The Next Step - Farm Up-Date

As many of the readers of my blog will recall, the farm and its orchard were devastated by a fire some six or so years ago, in which my original house, which held many nostalgic memories was also destroyed. In many ways, the gods were smiling upon me at that time as all the other buildings survived with minimal damage. When I find the photos of the damage I will post them for you to share. In the meantime I would like to share with you the "next step", as I move into the next phase of the clearing and re-planting of the orchard.



Since the fire, the guinea grass has grown profusely, and thickly, more so than prior to the fire. So thick, that in this instance I decided it was too much to clear it all by hand as I had previously been doing, so I called in a contractor with his tractor and slasher to do the initial cutting, and from there proceeded with my smaller ride-on mower and hand slasher.


To give you a much better idea of what all this involves, assisted and directed by one of the guests who is very knowledgeable in this area, we shot a short video for you to view. And as this is my first attempt, not only of making a video, but also of posting it, I am most interested to see just how successful this will be.

Well the first one turned out to be quite successful, so I will post a number now showing the sequence of events - cutting by hand - mowing - and the fruits of our labours - yellow sapote fruit or Lekume. I have as yet to master voice over. That will need to wait for a later date.





SIt appears that it does take some time to download the videos, so I must apologise to any-one who is on dial-up, or has a very slow connection. May you enjoy the still pictures at least. Enjoy!!

It has been my experience over the years, that if mulch of any type was applied to the plants, then in the initial stage at least, and this could be for twelve months or more, it leached essential nitrogen, and slowed the plant growth, in some instances, if the plant was very young and not well established, to the point where it died. And when planting out new plants and trees, this can be crucial to their survival.

Recently I had the experience where I ignored my previous experience on the advice of a friend who advised me that with this particular mulch the leaching did not occur. Needless to say, and as it turned out, leaching did occur. So now I have returned to my previous practice of adding a high organic nitogenous fertiliser at the same time and the plants and trees are flourishing.

I felt I should share this with you, so that you may not require to have the same experience. At the same time I felt I should share with you the method(s) used.

In this instance I am using a method which is described as sheet composting in which the materials to be applied are laid down in layers. In this instance the materials consist of wood mulch and an organic fertliser.




In the first instance all the grass is cleared from around the tree or plant, then a layer of the organic fertliser is applied, upon which is placed a layer of mulch. This is then repeated, layer by layer till the desired amount has been applied. Naturally enough the amount applied will depend upon many factors, including the amount of mulch and/or fertliser available, and if an adeqaute source is present, how much you, as an individual believe is necessary.

I do use another method too, which I find highly successful, and one which I personally prefer. And that is to mix the fertliser with the mulch prior to applying it to the tree or plant. The organic fertiliser which I use is a mixture of cow,sheep, and fowl manure, mushroom compost, blood and bone, fish and kelp, worm castings, trace elements, and zeolite granules.