every year i offer to plant sunflowers for free in people's front yard. It's one of those plants if you transplant it. put a collar of cardboard and a handful of woodchips as mulch will grow just fine in straight-up lawn. when you drive down the road in front of the school almost every other house has 9 or 10 rows of sunflowers. we become the happiest street in cali lol. sunflowers are the best plant. so happy.
I planted some Mongolian Giant Sunflowers at my community plot and was overjoyed to learned one of the other gardeners there had been photographing their progress to show friends and family. Everyone gets enjoyment from sunflower plantings!
we live in a very wooded neighborhood and sunflowers have to be caged if you want them to survive to seed. squirrels and chipmunks will attack and eat them at basically every phase of life. sad because i love the big oil sunflowers but i've only had 1y out of like 5 where they made it to seed
I adore the language you both use when talking about plants. You’re always reminding me to look at every plant as useful and to make purposeful decisions when cultivating. Sending love from South Dakota!
Yes planting 'eating seeds' is so fun ! Also here my anecdote about sunflowers : Last year I taught my 7 y-o daughter we would multiply the seeds for the birds if we planted just a few handfuls of the sunflowers in a 'bird feed' bag, instead of feeding them all : this year she got out her tweezers and saved some herself for next year ;) and left the other heads for our feathered friends, impressed with the quantity that represented ;)
I have something similar planned here, growing crops in mulch for poultry feed. Sunflowers struggle here because we're exposed to high winds, but with a few thousand trees planted that'll change within a few years. It's always wonderful seeing what's possible, it gives me hope for our site. Excellent video, as always.
Yeah, those weedy squash fields will actually be putting down tons of plant root exudates to build soil. They are doing their job to help "return the surplus". Im curious what his harvest of squash will be from that weedy field. I bet it will be pretty good! But more importantly, the soil will remain fertile next year because of all those green solar panels pumping carbohydrates to the soil food web of life :)
I read this comment and thought, that sounds just like K! Lo a behold, it was!! Hahaha I haven’t had much luck with the squash yield in the weedy field (mine looks more like the weedy neighbour’s field) but my squash in the heavily mulched gardens are looking great. This might transition as the years roll on. It requires a mindset shift to appreciate the long-term approach of growing with the weeds. So, here’s the question : is the weeded garden going to become less fertile over time? Even with all that deep mulch and the weeds being folded into the soil? I guess the weeds aren’t pumping carbs into the soil if they’re covered... nonetheless, a gorgeous planting and no doubt, a bountiful yield!
I've contacted some local landscape companies and have been getting all the leaves and grass clippings I could ever want delivered to my house for free! They are happy to do it as it saves them travel time and dump fees.
She's got so many wonderful ideas, but very understandably it's not just 'easy' to be in front of the camera. Took me years to get comfortable with it...
@@edibleacres your passion and knowledge comes thru, glad you got comfortable on camera. I'm ok with myself on, I just don't like seeing how old I'm getting!
This year I grew black oil sunflowers from seed I literally picked out of a bag of commercial birdseed. And now I understand part of why that variety is so popular in industry - those things did great with no special care at all. More productive than other "fancier" sunflowers I bought purposely-package seed for.
I grew sunflowers for my chickens, I will amaze how quickly the pick the seeds out of seedhead. Well worthwhile doing. I also buy a 5 or 7 bean mix meant for soup, and plant the beans. They are all bedding beans, so no need for adding trestles.
That's awesome! I have been experimenting a lot with deep mulching straw and hay and just lawn clippings and it has been working excellent for me I will probably continue to do it more and more every year so much better than pulling weeds LOL. They also have gone through a drought. Here in northern Indiana and the areas that I got to mulch have done much better then the rest. I also have been experimenting with growing black oil sunflower from the bag for my chickens and I think it's a very viable option. Initially I thought that we would harvest the seed and store in bags or totes but I have found that just running a piece of baling twine through the heads and hanging them in my barn to dry has worked fine then I can throw the whole heads into the chickens and they pick it clean
Awesome note on the sunflower heads! We plant to harvest whole and figure somewhere to hang and dry them. I like the idea of hanging them in the coop all winter, replacing them as they peck them apart! :)
The soil is pretty clay-ey and it's a bottom land plot so both of those help hold water, but the mulch is what is keeping it all going during the stress I think.
You both are doing a great job! Thank you for being so kind and generous with sharing your experience. It sure has made a difference for me. Keep up the great work! Sending my gratitude and appreciation your way.
I got a garden plot new to me this spring first thing I did was a fence second thing I did was 6 bails of straw and recently brought in 3 more ,I have not really had to weed very little and is breaking down beautiful about 8 inches thick and minimal water so I fully agree with this method . I have a beautiful garden well nourished plants and my soil is making itself .
I wonder why some times why I like you guys gardening so much???? Then I watch another video and I laugh how can I not love the vids, so in line with nature, if I didn't know the difference I would believe you guys grew out of the ground... lol lol Keep up the good work and cheers!!!!
This was my favorite Gardening video on TH-cam this summer. It's so nice to see the Ruth Stout garden on the sunflowers from the seed at the store. Thanks for your good work. Hopefully you will inspire more people to do the same. I know I will in my small front yard next year.
That looks awesome! We can't trust hay around here so we just bag our grass clippings and use that as mulch as well as shredded paper and cardboard. I agree about grocery store seeds. Some of my best performers are from the grocery store.
Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing! I noticed Sasha cutting instead of yanking roots . You mention soo much weeding needed at start . Did you cut or yank those? Roots left in ground seem beneficial to create water penetration in soil and organic mater left in ground. Have you had any issue with residual herbicides from hay? If you have concerns about herbicides how do you find hay without it?
We pulled plants when they were smaller, or after a rain, but because we haven't gotten any rain in awhile at this point it feels too dry to disrupt the soil by pulling out roots. Good point on the possible herbicides in hay. We have found a source for hay where the farmers do not spray any herbicides at all, we would not bring in treated hay. Any time we are looking to get hay we politely ask if they spray it with anything.
those sunflowers look fantastic. it all does with drought yall been enduring this year. i would be interested in hearing more about the corn is it a dent , flour or flint type corn? i am growing out a flour corn this year,painted mtn corn. like you i am trying to fill up the cellar and pantry for winter with goods.please do a video of harvest from this plot. keep up the good work.
We'll show what we get from this setup for sure. The corn is from a wide mix, so many different types I can't remember actually! Basically we have gallon jars saved from past growings where every single corn is a different color, shape, etc. Genetic gene pool like an ocean.
Sunflower seeds seem really indestructible, I had some from last year that were in the garage, they set on some mold cause I was too lazy to get the seeds out of the Sunflowers head, however when I sprinkled them around the compost and chucked the rest into it ALL of them seemed to grow (ofcourse only the stronger ones survived here cause space was limited)
Tried the "Ruth Stout Method" this year, but will not do it again next year. Will just use a "heavy" layer of compost instead. All the mulch hides the bugs and slugs, and mole hills.
Your chickens ignore lamb's quarters? Wow! I've watched mine leaping into the air to get lamb's quarters seed heads. Where they have access, they strip the lamb's quarters of it's leaves very eagerly. But mine aren't getting all the other greens choices yours are.
They are a funny crew. Some times they would skip them entirely, others they hit them hard. . If they were available in the winter they would disappear instantly!
Looking good guys !!! Just don't till the hay in ....the weeds will be even worse...thats the voice of experience !! Lol. Wish there was a way I could send u pictures of things I have going up here in northern new York....luv to experiment...some failures but usually most turn out good....keep at it guys 😊
Definitely understand that... Tilling in or flipping the hay basically will undo the whole process. Probably spurs a massive spike in organic matter development in the soil, but not worth the work!
Ive commited the ultimate sin and low tilled for a polyculture of dent corn, cowpeas, and amaranth. And its honestly been working so good just using a hoe i plan on doing it next year. But im still doing no-till methods for plants like potatoes that do way better with the ruth stout method. And compost on my perennials.
We used a shuffle hoe in this garden and pulled a ton of weeds by hand as well, so lots of little soil disturbance all over the place. No purity here around only mulch all the time!
I’m totally addicted to your videos, love these, the pond stuff, need an update on the new pond lol, and especially the chickens/composting process! My question is how do U get a neighbor to let u grow? Do u Share produce or just good friends or what?
So glad you enjoy the videos :) We have a nice relationship with this person so it was easy to ask and try to make something happen. We weren't sure if he'd be open to it, and at first when our fields were really weedy we thought he'd be sad he made the choice! We're trying to get it as nice as possible so he would be excited to have us there again! I think you can always just try and ask folks and see what comes of it. Figure out an exchange, share produce, help them on projects, etc...
Sean, I would love to see how you process that corn. I wondered if that was a viable idea for myself, to grow corn to use as a grain for myself. Cornmeal, chicken feed, etc. wasn’t sure how much needed to be planted for it to be worthwhile for the work. Do you have any footage of that process by chance? Thanks!
Seeds and grains seem to take a lot of land area to grow. That's my disappointment with growing them for food or animal feed. Wondering how to grow food to mostly feed a flock of hens.
I think getting into wild foraging may be valuable. Collecting nuts, fruits, etc from the wider landscape that is provided without you having the land to grow...
No plans, just hopes that it works out... Pretty large number in there so if birds have a lot of fun but leave us a lot we can be quite happy with that.
Hope you can use that field next year. Love the happy cheeriness of the sunflowers. I think American Corporate greed is what makes folks disgusted with capitalism.
Do you feed the weeds to the chickens? I have 10 chickens and they love weeds, especially Snap Dragon. I even pull my neighbors weeds to feed them - great for neighborly relations.
I hear ya... I think this field is somewhat tired and spent after a lot of years of tillage. We REALLY should have followed the corn planting with a dry climbing bean to climb them and support them but just didn't get to it... Oh well, next year. And hopefully the hay will have helped wake the soil up in the meantime.
I prefer hay (so long as I know it isn't sprayed with anything) since 1) it is generally lower cost, 2) it breaks down into nice compost. Sorry about no tour this year :(
Capitalism isn't bad. Corporate Capitalism is.... In society that doesn't care for each other though, no economic system can stop it's Fall. Gorgeous progress on the homestead. I can't wait to see that pond.
Question (newbie here!), when you mulch with hay, do you have to make sure it is older hay so the seeds aren't viable? I mulched our field with fresh hay this fall. In the spring, I will cover some of it with wood chips. Parts of the hay I plan to grow in, unless the fresh hay is a problem. Love your videos!! My husband and I live near Erie, Pa.
Good question... We use whatever hay we can get a hold of, and it is always wonderful in the end... Sometimes (old or new) hay will have a lot of seedling 'weeds' sprout but since they are coming up in super loose hay they are incredibly easy to pull and lay back down. So long as you don't start digging or flipping like crazy, it should only be one or two flushes of sprouting and then it's done. The pros FAR outweigh the cons in this scenario, so I'd use any hay you can get (so long as you know it isn't sprayed with any chemicals...) Best of luck!
Very cool, I had no idea about this project. All my corn and sunflowers got ruined by a single squirrel who ate them all at a juvenile stage. It's likely punishment for taking down it's oak tree 2 years ago... Complete crop loss by a single determined animal. At least I'm building soil I suppose!
know if you could use spent brewery grains as mulch in your garden would that be to acidic to the soil.?? OrYou is it a good idea mix your spent brewery grains with wood mulch. ?? Any information will help.
I don't have direct experience there but I would think mixing with woodchips seems reasonable intuitively. When in doubt, use as a mulch around existing and somewhat established trees or if really in doubt use in a mix as a mulch in paths and then harvest as finer mulch at the end of the season.
It did pretty well considering it was a super dry year and it was our first year on it, with no real compost or soil building happening yet. Hoping for a great improvement this upcoming season.
When you plant that many honey locust are you scarifying all that seed or planting raw in the fall? Do you have a technique for scarifying all that seed? Just the hot water method or something else?
We do a hot water treatment. Put them all in a big bowl and pour over nice and hot water like making a big batch of tea. Let them sit overnight and plant the next day. Germination near 90%+ I'd suspect. Pretty easy way to go...
Hay is 1/2 or less the cost, and we can find many sources around here as 'mulch' that are not sprayed with anything and break down into lovely compost..
crimping weeds work better. they welt out trying to send resources to fix the problem. when you cut grass or cut weeds. in most causes it's easier for them to return back to a normal state and just keep growing. crimping weeds at as two-fold. it shades the ground which stops further weeds and it makes it tougher. using the root up.
I m sure looking at your process of growing food and its productivity...your neighbour would handover the entire property to you for management... Wish you all the Luck
Between running a nursery, digging pond after pond, planting, harvesting, attending to animals, cooking, eating, socialising with friends, making videos, checking emails, replying to people, I can only draw three conclusions. Either 1) You have a hidden cabin in the woods filled with slave workers. 2) You have supernatural abilities and can manipulate time. 3) You are both insomniacs. Of course you may both have great abilities in permaculture and land management, and are passionate in what you do with good time management skills, but I'm thinking option number 2: you're somehow manipulating the laws of time and space.
The thing is, most of the work is really engaging and rewarding so it feels doable to keep up with it (to an extent). We have days where we hang a fair bit, take it easy, etc. it's not always go go... Those days are good for catching up on comments and emails and stuff :)
@@edibleacres The late British philosopher Alan Watts once asked if money were no object how would you really enjoy spending your life? I'm glad you found your vocation, not many people have that. And some free time too boot! :) I've watched a lot of gardening videos, but yours are by far the most inspirational.
When you start a new area that’s been tilled, why not create a stale seed bed and torch the surface then rake, then torch again and plant. Then mulch and you should have almost zero weeds
We have. They haven't been wonderful to eat we've found as far as the work, but we mulch down their competetion to promote them since they seem great for breaking up the soil and being beautiful and helping the small bugs.
I haven't quite figured out how I should be going about mulching yet. The weeds, though, I usually just pull them out of the ground and lay them down right where they were growing.
If you cut (or press down/bend over/break the stem) the weeds before laying them, you will probably find : that less seeds germinate right back up (sunlight and upturning and impact from tools and rocks make weed seeds germinate. ) hope this helps in your weed management.
Try a small area where instead of pulling them and laying them down, you simply step them down at the base so they lay flat, and put grass clippings, hay, straw, leaves, woodchips, sawdust, WHATEVER on top so they are covered and can't bounce back. You'll need to repeat almost certainly (but you would with pulling weeds too so it isn't fundamentally different that way) but each time the work becomes less and less. Try one area and see how it responds/feels... Don't over think it :)
Your sorta three/four sisters plot reminded me of this article www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60313 A bit different climate (prairie) but an interesting read
13 Watch therefore [give strict attention and be cautious and active], for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come. 14 For it is like a man who was about to take a long journey, and he called his servants together and entrusted them with his property. 15 To one he gave five talents [probably about $5,000], to another two, to another one-to each in proportion to his own [a]personal ability. Then he departed and left the country. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he gained five talents more. 17 And likewise he who had received the two talents-he also gained two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came and brought him five more, saying, Master, you entrusted to me five talents; see, here I have gained five talents more. 21 His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, [b]admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the [c]blessedness) which your master enjoys. 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you entrusted two talents to me; here I have gained two talents more. 23 His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, [d]admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the [e]blessedness) which your master enjoys. 24 He who had received one talent also came forward, saying, Master, I knew you to be a harsh and hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you had not winnowed [the grain]. 25 So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is your own. 26 But his master answered him, You wicked and lazy and idle servant! Did you indeed know that I reap where I have not sowed and gather [grain] where I have not winnowed?
First off I would like to say that your field is beutiful and i like you and your calm patient spirit. Capitalism is not the problem. Capitalism is far better than socialism or any other system history has proven this. Even under socialism a greedy person can capatalize on a socialist system I assure you under any other system this is what is natural and true. Capitalism doesnt make everything fair for everyone but what it does is recognize that greed will always make the pursuit unfair. It will always be unfair but only capatilism says your the underdog but you have a chance to fight. It wont be easy or fair but you have a chance. I understand why peoples spirits break and claim capitalism is bad but it never was its fault all capitalism does is let you plant your seeds where socialism says we will plant only what our small group of "leaders" deems is best for you. Those sunflowers you got. Those are capitalist.
It can mean this, but I have observed that it's less about mulch and more about soil health and plant health. If the seedlings come up with vigor and are happy they get almost no slug pressure we've found overall...
@@edibleacres That's true - I've noticed that some lettuces (for example) don't get touched while ones nearby get trashed. I've never been able to create that predictability, though! I suspect some of the answer may lie in having more than a pinch of seeds to play with! Time to go bulk-purchase.
I like how the woman talks about capitalism ruining things when they use TH-cam owned by Google the biggest model of corporate capitalism to earn a living.🤣
'The woman' is Sasha :) Good point, although it feels compelling to us to have videos that are clearly focused on helping anyone who wants to watch in de-coupling from standard consumption be subsidized by corporations trying to do the opposite. I guess it's up to the viewers to engage one way or the other. Fingers crossed our message is more useful to folks, and we can use that income to invest in used tools and local resources to continue this path.
You both are doing a great job! Thank you for being so kind and generous with sharing your experience. It sure has made a difference for me. Keep up the great work! Sending my gratitude and appreciation your way.
every year i offer to plant sunflowers for free in people's front yard. It's one of those plants if you transplant it. put a collar of cardboard and a handful of woodchips as mulch will grow just fine in straight-up lawn. when you drive down the road in front of the school almost every other house has 9 or 10 rows of sunflowers. we become the happiest street in cali lol. sunflowers are the best plant. so happy.
I planted some Mongolian Giant Sunflowers at my community plot and was overjoyed to learned one of the other gardeners there had been photographing their progress to show friends and family. Everyone gets enjoyment from sunflower plantings!
we live in a very wooded neighborhood and sunflowers have to be caged if you want them to survive to seed. squirrels and chipmunks will attack and eat them at basically every phase of life. sad because i love the big oil sunflowers but i've only had 1y out of like 5 where they made it to seed
I adore the language you both use when talking about plants. You’re always reminding me to look at every plant as useful and to make purposeful decisions when cultivating. Sending love from South Dakota!
Agreed! Couldn't of said it any better.
He could have been a farmer or a radio host. I am sure he would be helpful to society in either.
Chances your in Sioux Falls? Would love to connect with more permies out this way!
Yes planting 'eating seeds' is so fun ! Also here my anecdote about sunflowers : Last year I taught my 7 y-o daughter we would multiply the seeds for the birds if we planted just a few handfuls of the sunflowers in a 'bird feed' bag, instead of feeding them all : this year she got out her tweezers and saved some herself for next year ;) and left the other heads for our feathered friends, impressed with the quantity that represented ;)
Sasha I 100% agree!!!! So many people have been trained to buy and keep buying from the store. Not to buy and multiply what you bought with work 💚🌱❤️
I have something similar planned here, growing crops in mulch for poultry feed. Sunflowers struggle here because we're exposed to high winds, but with a few thousand trees planted that'll change within a few years. It's always wonderful seeing what's possible, it gives me hope for our site. Excellent video, as always.
I absolutely love Ruth stouth method ❤️🌱💚
Everything looks beautiful!
Yeah, those weedy squash fields will actually be putting down tons of plant root exudates to build soil. They are doing their job to help "return the surplus". Im curious what his harvest of squash will be from that weedy field. I bet it will be pretty good! But more importantly, the soil will remain fertile next year because of all those green solar panels pumping carbohydrates to the soil food web of life :)
Those pioneer plants know their niche, they love fixing degraded soils. When I see weeds I have hope for the future. ; )
I read this comment and thought, that sounds just like K! Lo a behold, it was!! Hahaha I haven’t had much luck with the squash yield in the weedy field (mine looks more like the weedy neighbour’s field) but my squash in the heavily mulched gardens are looking great. This might transition as the years roll on. It requires a mindset shift to appreciate the long-term approach of growing with the weeds.
So, here’s the question : is the weeded garden going to become less fertile over time? Even with all that deep mulch and the weeds being folded into the soil? I guess the weeds aren’t pumping carbs into the soil if they’re covered...
nonetheless, a gorgeous planting and no doubt, a bountiful yield!
@@homesteadhaven6024 The straw will be doing the carbon pumping, only now with much less competition so the intended crop will prosper even more!
You folks are so chill. We should all to be more like you.
We can be pretty uptight and stressed, too! Depends on the moment. But being next to a wall of sunflowers can help chill out most folks :)
Mulching and compost is the way to go. I liked the shot of the bees at the end collecting pollen.
They are having a nice moment in that field for sure
I've contacted some local landscape companies and have been getting all the leaves and grass clippings I could ever want delivered to my house for free! They are happy to do it as it saves them travel time and dump fees.
Nice! And nice to see shy Sasha speak on camera. As always, just really enjoy your channel.
She's got so many wonderful ideas, but very understandably it's not just 'easy' to be in front of the camera. Took me years to get comfortable with it...
@@edibleacres your passion and knowledge comes thru, glad you got comfortable on camera. I'm ok with myself on, I just don't like seeing how old I'm getting!
I wish I lived in a country with plenty of mulch sources
This year I grew black oil sunflowers from seed I literally picked out of a bag of commercial birdseed. And now I understand part of why that variety is so popular in industry - those things did great with no special care at all. More productive than other "fancier" sunflowers I bought purposely-package seed for.
You have a very soothing voice.
I grew sunflowers for my chickens, I will amaze how quickly the pick the seeds out of seedhead. Well worthwhile doing.
I also buy a 5 or 7 bean mix meant for soup, and plant the beans. They are all bedding beans, so no need for adding trestles.
Neat ideas here, thanks!
That's awesome! I have been experimenting a lot with deep mulching straw and hay and just lawn clippings and it has been working excellent for me I will probably continue to do it more and more every year so much better than pulling weeds LOL. They also have gone through a drought. Here in northern Indiana and the areas that I got to mulch have done much better then the rest. I also have been experimenting with growing black oil sunflower from the bag for my chickens and I think it's a very viable option. Initially I thought that we would harvest the seed and store in bags or totes but I have found that just running a piece of baling twine through the heads and hanging them in my barn to dry has worked fine then I can throw the whole heads into the chickens and they pick it clean
Awesome note on the sunflower heads! We plant to harvest whole and figure somewhere to hang and dry them. I like the idea of hanging them in the coop all winter, replacing them as they peck them apart! :)
Jesus! Your corn is amazing saying that you haven't watered during a drought year. Nice work
The soil is pretty clay-ey and it's a bottom land plot so both of those help hold water, but the mulch is what is keeping it all going during the stress I think.
You both are doing a great job! Thank you for being so kind and generous with sharing your experience. It sure has made a difference for me. Keep up the great work! Sending my gratitude and appreciation your way.
Y'all are insanely productive. Nice
Thanks!
I got a garden plot new to me this spring first thing I did was a fence second thing I did was 6 bails of straw and recently brought in 3 more ,I have not really had to weed very little and is breaking down beautiful about 8 inches thick and minimal water so I fully agree with this method . I have a beautiful garden well nourished plants and my soil is making itself .
I can only imagine how much better it will be next year and onward!
@@edibleacres that is what I am hoping for also
I wonder why some times why I like you guys gardening so much???? Then I watch another video and I laugh how can I not love the vids, so in line with nature, if I didn't know the difference I would believe you guys grew out of the ground... lol lol Keep up the good work and cheers!!!!
This was my favorite Gardening video on TH-cam this summer.
It's so nice to see the Ruth Stout garden on the sunflowers from the seed at the store. Thanks for your good work. Hopefully you will inspire more people to do the same. I know I will in my small front yard next year.
Nice work and it's nice to see both of you working together. Blessings
Very cool. Please post a follow-up video next year. You two are great!
We will... LOTS of garlic planted in this field now, we'll share notes.
jah bless the annuals! they're only here for a bit, so they make it work.
Nice to see your field work, seed source & weed strategies. Very helpful. Thanx
Looks great, you two are such hard workers, looking forward to buying some plants next year.
Deep mulching works wonders. Cheers!!
So good!
MY THOUGHTS AS WELL.
I can't believe that with all you do on your two properties and now the adjacent strip, you're cultivating yet another property!
Feels important to grow as much as possible if we can!
I'll definitely have to try this next year! Thank you for your time and tips!
I hope it works well for you.
"Wonderful, amazing, abundant, nourishing weed plants" :-D
likes the tiny sunflowers
Those sunflowers are so beautiful 😍
That looks awesome! We can't trust hay around here so we just bag our grass clippings and use that as mulch as well as shredded paper and cardboard. I agree about grocery store seeds. Some of my best performers are from the grocery store.
Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing! I noticed Sasha cutting instead of yanking roots . You mention soo much weeding needed at start . Did you cut or yank those? Roots left in ground seem beneficial to create water penetration in soil and organic mater left in ground. Have you had any issue with residual herbicides from hay? If you have concerns about herbicides how do you find hay without it?
We pulled plants when they were smaller, or after a rain, but because we haven't gotten any rain in awhile at this point it feels too dry to disrupt the soil by pulling out roots. Good point on the possible herbicides in hay. We have found a source for hay where the farmers do not spray any herbicides at all, we would not bring in treated hay. Any time we are looking to get hay we politely ask if they spray it with anything.
EdibleAcres thanks for the quick response! Great information. I understand now. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Love you both, and thank you for the video!!
Thanks for watching!
those sunflowers look fantastic. it all does with drought yall been enduring this year. i would be interested in hearing more about the corn is it a dent , flour or flint type corn? i am growing out a flour corn this year,painted mtn corn. like you i am trying to fill up the cellar and pantry for winter with goods.please do a video of harvest from this plot. keep up the good work.
We'll show what we get from this setup for sure. The corn is from a wide mix, so many different types I can't remember actually! Basically we have gallon jars saved from past growings where every single corn is a different color, shape, etc. Genetic gene pool like an ocean.
EdibleAcres wonder if corn works like crossing dogs
I find crosses are stronger most of the time
Looks so good!!!
Sunflower seeds seem really indestructible, I had some from last year that were in the garage, they set on some mold cause I was too lazy to get the seeds out of the Sunflowers head, however when I sprinkled them around the compost and chucked the rest into it ALL of them seemed to grow (ofcourse only the stronger ones survived here cause space was limited)
I've seen this too, they are wonderful plants in so many ways.
This is awesome great work!
Tried the "Ruth Stout Method" this year, but will not do it again next year. Will just use a "heavy" layer of compost instead. All the mulch hides the bugs and slugs, and mole hills.
Happy happy bees 🐝!
I planted our chicken's sunflower seeds this year, too. We'll be planting more next year.
Wonderful!
MULCH IS AWESOME
Cool! Well done!
Nice to see you again Jimmy!
Amazing and so beautiful! How is the field doing this year with the garlic? Would love to see its progression... Thank you for the inspiration!
Great reminder to head over there and do an update. Short answer is things seem to be growing beautifully there.
Your chickens ignore lamb's quarters? Wow! I've watched mine leaping into the air to get lamb's quarters seed heads. Where they have access, they strip the lamb's quarters of it's leaves very eagerly. But mine aren't getting all the other greens choices yours are.
They are a funny crew. Some times they would skip them entirely, others they hit them hard. . If they were available in the winter they would disappear instantly!
İts so lovely to watch how you see Principels of soil based agriculture and seeds relations with capitalism. 9:00 thank you for your sharings
Looking good guys !!! Just don't till the hay in ....the weeds will be even worse...thats the voice of experience !! Lol. Wish there was a way I could send u pictures of things I have going up here in northern new York....luv to experiment...some failures but usually most turn out good....keep at it guys 😊
Definitely understand that... Tilling in or flipping the hay basically will undo the whole process. Probably spurs a massive spike in organic matter development in the soil, but not worth the work!
Ive commited the ultimate sin and low tilled for a polyculture of dent corn, cowpeas, and amaranth. And its honestly been working so good just using a hoe i plan on doing it next year. But im still doing no-till methods for plants like potatoes that do way better with the ruth stout method. And compost on my perennials.
Also im putting silt catch systems around my low-till to mitigate any soil loss.
We used a shuffle hoe in this garden and pulled a ton of weeds by hand as well, so lots of little soil disturbance all over the place. No purity here around only mulch all the time!
I’m totally addicted to your videos, love these, the pond stuff, need an update on the new pond lol, and especially the chickens/composting process! My question is how do
U get a neighbor to let u grow? Do u Share produce or just good friends or what?
So glad you enjoy the videos :)
We have a nice relationship with this person so it was easy to ask and try to make something happen. We weren't sure if he'd be open to it, and at first when our fields were really weedy we thought he'd be sad he made the choice! We're trying to get it as nice as possible so he would be excited to have us there again! I think you can always just try and ask folks and see what comes of it. Figure out an exchange, share produce, help them on projects, etc...
Hi
Using hay for mulch, aren’t you concerned about seeds in the hay? Thanks
Greetings
Greetings
Sean, I would love to see how you process that corn. I wondered if that was a viable idea for myself, to grow corn to use as a grain for myself. Cornmeal, chicken feed, etc. wasn’t sure how much needed to be planted for it to be worthwhile for the work. Do you have any footage of that process by chance? Thanks!
We haven't tried processing it yet... WHoops! Still hanging in our greenhouse!
How did you and your wife meet? You guys seem like a cute couple.
We met at an apple pressing party:)
EdibleAcres imagine that 😁
EdibleAcres you guys are stunning
May you be blessed
Faithful over a little
Now the great increase
Seeds and grains seem to take a lot of land area to grow. That's my disappointment with growing them for food or animal feed. Wondering how to grow food to mostly feed a flock of hens.
I think getting into wild foraging may be valuable. Collecting nuts, fruits, etc from the wider landscape that is provided without you having the land to grow...
Amazing job! How do you feel about pine straw?
Happy to use it when we have access. Wouldn't put it necessarily right around tender annuals but great mulch around trees or in walkways.
Just beautiful! All that food. Do you have plans to protect the sunflowers from wild birds eating them before you can harvest them?
No plans, just hopes that it works out... Pretty large number in there so if birds have a lot of fun but leave us a lot we can be quite happy with that.
Hope you can use that field next year. Love the happy cheeriness of the sunflowers. I think American Corporate greed is what makes folks disgusted with capitalism.
We are really hoping we can make the space so beautiful that our friend is excited to have it happen again!
ha! I just learned that my new chickens don't love amaranth leaves either. more for us, they're great in frittatas
I think sometimes they are interesting to them, but for the most part not. Definitely worth trying in small amounts, but not filling a truck with!
Do you feed the weeds to the chickens? I have 10 chickens and they love weeds, especially Snap Dragon. I even pull my neighbors weeds to feed them - great for neighborly relations.
We do when the weeds are convenient to collect and bring over. They enjoy them
Interesting your chickens didn't like the lambs quarter....ours love it
Lucky you:)
Looks like that corn is low on nitorgen.
I hear ya... I think this field is somewhat tired and spent after a lot of years of tillage. We REALLY should have followed the corn planting with a dry climbing bean to climb them and support them but just didn't get to it... Oh well, next year. And hopefully the hay will have helped wake the soil up in the meantime.
You should keep some of this artemisia, they are really healthy and good as the for covid
Thanks for these vids. I was hoping for a tour during the permiculture weekend but not this year.
Does it matter if it's hay or straw?
I prefer hay (so long as I know it isn't sprayed with anything) since 1) it is generally lower cost, 2) it breaks down into nice compost. Sorry about no tour this year :(
Capitalism isn't bad. Corporate Capitalism is.... In society that doesn't care for each other though, no economic system can stop it's Fall. Gorgeous progress on the homestead. I can't wait to see that pond.
Thank you for the nuance, that's a valuable layer of specificity.
Question (newbie here!), when you mulch with hay, do you have to make sure it is older hay so the seeds aren't viable? I mulched our field with fresh hay this fall. In the spring, I will cover some of it with wood chips. Parts of the hay I plan to grow in, unless the fresh hay is a problem. Love your videos!! My husband and I live near Erie, Pa.
Good question... We use whatever hay we can get a hold of, and it is always wonderful in the end... Sometimes (old or new) hay will have a lot of seedling 'weeds' sprout but since they are coming up in super loose hay they are incredibly easy to pull and lay back down. So long as you don't start digging or flipping like crazy, it should only be one or two flushes of sprouting and then it's done. The pros FAR outweigh the cons in this scenario, so I'd use any hay you can get (so long as you know it isn't sprayed with any chemicals...) Best of luck!
Very cool, I had no idea about this project. All my corn and sunflowers got ruined by a single squirrel who ate them all at a juvenile stage. It's likely punishment for taking down it's oak tree 2 years ago... Complete crop loss by a single determined animal. At least I'm building soil I suppose!
We lose way more than we set in motion I'd guess, but the trick is to just keep setting more and more in motion and it tends to overflow eventually.
know if you could use spent brewery grains as mulch in your garden would that be to acidic to the soil.?? OrYou is it a good idea mix your spent brewery grains with wood mulch. ?? Any information will help.
I don't have direct experience there but I would think mixing with woodchips seems reasonable intuitively. When in doubt, use as a mulch around existing and somewhat established trees or if really in doubt use in a mix as a mulch in paths and then harvest as finer mulch at the end of the season.
Just came across this video, must have missed it when it came out. Curious how this field produced for you?
It did pretty well considering it was a super dry year and it was our first year on it, with no real compost or soil building happening yet. Hoping for a great improvement this upcoming season.
Try asking your local Dept to leave you a pile of coarse slashings nearby for free hay.
How did you plant out all that corn?
We used an earthway seeder and it did a wonderful job.
@@edibleacres
Ok neat. The rows looked too nice to have been just broadcast by hand. Thanks, you do great!
When you plant that many honey locust are you scarifying all that seed or planting raw in the fall?
Do you have a technique for scarifying all that seed? Just the hot water method or something else?
We do a hot water treatment. Put them all in a big bowl and pour over nice and hot water like making a big batch of tea. Let them sit overnight and plant the next day. Germination near 90%+ I'd suspect. Pretty easy way to go...
Hi
Hi
Great hint to knock the weeds down then cover with mulch. Why use hay instead of straw.
Straw is hard to find, and thus expensive, around here.
Hay is 1/2 or less the cost, and we can find many sources around here as 'mulch' that are not sprayed with anything and break down into lovely compost..
How do you keep birds from the sunflower an millet?
We don't, just fingers crossed we get enough :)
I grow sunflowers from the big bags too. Get them in before the wild birds get it all. I’m never soon enough 😂
Why don’t you snip off the weeds at ground level rather than pinning them down? Don’t they continue to use water and nutrients until they die?
crimping weeds work better. they welt out trying to send resources to fix the problem. when you cut grass or cut weeds. in most causes it's easier for them to return back to a normal state and just keep growing. crimping weeds at as two-fold. it shades the ground which stops further weeds and it makes it tougher. using the root up.
Too dry now to pull, pinning keeps the soil intact and the water in, and eventually they do die.
I m sure looking at your process of growing food and its productivity...your neighbour would handover the entire property to you for management...
Wish you all the Luck
That is kind of you
Seed in soil is better than standing in line at the bank
Between running a nursery, digging pond after pond, planting, harvesting, attending to animals, cooking, eating, socialising with friends, making videos, checking emails, replying to people, I can only draw three conclusions. Either
1) You have a hidden cabin in the woods filled with slave workers.
2) You have supernatural abilities and can manipulate time.
3) You are both insomniacs.
Of course you may both have great abilities in permaculture and land management, and are passionate in what you do with good time management skills, but I'm thinking option number 2: you're somehow manipulating the laws of time and space.
The thing is, most of the work is really engaging and rewarding so it feels doable to keep up with it (to an extent). We have days where we hang a fair bit, take it easy, etc. it's not always go go... Those days are good for catching up on comments and emails and stuff :)
@@edibleacres The late British philosopher Alan Watts once asked if money were no object how would you really enjoy spending your life? I'm glad you found your vocation, not many people have that. And some free time too boot! :) I've watched a lot of gardening videos, but yours are by far the most inspirational.
When you start a new area that’s been tilled, why not create a stale seed bed and torch the surface then rake, then torch again and plant. Then mulch and you should have almost zero weeds
sashas anti-capitalism remarks resonated with me. you guys are awesome!
also a lot of wild carrots i see. have you ever tried eating them?
We have. They haven't been wonderful to eat we've found as far as the work, but we mulch down their competetion to promote them since they seem great for breaking up the soil and being beautiful and helping the small bugs.
I haven't quite figured out how I should be going about mulching yet. The weeds, though, I usually just pull them out of the ground and lay them down right where they were growing.
If you cut (or press down/bend over/break the stem) the weeds before laying them, you will probably find : that less seeds germinate right back up (sunlight and upturning and impact from tools and rocks make weed seeds germinate. ) hope this helps in your weed management.
Try a small area where instead of pulling them and laying them down, you simply step them down at the base so they lay flat, and put grass clippings, hay, straw, leaves, woodchips, sawdust, WHATEVER on top so they are covered and can't bounce back. You'll need to repeat almost certainly (but you would with pulling weeds too so it isn't fundamentally different that way) but each time the work becomes less and less. Try one area and see how it responds/feels... Don't over think it :)
Your sorta three/four sisters plot reminded me of this article
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60313
A bit different climate (prairie) but an interesting read
Made a note on this link, I'll come back around, thank you for sharing!
Lambs quarters and amaranth make good human food too!
Sure do!
13 Watch therefore [give strict attention and be cautious and active], for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come.
14 For it is like a man who was about to take a long journey, and he called his servants together and entrusted them with his property.
15 To one he gave five talents [probably about $5,000], to another two, to another one-to each in proportion to his own [a]personal ability. Then he departed and left the country.
16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he gained five talents more.
17 And likewise he who had received the two talents-he also gained two talents more.
18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 Now after a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
20 And he who had received the five talents came and brought him five more, saying, Master, you entrusted to me five talents; see, here I have gained five talents more.
21 His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, [b]admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the [c]blessedness) which your master enjoys.
22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you entrusted two talents to me; here I have gained two talents more.
23 His master said to him, Well done, you upright (honorable, [d]admirable) and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy (the delight, the [e]blessedness) which your master enjoys.
24 He who had received one talent also came forward, saying, Master, I knew you to be a harsh and hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you had not winnowed [the grain].
25 So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is your own.
26 But his master answered him, You wicked and lazy and idle servant! Did you indeed know that I reap where I have not sowed and gather [grain]
where I have not winnowed?
First off I would like to say that your field is beutiful and i like you and your calm patient spirit. Capitalism is not the problem. Capitalism is far better than socialism or any other system history has proven this. Even under socialism a greedy person can capatalize on a socialist system I assure you under any other system this is what is natural and true. Capitalism doesnt make everything fair for everyone but what it does is recognize that greed will always make the pursuit unfair. It will always be unfair but only capatilism says your the underdog but you have a chance to fight. It wont be easy or fair but you have a chance. I understand why peoples spirits break and claim capitalism is bad but it never was its fault all capitalism does is let you plant your seeds where socialism says we will plant only what our small group of "leaders" deems is best for you. Those sunflowers you got. Those are capitalist.
I agree with the chickens: raw amaranth and chenopod greens taste like crap, maybe they'd appreciate them more if they were cooked.
M’bonte
Should show more SHASHA.
Lovely Flat Screen, with voice as if something in Mouth 🍌.
👍👌
But slugs.... Mulch like this has always meant the crop gets wiped out at seedling stage.
It can mean this, but I have observed that it's less about mulch and more about soil health and plant health. If the seedlings come up with vigor and are happy they get almost no slug pressure we've found overall...
@@edibleacres That's true - I've noticed that some lettuces (for example) don't get touched while ones nearby get trashed. I've never been able to create that predictability, though! I suspect some of the answer may lie in having more than a pinch of seeds to play with! Time to go bulk-purchase.
Great video, but what’s wrong with capitalism?
There are good aspects and bad aspects to capitalism, just like with a lot of the systems out in the world.
I like how the woman talks about capitalism ruining things when they use TH-cam owned by Google the biggest model of corporate capitalism to earn a living.🤣
'The woman' is Sasha :)
Good point, although it feels compelling to us to have videos that are clearly focused on helping anyone who wants to watch in de-coupling from standard consumption be subsidized by corporations trying to do the opposite. I guess it's up to the viewers to engage one way or the other. Fingers crossed our message is more useful to folks, and we can use that income to invest in used tools and local resources to continue this path.
You both are doing a great job! Thank you for being so kind and generous with sharing your experience. It sure has made a difference for me. Keep up the great work! Sending my gratitude and appreciation your way.