it is almost that time again for the carpet baggers they couldn't make it with the uppity yankees, so they got deported down south.
Soil erosion is the forgotten environmental catastrophe. My biggest complaint against the environmental movement is the obsession with CO2 and climate change. There needs to be more awareness about the degradation and loss of soil. We've got a small herd of cattle (about 15 head) and the muck from the winter sheds goes back on the land. Also, we have composting toilets for use during the events and camps we hold during the spring and summer (normally) and the contents of them get added to the muck heaps after they have been safely rotted down. I even have my own composting toilet in my motorhome.
I got truckloads of horse manure and the tree trimmers left me a large pile of shredded brush. It is almost all gone now. I piled horse manure 1 foot deep and 1 foot wide for my sweetcorn. And I used shredded hay (rotten) for watermelon. The sweetcorn was genetically modified. It produced 2 ears per stock , stocks 9 inches apart in 3 ft rows. We gave loads away and ate sweetcorn for more than a year. No tractor, no tiller, no cultivate, just roundup ready sweetcorn on full ears. It also had the bt gene. I walked through it with a sprayer to weed and a wheelbarrow to harvest. Then let the goats finish it off. The watermelon were planted in 2 ft by 4ft squares of rotten hay 1 foot deep. Seeds planted in hay. Fertilize now and then but no weeding or really walking in the melons. Big juicy red ripe watermelon. It's the soil.
Alabama produces one million tons of chicken manure every year. There are two cows for every three people.
Alabama gardens must be awe inspiring. I'd like to use manure and rotting straw but its hard to find where I live. I met a woman who had an extensive rose garden on her pig farm. I said she was very lucky to have such a fabulous source of manure but she said it was too "hot' and she couldnt use it without lots of maturing.
I stop in once in a while now.....one too many infraction for being funny has rubbed me raw so I generally play elsewhere now. July 21st expires my points so we'll see.
Seriously I been working on different strategies for gardening/farming. This year I took the very lazy approach. I had to work planting the onions but most of my garden work was in the planting. Green beans have been doing well without weeding except for Japanese Beetles. Good year for Tomatoes. No weeding except onions. Got large Sunflower plants so far. Sweetcorn sucks. Watermelon doing great. Finally wearing out those persistant herbicides that came with the horse manure. After the watermelon makes and the harvest complete will let the goats have it. They will feast till nearly nothing is left. Come spring ..... or fall if planting broccoli... Will burn down the garden and plant. All plant material will stay in the garden for next year. Watermelon this year. I have found that here in Alabama watermelon grow best with the weeds. The weeds shade the melons and prevent sunburn.
I moved a rose and it died, so I'll have to replace it. I have lots of roses though so it doesn't matter. The heatwave last year wrecked the lawn so I've spent the lockdown months repairing it, with some success. Also I've removed vast quantities of ivy. I suffer from a lack of knowledge with respect to gardening, which is unfortunate.
This is my Better Bush tomato. The brown stuff is wood chips. Wood chips should not be tilled under. Notice..... no weeding.
I think goats are impervious to poison. A greenie friend once asked my Dad if he’d ever thought of having a goat and Dad said I’d rather have boils!
I just looked it up... Ivy is on the list. I do like goats though, they would be very useful for clearing all the brambles and other weeds in the garden.
That’s a huge list. You’d have to do a lot of weeding first apparently. Is the American list the same as the English one?