Nitrogen Fixation (or Free Fertility)

Obtaining free Nitrogen, by using Nitrogen fixing bacteria, is something that anybody looking for a more sustainable way of growing should be aiming for. There’s plenty of it in the atmosphere, so why use energy, effort, and money to get it, when there is an army of microbes waiting to do it for you, for free.

Pre Soaking Seeds update

Last year I posted an article about pre soaking seeds, which has turned out to be one of my most popular posts. It seems that there are quite a few people searching the internet for advice on pre-soaking seeds. Either in general, or for specific seeds. So I thought that I’d just add a bit to the article, to bring it up to date. You can find last year’s article, by clicking the link below, and should read it first, before reading this one.

seed article.

Tree Planting Day – Initial report

Hi All

I wanted to do a pictorial report on the tree planting day that we had on Saturday, but it snowed on Sunday, and that’s only just melting. So I thought that I would just write a few short lines about the day.

Compost Strategies-Part Two-What bugs do your Plants prefer

Different types of plants have distinct preferences for the types of microbes with which they associate, and your composting strategies will help to determine whether your plants do badly, do well, or thrive. Knowing what type of organic material to add, and how to add it, will make your growing more efficient.

Tree Planting day Tomorrow

Hi All

Tomorrow is a big day, as with a bit of luck, I’ll be finishing off the bulk of this season’s tree planting, with a bit of help. I have 500 Italian Alder, 100 Hazel, and 50 Cornelian Cherry to plant.

Whilst it would have taken me about two weeks to get this amount of trees in, I asked for help, and it looks like I’ve got about a dozen people, some of whom I’ve never met, coming to give me a hand. This batch of trees will finish the framework of my firewood/bee forage planting, and I will be adding the overstorey trees next Autumn, once these have established, and prepared the way. There will still be some trees to plant, but these are all seed grown trees, that I’ve grown myself, and they can go out a bit later.

Bees Buzzing Again

This afternoon, my bees came out, and enjoyed a short spell of sunshine. So I went back indoors, collected my camera, and took these photographs.

The Sustainable Smallholding Blog is a year old

I’ve just checked, and it is exactly a year since my first post. I wasn’t sure how it would go, and it is difficult keeping it going when the season starts to get busy, but there were more than 6,000 views over the course of the year.

I’m looking forward to continuing to write about the things that interest me. Beekeeping, Permaculture, Scything, Vegetable and Fruit growing, tools, and anything else that might be useful to somebody else, somewhere. I’m also going to start taking a few more pictures.

I hope that you’ll keep me company

Deano

Permaculture Principles – Observe and Interact

The first principle listed in David Holmgren’s excellent book, Permaculture – Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, is to Observe and Interact. Initially, this is one of the principles that I sort of pushed into the background a bit, but now I’m finding that quite a lot of what I’m doing is being guided by what I’ve seen, or by what others have seen. I thought that I’d give you a few examples.

Compost Strategies – Part one -Know your allies

The Organic Gardening mantra has always been to “Feed the Soil, and the Soil will feed the Plants”, but this oversimplifies the complex web of life that nourishes our plants, and through them, us. A little more knowledge about the microbes in the soil, what they do, what they need, and how that benefits plants, can allow you to fine tune your application of compost, or other organic material, to achieve better results. In this post, I hope to tell you more about the fascinating world of microbes.

Away for the Weekend

Just a quick note to say that I’ll be away for the weekend, and so will not be posting until early next week.

This is an annual reunion with some former Army buddies of mine.

I’m taking the bus, which will give me plenty of time to put together some notes for future articles, and perhaps a book review or two.

I’m planning a couple of posts about my compost strategies, including vermicomposting, Actively Aerated Compost Tea, leaf mould, biochar, etc. and also explaining a bit about soil microbes. Their functions, and ways to use that knowledge to improve plant health and vitality. So this should give me time and space to organise my thoughts.

have a good weekend yourselves

Deano