My my I've been lazy about updating this thing. Well lets see... My CST classes were a royal clusterfuck for a while there but things are hopefully worked out now. I'm hopefully holding classes starting in February. Also I am going to be holding some free intro classes and doing a display/demo at the farmers market. So I am generally less depressed now and more hopeful for the future.
In other news my garden is a strange and ever changing place. I've redesigned my primary beds and managed to squeez a few hundered more square feet out of it. I am also building the second garden and I intend for this to be a cereal crop garden. I'm testing a lot of different grains to see what works best. I hope to grow cereals for my use and as feed for my animals. To that end I am growing Sonora Wheat, Red Floriani Flint Corn (3 sisters method with dry pole beans and pumpkins), Grain Sorghum, White Proso Millet, Biobio Quinoa, Golden Giant Amaranth, Buckwheat, Hulless Barley and Buckwheat. Some of these crops will be succession plantings, such as barley followed by amaranth and quinoa followed by buckwheat, and others have the bed all to themselves for the season.
I also am trying a lot of permaculture planting methods. I am going to build some hugelkultur beds in the orchard/forest garden and see how my wild berries perennial vegetables and herbs like them. I also am using a no till/ weedless gardening method in my gardens. I also found a very interesting wheat growing method called the Fukuoka-Bonfils winter wheat method that I am trying to learn more about. If its adaptable to other cereals it might call for a total revamping of my cereal garden planting method. My hobby farm keeps me sane and well fed I am also adding chickens and turkeys to the equation so we will see how that turns out.
In other news my garden is a strange and ever changing place. I've redesigned my primary beds and managed to squeez a few hundered more square feet out of it. I am also building the second garden and I intend for this to be a cereal crop garden. I'm testing a lot of different grains to see what works best. I hope to grow cereals for my use and as feed for my animals. To that end I am growing Sonora Wheat, Red Floriani Flint Corn (3 sisters method with dry pole beans and pumpkins), Grain Sorghum, White Proso Millet, Biobio Quinoa, Golden Giant Amaranth, Buckwheat, Hulless Barley and Buckwheat. Some of these crops will be succession plantings, such as barley followed by amaranth and quinoa followed by buckwheat, and others have the bed all to themselves for the season.
I also am trying a lot of permaculture planting methods. I am going to build some hugelkultur beds in the orchard/forest garden and see how my wild berries perennial vegetables and herbs like them. I also am using a no till/ weedless gardening method in my gardens. I also found a very interesting wheat growing method called the Fukuoka-Bonfils winter wheat method that I am trying to learn more about. If its adaptable to other cereals it might call for a total revamping of my cereal garden planting method. My hobby farm keeps me sane and well fed I am also adding chickens and turkeys to the equation so we will see how that turns out.