blow their way. I’m not quite sure why I still bother. I suppose it’s foolish hope.

There is a reason mulch is praised so highly in Permaculture. Natural mulching is the ideal. Having enough plants and trees that their own natural growth patterns create the detritus that cover the ground. Living the dream.

I’m not living the dream. I’m living the dead land, high wind, low precipitation life. As such I keep spreading mulch out around the property. Then I watch it blow away, to Nebraska. *sigh*

So drumroll please, I’ve mulched the cider orchard. I am about to share my magical mulching secrets.

First I put a collar around all of the trees again. I take them off in the spring because the trees are so small and the collar covers them completely.

Next I water the trees well. It hasn’t rained in months. The cider orchard trees were planted so I can water them, they are expensive.

Next I rip open the glorious bags of mulch. These bags come from my former boss’s residence. I happen to know they are completely organic so I feel no guilt in using the leaves and clippings from their lawn.

I piled the leaves high. I figure if they’re going to blow away best to give them a sufficient mass to move.

I give it a few weeks, or days, depending on wind speeds. I’m happy right now, though.

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Krater Completion, mostly

What a growing season this has been. Dry, windy, hot, miserable. On top of that we had major tractor problems. Still kind of do. I wasn’t able to put the finishing touches on the completed Kraters as the battery is dead on the excavator AGAIN. Uh oh, Husband hadn’t been told of that before this post. Sorry Babe. Battery is going to need replaced big time. Lots of love!

My goal was 12 kraters. I completed 4. I won’t be planting out a few hundred trees next year now. Instead I have modified my plans to begin our graft nursery. I was able to set that space up sufficiently, except the fence, which we simply need to put up real quick.

Back to the kraters. They seem all right. They have been dug, terraced, top soiled and planted. What else could a girl hope to do with all that has been going on. Enjoy a few action shots.

Look at these poor guard dogs. They wander over to check their charges and get mauled with cuddles. It’s a tough life for sure!

It appears I engage in child krater terracing labor. To be fair, the child really likes the labor.

Top soil was dumped on and needed moved around.

Throwing out our hand collected seeds.

Raking the seeds in.

Problems

Sometimes life is a series of unfortunate incidents. Somehow that seems to be our life more often than not. I often laugh such things off. Who else could these incredibly crazy things happen to all the time but us.

The excavator wouldn’t start and we concluded it was a dead battery. It took days to get the excavator back up and running. I was behind on my krater digging plans, but I had the will to catch up. Four kraters dug, 8 more to go. I could do this.

Then the front loader began making an awful sound and blowing colored smoke. I took some video and took it to the tractor dealership. There were several suggested possibilities and we began ticking through the list. The tractor is now not making that horrible klunking noise. Hopefully the problem was nothing more than water in the line. If it starts making the noise during our big test run tomorrow than we are looking at a new engine. An engine so expensive we could buy another car. Now I’m behind again.

The weather is changing, I am not going to catch up before my window closes. Plans are going to need to be modified. Disappointment fills me near to bursting. I will rally. Things will be ok. The trees will get planted as they always do.

Please let the tractor be ok!