17 bar rises 30.08 3mph NNW windchill 13 Samhain
Waxing Crescent Moon of Long Nights
The black plastic has been laid down; the marsh hay rests on top of it in fluffy abundance. A good snow right now would marry the two until early spring. May it come soon.
This was a long project. I had to cut down weeds, trees, raspberry canes and shrubs, pull vines and dislodge a deadfall. All this was prolegomena. The black plastic had to be rolled out, made to conform to the odd shapes created by various impediments, then cut and staked or held down with logs. After a piece of plastic was cut and laid in place, then the marsh hay went over it.
This process, too, is prolegomena for the next phase. In that phase we will plant serviceberry, hawthorne, and other shrubs and small trees that produce food edible by and interesting to birds and varmints. That phase ties in with the orchard as a distraction from the human edibles, in the hope that more–or enough–will end up for us. It is this linkage of one piece with the other, all in the service of creating a sustainable enviornment for people and animals, that excites me about permaculture.
I have also mulched all the bulbs I planted and/or transplanted at the end of August and the middle of September. These are daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, snow drops, lilies of many kinds and iris. I have both mulched and not mulched over the years and find that mulching the first year for all new plantings and after for those plants sensitive to cold increases the germination rate considerably.
There are also many peppers now in the hydroponics. Only one is large so far, but they keep sucking down nutrient fluid at a rapid pace so they are growing. I have not yet convinced any eggplant blossoms to move on to fruiting but I imagine that’s only a matter of patience.
