In this week of Hour-A-Day Gardening . . .
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Rain, Cool, Repeat
While we need the rain, it has been spaced out and interspersed with cool, cloudy weather, meaning the ground is wet and cold. One problem is that I have to disk up fields to plant grains and the ground needs to be dry to do so. Another problem is slow and incomplete seed germination in the garden.
Transplants
Finally most of the beds are prepped, meaning raked flat, composted horse manure added, and covered in mulch. This is just in time to transplant cold-hardy starts, like kale, cabbage, spinach, bok choi, and others. The last of the potatoes (maybe) were also put to bed, for a total of 420 plants.
Oats and Barley Planted
After the longest dry period yet — all of two days — I was able to prep the plots and get some grains planted. I first disked the top few inches of the field to cut down the weeds. I used a garden seeder to plant the grain. I ended up putting a pound of barley into about 500 ft² (8-in rows, 15–20 seeds per foot) and about 4 lb into 2200 ft² (same spacing). I also burned off last year’s corn stalks and tilled up the pea field. I filmed the process to make a how-to video or small-scale, home-grown grains.
Apple Pruning Continues
One thing I can do with wet weather is pruning apple trees. I was able to root out the wild grapes strangling some trees. Many trees need drastic cutbacks since they have languished for over a decade with no care.
Volunteers and Support
We’re always looking for volunteers. If you want to spend a few hours in a garden (and take home something yummy for your trouble), reach out to us at info@lowtechinstitute.org. It can be regular or sporadic as you have time.
We’re also asking those who get something out of reading our site, watching our videos, and listening to our podcast to join the community of supporters of the institute by throwing us a few bucks a month on Patreon. If you’re in a position to help us out, a little goes a long way. Thanks for considering it.
The Data
Here’s the breakdown day by day. This week, I worked 15:45 again, bringing my total to 50 minutes a day. I’ll likely get over an hour a day by the end of May and then things slow down.