#soilspondence
based on the HUGE lol poll response here is horseradish! ...and some apple leaves starting to turn, and some bonus calendula reaching for a beam of autumnal sunshine

stay vertical. garden hard!

#fediFarm #farmageddon #gardening

#soilspondence
based on the HUGE lol poll response here is horseradish! ...and some apple leaves starting to turn, and some bonus calendula reaching for a beam of autumnal sunshine

stay vertical. garden hard!

#fediFarm #farmageddon

ok hipsters let's see how this D.L. Hughly Couture goes. jut a few lower trenches not piling smaller stuff for loft in this low bed.

garden hard! #fedifarm #farmageddon

#florespodence from around the grounds in case you need a splash of blue and green in your day

regular reminder to be #bee friendly because in scientific, ecological and food security terms bees are rad and kick ass. the oregano rows are absolutely riotous level bee noise

some radishes hitting peak forms for both root and greens. any that go unweildly for market or us the poultry friends will happily dispatch

happily I do not have any barrels of nuclear waste but put out the vibe fedi we are doing it tomatoes...tobacco...tomatoes...tobacco...TOMACCO!

and the patch of sunflowers in one of the herb areas has broken the 3m height mark, apparently did way better than the three other field locations thru the drought

garden hard! #fedifarm #farmageddon

#soilspondence from around the grounds

finished seating and affixing another 3.2 metre extension to this raised bed with bowed and generally 3rd grade leftovers and re-used macrocarpa beams. first section has strawberries, middle section has asparagus book ended by sage and oregano, this section will have...?

background, mrs freak got some end of season cane trimming done early this weekend in the berry cages.

bunch of stupid mowing, oh and fun fact we had a fucking frost the other night. so that's one on right before the first day of summer and this one before the last day of summer. this one was much less damaging. drought was at least slightly broken the other day.

stay vertical out there

garden hard! #fedifarm #farmageddon

sorry been slack on the #gardening and farm #soilspondence

between shit health, still recovering property and trying to save/stagger/extend/regrow crops from horrid spring, then early freezing summer, now drought, and with launching the wee fedi radio project, haven't really felt like doing the posts.

serious existential crises around food production and the demise of regional overlap and resiliency given everywhere seems to be wrecking crops all the time. gonna have to build more "indoor" growing space. at small scale things getting wrekt or even just limited/delayed hits ultra hard.

We bumble along. compost is being made. most of the apples survived the frosts, winds, and now drought. the greenhouse is finally kicked into high gear albeit late as hell.

first batch of cukes goes straight to fridge pickles, they wont last long.

garden Hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon

I do not want to seem inconsiderate of our cousins up north absolutely going though it but in the south we have the exact opposite. Whereas up north spuds were munted by wet, and now onions. I have been sparse online as I have been fighting everyday with minimal irrigation avail to salvage what wasn't already stunted and munted from summer frost then dry now full on drought and violent hot conditions. Mulch, shade walls and cover, spot watering, with many things harvested or harvesting what we can salvage density protection goes down and exposure increases. With rubbish health last thing I need is collapsing to heat so I'm doing 30 minutes on, 10 off, or 15 on 5 off in the shade. And doing what I can that doesn't involve immediate crop protection in the evening. Sparing a thought for anyone who cannot take cover.

The only thing on the radar of substance is a possible rain bomb on the weekend that will make things leak and damage crops on the way down (apples and pears that have made it so far), run off and not really deep soak the ground.

I am not gonna be surprised if next we hear grain is in trouble in the middle.

It's grim all over and feels like there is no more covering for each others' extreme events when they are just all the time everywhere.

I can't even sign off with my usual garden hard! in good faith. Fuck this shit. climate change is beyond mitigating REAL. I've spent a few decades with nearly one of them as a market gardener fighting, advocating and proving in the field how the people can save seed and genetic diversity. Now we gonna have to figure out how the people won't get locked out of sheltered quasi or full indoor farming because it's looking like a thing. My next field development is going to have full framing skeleton to be able to roll out walls and covers for wind, frost, sun like a pool cover. great more projects.

Stay safe out there. Hug a gardener in your bubble.

#fedifarm #farmageddon #gardening

#soilspondence

IT HAS BEGUN

dunt dunt dunt dunt dun dunt

GARLIK KOMBAT!

little late this year due to rubbish spring and cold start to summer (with freezes). got about 1000 pulled. another 2k to go another day. been scaling up pretty nicely over the past 4 years. It's a lot of manual labour but we just crank up the boombox and all hands on deck it. small hiccup last year with some small sized stuff but we are still self sufficient to expand each year using our own seed stock and have developed a very flavourful and well keeping stock for market throughout the year. we still have a bit of last years harvest going out in orders. this years crop is a nice mix of sizes and given the trying conditions, great success!

next step is mesh rack for a few days, then hanging in shed for a couple weeks before final brush and cut.

garden hard! #fedifarm #farmageddon #gardening

#soilspondence

IT HAS BEGUN

dunt dunt dunt dunt dun dunt

GARLIK KOMBAT!

little late this year due to rubbish spring and cold start to summer (with freezes). got about 1000 pulled. another 2k to go another day. been scaling up pretty nicely over the past 4 years. It's a lot of manual labour but we just crank up the boombox and all hands on deck it. small hiccup last year with some small sized stuff but we are still self sufficient to expand each year using our own seed stock and have developed a very flavourful and well keeping stock for market throughout the year. we still have a bit of last years harvest going out in orders. this years crop is a nice mix of sizes and given the trying conditions, great success!

next step is mesh rack for a few days, then hanging in shed for a couple weeks before final brush and cut.

garden hard! #fedifarm #farmageddon

I've just watched #Farmageddon, finally. Obviously it is a children's movie, but the number of sly references that only parents will get is huge.

Tom Baker #DoctorWho, Close Encounters, E.T., RoboCop, #HitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy, #2001, #TheXFiles, and ... Frogger.

And I've a feeling that there were a couple of items inspired by #TheFifthElement.

Then there are the blink-and-you-will-miss-it jokes. I blinked and missed the astronaut shaking his fist, the first time.

#Aardman

Xmas movie review. @aardman@twitter.com #farmageddon vs @pinocchiomovie@twitter.com ? Farmageddon EVERY time! 👏👏👏🐑👽🛸 #eaa #milliways

#Farmageddon is exactly the kind of diversion I need.

#soilspondence

been helping a family member recover from surgery, I fell the other week and my knee went twice it's size so that hasn't helped farm work, and of course the great late spring blizzard then gale winds damaged so much property and crops. So here is something of an allegory...

a couple weeks ago, in summer mind you, I posted the surprise overnight FROST that damaged a lot of young crops, so here is a visual update.

I'm no optimist but I suspect the Earth Mother is telling us to be MIGHTY like these pumpkins! Get pushed back, get burnt, get stunted and staggerd, but keep fighting out there.

garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon #uplifting #gardening

#soilspondence

been helping a family member recover from surgery, I fell the other week and my knee went twice it's size so that hasn't helped farm work, and of course the great late spring blizzard then gale winds damaged so much property and crops. So here is something of an allegory...

a couple weeks ago, in summer mind you, I posted the surprise overnight FROST that damaged a lot of young crops, so here is a visual update.

I'm no optimist but I suspect eh Earthe Mother is telling us to be MIGHTY like these pumpkins! Get pushed back, get burnt, get stunted and staggerd, but keep fighting out there.

garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon

slightly more positive #soilspondence

knew last night and today were to be gentle showers. got the next section of radish, beetroot, carrot prepped and seeded. The staggered blocks of planting works well for family and neighbour supply as well as small scale market availabilty which is highly volatile.

Existing garlic and root crops seemed unaffected unlike the poor pumpkins and carrots by the recent very cold nights. Projections look like I will be covering and frost fighting this weekend, in "summer". Awesome, who doesn't want more shit breaking.

Garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon

Well this is some bullshit. Tomorrow is the first day of summer. 2 nights ago it felt pretty cold, and every projection lead me to not cover or frost fight. Well apparently it hit quite cold as ALL the corn, pumpkins, courgettes and most of the spuds got their ends burnt some right off. Hoping there is enough vitality left for most to survive, spuds will be ok, but yeesh on every outdoor cucurbit...

Garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon

check out these wee heroes

garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon

around the grounds #soilspondence

shout out to mrs freak for tidying the greenhouse floor today. new spring mandarin flowers and lovely smelling lemon buds, and heaps of new figs coming on.

worked a bit in the herbs triangle

finished clearing some new space and put down weed mat and transplanted last years oregano and sage starts next last years transplants that are going heck for leather. sawdust mulched. proper mediteranean oregano is freakin delicious.

planted a big ass row of sunflower seed down the side edge. still some space to add.

garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon

sagé shanté, shanté shanté shanté

you better work

garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon #floraspondance

corn and pumpkins and sunflowers OH MY

in case you noticed the burnt edges, fear not there is no roundup in our hood, we use pine oil or geranium oil for that kind of thing or to kockdown emerging thistle etc around the place

last year I posted about our work to scale up sunflowers from a small batch of untreated seed in 2 varieties. commercial sunflower seed is usually coated in fungicides. well we had heaps of harvest and so far so good this year for multplying. greet protein feed supplement for our compost ally birds and well for the people too.

garden hard!

#fedifarm #farmageddon #soilspondence #opensourceseeds