video

Learning something new…

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

While winding down for the night, I’ve been watching some videos, including this new one from MI Gardener; a resource I have recommended before.

This is an interesting video, since I fairly regularly see these concrete blocks being recommended to make raised beds. He lists the reasons he believes they should not be used.

I found it really interesting, and wanted to talk about some of them.

One of the first things he brought up was the weight. The ones he uses in the video are 8″x8″x16″ This is the size of most of the blocks we’ve been finding all over the place, though I think I’ve found some that are 10″x8″x16″

He also adds that they are cheap, and says they cost about $2 each.

So, of course, I had to look it up!

It turns out, one of these concrete blocks weighs about 30-35 pounds. The ones he’s using has flat ends. Some have shaped ends, and from what I found on the Canadian Home Depot page, they weight 42 pounds (19kg). The 10″ ones weigh 45 pounds (20.4kg).

I’d never really thought about how much they weighed. I found them heavy to carry around, but not that bad, really.

As for being cheap, interestingly, the 8″ ones are listed as just under $5 each – and are more expensive than the 10″ ones, which are just over $4 each. The last time I looked at their prices, at an actual store, not online, was a few years ago, and one 8″ block was priced at over $8 each, which shocked me. This was before inflation went nuts, too. Very odd.

This got me wondering, since we are using concrete chimney blocks as planters. So I had to look those up, too. I found plenty of links, but not one of them included a price. The closest I could find was an old image with a price on it, but the link was no longer active. Other than that, I found some on FB Marketplace were someone lists a whole bunch of things, not just chimney blocks, with a $4 each price listed. I don’t think that price was the same for all the wide variety of items listed, so I still don’t know how much they sell for here.

The chimney blocks we have are the standard square size of 16.75″x16.75″x7.62″

That measurement is so odd, I thought it would make more sense in metric, but not really. That works out to 42.5cmx42.5cmx19.35cm

What caught my attention was the weight.

Each one of those chimney blocks weighs 68 pounds (30.8kg)

So… I was lugging almost 70 pound blocks around the yard when I built the retaining wall and the chain link fence planters.

Okay, so weight was one of his reasons not to use them, but the other was height. They’re only 8″ high (slightly higher than our chimney blocks), making only 8″ of growing space.

I found that curious. His sample concrete block raised bed is on top of soil. Granted, it looks like the area was just leveled and has been driven over, so it might be compacted, but it’s still open soil, not a concrete pad or something. Any plants could send it’s roots lower. We have maybe 8″ of top soil – 10″ in a really good spot – before we hit gravel, clay and rocks. An 8″ high bed gives us about 16″ of growing space. We have been using modified hügelkultur, so the first couple of years would have sticks and branches at the bottom, so we don’t plant root vegetables in them right away.

I would find 8″ too low for accessibility reasons, and when I see people doing raised beds with concrete blocks, they are often two, three or even four blocks high. He talks about adding a second level, and demonstrates how easily the block spins around, since the base row is not perfectly level. He mentioned that people have suggested rebar to hold them in place.

I agree with him on the rebar. It seems almost counterproductive.

I’d just use concrete glue. AKA construction adhesive. It’s really cheap, one tube goes a long way, and can be applied using a caulking gun. Granted, that makes it permanent, but most raised beds don’t get moved around once they’re built, anyhow.

He makes a point about breakage being a problem, but not in the way he talks about. Where we are, we have temperature extremes. Pretty much all the concrete blocks we’ve been finding have been outdoors. Most of the chimney blocks we’ve used were stored outdoors since my parents bought this farm in 1964. Yeah, they have dings and chips, but they are still sound. The only blocks we’ve had actually crack and split where the two we put into the fire pit to hold old oven racks over the coals to cook on. It was exposure to high heat that lead to them cracking, not outdoor temperature fluctuations.

He mentioned that concrete is very porous, and that the edges of beds would need extra watering. True enough, though with our chimney blocks, there isn’t any centre space that would hold water longer than the edges. We still watered them as often as the other beds. We just have them more water. It’s been a few winters now for the retaining wall blocks long the old kitchen garden, and not one of them has cracked due to water absorption and the fresh thaw cycle. I’m not saying it can’t or won’t happen. Just that is hasn’t happened to us.

He then mentions that concrete absorbs a lot of heat. More so than even metal raised beds.

That may indeed be a problem in a lot of places.

Where we are, that’s a selling point! Even in the heat of our summers, it just makes them better for heat loving plants that might normally not grow well here.

There is another element to using concrete blocks he doesn’t mention, and that is the effect on soil pH. I’d read before that concrete can help lower the pH, which would be great for our alkaline soil.

As I was looking it up just now, though, I found one article that said concrete can lower the pH, but that was it. Other articles, however, said that concrete will increase the pH.

Which is the last thing we need!

Given the smallish growing space inside our chimney block planters, it wouldn’t take much to affect the pH in the soil there. Granted, I did amend the soil with sulphur this past year, as well as with peat, but with our pH already at 8 or higher, it’s going to take a long time to adjust the pH even slightly lower. Getting it to be slightly acidic, which most of the things we want to grow do better in, will take years. Looking up what vegetables grow well in alkaline soil, the list is pretty long, but most of them have an upper limit of 7.5. If we can get our soil at least down to that, it would be good, but it is harder to lower the pH than it is to increase it.

Well, the mint I transplanted into some of the retaining wall blocks seems to be handling the high pH quite well, as are the chives. Our biggest issue, however, is roots growing in from below. With the blocks at the chain link fence, it’s the nearby elms that took over the soil in the blocks. In the retaining wall, it’s some sort of invasive flower we haven’t been able to get rid of. It’s almost killing off the mint, in some blocks!

So when it comes down to it, whether using concrete blocks for raised beds is a good idea or not really depends on a lot of things. Stuff he saw as negatives, are positives for us, or non-issues.

Would I use concrete blocks for a raised bed?

Probably not.

We’ve got all those dead spruce trees that need to be cut down that can be used. For other raised beds, I’m liking the wattle weave idea and want to build more, though it’s surprisingly hard to gather enough suitable branches to use for the weaving. If we did happen to have enough concrete blocks to make raised beds, there are other things I’d much prefer to use them for.

When it comes to gardening, it is such an individual thing. We all just have to figure out what will work for our own gardens in our own regional area and microclimate, and use what materials we have access to.

Hearing what works or doesn’t work for others and why can still be a huge help. Which is why I like videos like this one. Not only did I find what he had to say very interesting, it got me checking things out and looking things up to learn more.

And now I know how much those chimney blocks weigh, too!

The Re-Farmer

Of course, I’m thinking of gardening right now…

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It’s chilly outside, we’ve got snow on the ground… what better time to be thinking of gardening? 😄

It’s going to be time for me to do my 2024 garden analysis soon, and use that to decide what we’ll be doing next year, though some of that has already been decided with the pre-sown beds. I find myself wondering if the mild, wet fall we’ve been having is a good thing or a bad thing for those beds! The garlic will be fine. The direct sown beds are deep mulched, which means it’s possible for germination to be happening, which we don’t actually want to happen right now. The mulch won’t be enough to keep them from being killed off once the deep freeze hits.

Unless we don’t get a deep freeze this year. Two mild winters in a row? That would be a dream.

Meanwhile, this is the gardening video I’m watching right now.

I hope you learn as much from it as I am!

The Re-Farmer

Finally! Our October garden tour video

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I had intended to do a garden tour video in the middle of October. Instead, I didn’t even get to recording videos until the last day of October – only to not be happy with the results and did it again in the morning.

Well, better late than never!

This video is much shorter than my summertime videos, that’s for sure!

Let me know what you think!

The Re-Farmer

A pretty good day

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I didn’t get as much done today as I’d hoped, but I got the important stuff done, and that’s what matters.

As usual, my day started with feeding the outside cats before doing my morning rounds. Since I was going to be helping my mother with errands today, my rounds included making sure things were set up in the truck for the day. By the time I was done my rounds, the cats had polished off all the warm, softened kibble they now get in the mornings, and were starting to settle into their cuddle puddles!

Like this one, near the heat lamp. Not directly under it – I expect to see more of that when things get really cold! – but close.

There is one adult cat in this pile.

That old feed bag, which is stuffed with packing material, had been on the nearby shelf for them to use as a bed while looking out the window, but it kept getting knocked down, so we’ve just left it. They quite like it there. Underneath is mostly bare concrete.

Since my mother was getting her Meals on Wheels delivery today, I didn’t have to leave as early as I usually do, and had my own lunch early.

I still got there early enough for us to have a bit of a visit before her Meals on Wheels was delivered. As we were talking, she showed me this.

If you click through to the next image, you’ll see the other side.

My mother had been going through her things, trying to figure out what to get rid of and what to keep, when she found it.

She told me that when she was in the hospital, in labour with me, there was a nun who visited and prayed with her. After I was born and my mother was ready to go home, she held me while my mother got into the car, then put me in her arms.

No car seats, or even seat belts, back then! 😄

This nun had also given my mother this… Hmmm… I don’t know what it’s called. Not a medallion, of course, but a laminated paper version of a medallion.

Now, she wanted me to have it!

I gratefully accepted it. What a connection to my own birth! I now have it in my wallet, under one of the plastic windows, so I can see it. I’m amazed she managed to hang on to something so small, all these decades!

Soon after, my mother’s Meals on Wheels arrived. She is so very happy with these meals. Today, it was salmon with mushroom rice, cooked broccoli with other vegetables I couldn’t make out, and cream of potato soup. There was a packet of tartar sauce for the salmon and soy sauce for the rice. For desert, there was a cube of bright green Jello, with what I think was pineapple in it. She quite enthusiastically enjoyed her meal!

After she was done and we were having tea together, I asked about her shopping list and got a bit of a surprise.

She didn’t need a grocery shopping trip anymore.

Yesterday was a nice day, and she decided to go ahead an walk to the grocery store. It’s just a couple of blocks, but she insists on taking the “short cut” through the empty lot – almost a field – between her building and the street the grocery store is on. I just shake my head that she insists on doing this, because it’s “shorter”. For starters, it’s not level and doesn’t get mowed regularly, so it would be rough to go over with her walker. She would also have to go around some fences and a building to get to it. In reality, the “shorter” path probably isn’t saving her anything. My concern is that it increases her chances of falling, but she insists that her “helper” (her walker) will prevent that.

Plus, it’s trespassing, but I don’t think anyone cares. As I understand it, the owner lives in the city and doesn’t even come out to mow it. The town does it every now and then, then bills the owner for it.

When she got to the grocery store, who should she run into?

Our vandal and his wife.

*sigh*

At least his wife was with him!

Long story short, they offered to bring her stuff home for her – it was too late in the day for the grocery store to do a delivery – so she was able to do a larger shopping trip. I don’t know which of their many vehicles they had, but when the time came, they didn’t have room for her walker, so our vandal drove her home with the groceries while his wife walked the walker over.

One thing my mother noted: his wife has never, ever, said anything negative about me or my brother. I told my mom, I don’t think his wife has any idea what our vandal is still doing. He certainly wouldn’t have left a voice mail message like the one he recently left on my brother’s phone, if his wife were around to hear him say those horrible things.

So my mother got her grocery shopping done, and didn’t need me to do it today. I only wish she understand that, while his wife may be genuine, our vandal doesn’t do stuff like this out of the kindness of his heart. It seems, no matter how bad he gets, my mother will always make excuses for him. But my brother, who has never been anything but kind and helpful to her, has pulled her butt out of the fire many times out of the years, and takes such good care of, she treats like crap.

How does that make sense?

Anyhow.

She did still need to go to the bank, plus she needed to get her prescriptions and a couple of things at the pharmacy. While she setting up to leave, I went out to get her walker ready; she keeps it parked outside her door, under a tiny corner shelf that all the apartments have. Like most people living there, she has a little display set up on it. Usually, religious in nature.

That’s when I saw something unfortunate.

Part of her display was a small card with a picture of a famous painting of Jesus on it.

It was torn in half.

My first thought was, our vandal did it as he left. One of the things he constantly has said to her, since my late brother died and more so after my father died, is that she will never go to heaven to be with her husband and her son, because she didn’t leave this property to him, like they would have wanted (which they most certainly did NOT want). Knowing she is deeply religious, he would often invoke God in some way in the many abusive messages he left on her answering machine until my brother finally got his number blocked.

When I brought it in to show my mother, though, she told me it was done by one of her neighbours. ??

My mother is not happy with some of the “homeless people” and “aboriginals” that have recently moved into her building. Apparently, one of them has behavioral issues, and tearing up my mother’s picture of Jesus would be something she would do.

My mother didn’t actually see it done, though, so who knows. My mother used to have a card with her name above the peep hole on her door that disappeared, and she thinks the same person did it. Unfortunately, my mother has a bad habit of accusing people of things, with no actual evidence for it, so there’s no way to know what actually happened.

She then asked me to put the pieces back outside her door, so others could see the sort of things this person (or whoever it was) will do.

*sigh*

Anyhow.

We were soon on our way out and on our way. My mother really struggled to get up in the truck but, my goodness, she manages! When we got this truck, I thought for sure she would never be able to get into it, yet there she is!

Even so, she was only up to going into the bank. Once at the pharmacy, she stayed in the truck while I went in to get her prescription and other items. Once I knew, more or less, how much it would be, I went to the truck for her loyalty card and cash, then went back in to pay for her items.

The staff at the pharmacy are quite familiar with my shopping for my mother by now. 😄

That done, I took my mother home. She told me she would have wanted to go somewhere else, like to a restaurant, just for a change of scenery, but didn’t want to be getting in and out of the truck any more than she had to.

She was pretty tired by then, anyhow, so I didn’t stay too much longer.

I remembered to grab the extra plumbing parts and pieces my daughter didn’t need to use when working on the bathroom taps, so after a quick stop at the feed store to get a 40 pound bag of kibble, I headed to the two store we got the parts from to return them. The one in the town nearest us is also near our usual grocery store, so I made a quick stop there. From there, it was a quick stop at the post office, then finally, home.

Where I found this to greet me as I headed to the house.

They were more than eager for their evening feeding, and prowling like ravenous lions! 😄

I took care of that as soon as I could. 😊

One of the things in the mail was something from the hospital my husband is supposed to get a sleep test done in. He is looking to switch from a CPAP to a BiPAP. His CPAP is due to be replaced. It is 90% covered by insurance, but that is done by paying for it first, then submitting the receipt. For the price of a CPAP, we could have hired a plumber to fix the taps and replace the hot water tank with a new one, and still had money left over. Plus, he’s having a hard time getting replacement hoses. Our province covers the cost of a BiPAP, though. To get one, he has to be reassessed, and that’s why he’s been referred to this hospital.

What he got in the mail was their questionnaire about his health history. Which was fine until he got to the end when, as he put it, he almost cried.

They wanted a list of his medications, and doses.

He cheated.

He cut off the list that’s on his bubble packs to put in with the form, and wrote “see attached”. Then he just had to add the “take as needed” medications, and his injections, to the list.

Tomorrow is Saturday and our post office is closed, but I’ll still make sure to get it in the mail box right away.

The next thing he’ll get is a telephone appointment. We’ll see if they need him to actually come in to do a sleep test or not. When he was first diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea, we were living in this province, and there was an actual sleep research lab at the same hospital that now has the provinces cardiac clinic. I don’t think there is a sleep research lab anymore, and it looks like they no longer have people actually spending the night in the lab, hooked up to various monitors, while two technicians observed all night. When my mother was tested for sleep apnea, my SIL picked up the test machine in the city and I met her part way to get it. When my mother was ready to go to bed, I brought it over and helped her put on the hoses and heart monitors. I then came back in the morning to get the machine and delivered it to a Medigas office in the city for data analysis.

Which is more or less what I expect will happen with my husband, this time around.

Hopefully, this will all get processed fairly quickly. I think a BiPAP would be better for my husband. They weren’t available when my husband was first diagnosed.

So I didn’t end up getting anything done outside, like I’d hoped, but that’s okay. The important things got done, so that makes it a good day!

The Re-Farmer

Garden clean up started, and water woes update

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Today is the first of a short spell of warmer days we are expecting. As I write this, at almost 7pm, we are at a lovely 12C/54F. The weather app says it feels like 5C/41F, but it doesn’t seem that chill around our home.

This afternoon, I took advantage of the warmer temperatures and finally got to work, cleaning up in the main garden area. What I’m shooting for is to get some beds ready to try some fall planting – because garlic, that is. I’ve been inspired once again by Gardening in Canada.

The more we can get done in the fall, the easier it will make things in the spring!

I’m surprised by just how much can be planted in the fall, with our zone 3 winters. Her list includes wildflowers; particularly poppies, hollyhocks, sunflowers, coneflowers and columbine. Now that I think about it, all of those make sense; we’ve had all but coneflowers sow themselves here, and the only reason we haven’t had coneflowers overwinter here is because we don’t have them anywhere to begin with. I do still have a native wildflower mix that needs to be sown, but those will have their own space to be seeded in.

For vegetables, she listed them in groups. One is the alliums; onions, leeks and shallots. We’ve got our own onion seed this year, so that is an option for us. We should also be able to use our own garlic for planting this year, too.

She mentions root crops like turnips, carrots, radishes and beets, all of which benefit from winter sowing by becoming sweeter and more flavourful, the following year.

Peas is something she plants all over, as she uses them as an indicator plant. You can tell how warm the soil is becoming by when they germinate.

The next group she mentions are brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, kohlrabi and possibly cabbage.

Last of all, she mentions squash and pumpkins. Considering the squash we had in our compost pile last year, we’ve already had those by accident!

They are normally a hot weather plant, but our compost tomatoes shows that, in the right conditions, tomatoes could be added to the list, too. Hmm… so can beans, for that matter.

Looking at her list and remembering what I have for seeds right now, we could plant onions, turnips, carrots, radishes, beets, peas, spinach, kohlrabi and both summer and winter squash.

What I might end up doing is just mixing up the seeds for onions, turnips, carrots and beets and planting them randomly in one bed – mostly because the onions could protect the things it’s planted with from deer. I could probably interplant onions with kohlrabi, peas and spinach, too, though I’d have to watch the spacing more. Squash… well, they take up so much space, they would be on their own, for the most part!

In order to do this, there are two things I need to get ready. First, is prepare the soil by increasing organic material. Compaction is a huge problem with our soil. I can do trench composting again, which really seems to make a big difference in production, but the soil itself needs to be amended as best we can.

Then, once seeds are planted, the other thing they will need is a light and fine mulch. Grass clippings and leaves would be what we have on hand to use. She recommends piling snow over the seeds in the winter for added insulation, but for the main garden area, I don’t see us needing to do that. That whole space gets well covered with snow over the winter!

Right away, I can see that we would have a very different garden next year, if we do this fall sowing.

We shall see if we can get to that point over the next week or so!

With that in mind, I focused on the main garden area. Here is a slideshow of today’s progress.

I started off using the weed trimmer. I hadn’t been able to do much clearing of the paths, once the winter squash, pumpkins, drum gourds and melon bed vines really took off. In some paths, I could barely walk through them without stepping on a vine.

I started to use the weed trimmer in where the next raised bed that will be part of a squash tunnel will be built, but not too much, just yet. I’ll clear into there more when I have to access the stack of what will be vertical support poles attached to the existing bed.

After trimming one side of the high raised bed, I stopped to pull up the winter squash vines. All the squash got powdery mildew towards the end of the season, so all of these were for the burn pile, not the compost. In fact, the only squash that did not get powdery mildew was the Crespo squash, in a completely different area.

I ended up spending most of my time on the pole bean trellis. There were only 5 surviving plants but, my goodness, they sure took over that trellis netting!

Also, folding up that netting for storage is a lot easier when you lay it out, then weave a bamboo stake through one short end.

After the first squash bed was cleared, I moved the corn stalks over from the other squash bed, so I could get at the vines under them. Later, I plan to trench compost the corn stalks.

Pulling up the squash vines was truly interesting, at times. I couldn’t believe how long some of them had gotten! These would have been so awesome on a trellis tunnel!

The only two beds I did not clear this time were the high raised bed, and the first trellis bed. I did finish weed trimming the paths, though. Right now, the bed that needs the least amount of work is the westernmost one, where I’d already prepped half of it after harvesting the onions and covered it with plastic.

The solarization doesn’t seem to be working, though. I’m seeing a lot of green growing under one end. The problem is, that end of the bed gets a lot more shade, this time of year, so it doesn’t get a chance to get hot enough to solarize. At least not at the south end. There may be greater success towards the middle of the bed.

Around the time I finished the weed trimming, I found some messages from the family. My daughter had spent some time going through all the fittings I picked up, working out which would be needed, which wouldn’t, etc. In the end, we were going to need more of two fittings – and will likely have quite a few to return to the store, once the job is done.

It was past 3:30 by then. The store we needed to go to was the second one I’d gone to, yesterday. Thankfully, they weren’t going to close until 5:30 – the local one closes at 4. My daughter came along with me.

While she was looking at the fittings, I looked around for the hot water tank element tool I needed, then asked for help, because I couldn’t even find the section. It turned out to be tucked away in a corner. 😄 I also asked about a socket large enough to remove the anode rod but, in the end, I think the same heat element tool will fit the anode rod. I’ll test that out, later.

Then my daughter needed help, because one of the fittings she was looking for was behind locked doors! Quite a few displays in this store were behind glass. I would not have expected theft to be more of a problem in this location, that the store I usually go to!

After we got what we needed and were heading home, I missed my turn to cross over to the other highway – the streets look no different than driveways in this town! That meant we ended up driving to the town closer to home.

My daughter hadn’t eaten anything since early in the morning. Since we ended up in town anyhow she, being the sweetheart that she is, sprung for some Dairy Queen for all of us.

It now looks like we have everything we need to replace the pipes and faucet set for the tub. The hard part is going to be cutting the copper pipe to get the old pieces out. There is very little room to work in. Especially since the cutter needs to spin around the pipe.

While I might be able to assist, this is a job mostly for my younger daughter. She’s the most able bodied among us – and considering she has PCOS and all the joint pain that can come with, that’s not saying much!

Hopefully, I will be able go get more progress in the garden instead, and if all goes really well, be able to plant things for next year in a few days!

If all goes well for my daughter, we might even be able to use the tub and shower again, soon, too!

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: September garden tour!

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Finally!

I recorded these clips on the 10th, but didn’t get a chance to actually do anything with them until today.

Without further ado, here is our September garden tour video.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Re-Farmer

I didn’t expect this … again

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I forgot to mention something in my last post!

Since I got caught in the rain while topping up the cat kibble outside, I was soon back in the old kitchen, replacing the container onto the kibble bin.

Which is when I started hearing something I should NOT have been hearing!

There was water leaking from the wood stove chimney!

This had happened before, earlier this year, but that was just a drip. Nothing like what’s in the video!

Last time, I let my brother know and someone from the roofing company came out to check it out. He found the roofers hadn’t sealed around the chimney very well, so he applied tar, not just where he found a leak could be getting in, but all around the base of the chimney, at the shingles, and even up the sides, along the seams of the chimney pipe. He even check the chimney cap, to make sure no more leaking.

Yet, here we are!

If you have the sound on, on the video, you can hear the drumming sound from the drips hitting the spare litter pan I set to catch the drips.

When I head outside next, I’ll take a look at the chimney (safely from the ground!) and see if there is any obvious damage. With the sudden and severe winds we got, that wouldn’t surprise me. If there isn’t any obvious damage, someone’s going to have to climb back up there with tar and try and find where the leak got in.

I’m not sure the roofer’s warranty would cover that again!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: August garden tour (video)

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I’m skipping the progress shots for the squash and melons, since I’ve got a video to show, instead! I hope you enjoy it.

Let me know if you have any issues watching it – and do feel free to watch it over on YouTube and hit that “like” button – but only if you really like it!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 garden: No, it’s not too early

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Today the last day of July. We’ve got about a month and 10 days before our first average frost day, though if we’re lucky, that won’t happen until much later. We haven’t even harvested our garlic yet, but when we do, we need to think about what to do with the empty beds. I’ve been considering planting some very short season crops, but there just doesn’t seem to be much point. Not with only about 40 days of growing season left, as of today, never mind from whenever any beds are harvested and open.

Which means I’m thinking about getting the garden ready for next year, rather than extending the harvest for this year.

No. It’s not too early! 😄

This timely video from Gardening in Canada talks about one option I was considering. Growing a cover crop.

Given the state of our soil, I am considering planting tillage radishes. I actually got the seeds a couple of years ago.

There are a lot of seeds in that bag! There are a few places I want to use them to help break up compacted soil, in preparation for expanding our garden space. Instead, we ended up unintentionally reducing garden space!

The idea is to plant them and leave them. As they grow, they “till” the soil, then add organic material as they decompose.

The only hesitation I have is our Dark Grey Zone soil, with its thin layer of top soil over gravel, sand, clay and rocks.

So. Many. Rocks.

This type of soil drains quickly and leaches nutrients. The tillage radish might increase how quickly water drains in the soil… or it will reduce the drainage by adding organic material in the sand/gravel/clay below, and act as a sponge.

If nothing else, it’s worth a try. I’ve got the seeds, after all. May as well use them before they get too old!

The Re-Farmer

Off topic: talking fire (video)

/ Re-Farmer / 13 Comments

Hearing what’s going on in Jasper right now is pretty mind blowing. It’s almost surreal to see, and brings back memories of Fort Mac.

The weather app on my computer includes fire maps and, when I zoom out, it’s amazing to see just how many fires there are right now. All along the west coast and the west central US states, there are fires, and the line of fire continues through BC and into Alaska. The fires spread across the north through the territories and the northern areas of the prairie provinces, reducing somewhat across northern Ontario, but increasing again in Quebec.

In other words, the boreal forest that covers much of Canada.

Of course, you’re going to hear an awful lot about why fires happen, as happens every year during fire season. This video looks at the data, and makes some very good points.

In another lifetime, before my husband became permanently disabled, he was an IT guy and part of a team contracted with Alberta’s Sustainable Resources department (I don’t even know if it exists anymore). He worked on the software used in forest management, and got to talk to a number of the scientists involved directly, to know what they needed out of their software.

They were very aware of the need for prescribed burns, and continually recommended them. That they weren’t being done was cause for a great deal of frustration.

As is mentioned in the video, it isn’t a matter of if this would happen, but when.

Unfortunately, a lot of forest management practices are not allowed because of ignorance within the powerful environmentalist lobby. In the end, they cause more problems, more damage, and too often, cost lives. Thankfully, not in Jasper. However, this is going to keep happening until the powers that be get serious about reducing the fuel levels. That is going to mean more prescribed burns, but also allowing more logging. These are incredibly important to maintaining a health forest, but also to reduce the risks of forest fires.

Where we live, we are in a transition zone between boreal forest and open prairie. It’s open though that we are more likely to be threatened by wildfires rather than forest fires, but have just enough pine trees to make forest fires a risk, too. We have a spruce grove right in our yard, and spruces are basically big resin filled torches. Clearing out the dead trees and underbrush around us it not just about aesthetics. It’s a matter of safety. Wanting to have grazing animals for the areas we can’t mow is another part of that. While we have had issues with flooding in the past, and excess rain this spring, drought is the more normal state of things.

Something we keep in mind as we work on clearing up and improving the section of the property we are responsible for.

The Re-Farmer