We're big fans of composting and adding manure to the garden in the autumn, it has really increased our soil fertility. Our neighbor who is a conventional farmer has soil that's pretty well dead, his yields are about half of ours. Here are some examples of healthy soil and what it will produce. Below is the first of our corn harvest. We grow open pollinated corn and grind it for cornmeal; this was not by any means the largest ear, merely the first to ripen!
Aleks also trained the pole beans to climb the corn stalks. The problem now is that the corn stalks are 10-12 feet high and the beans dangle high overhead. :-)
Oh, I *love* the nightgown! Katie did a beautiful job on it! The striped fabric is gorgeous and the style looks so roomy and comfortable.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of manure do you add to your garden? I've heard rabbit manure is good but have never tried it. We want to get some animals but want to start out small and we can't really get chickens this time of year anyway so I was thinking of getting some rabbits. We need to start working on ours as soon as the corn and bean fields around it are harvested. Right now its a horrible overgrown mass of weeds. A mini jungle, really. I don't think anyone has used it for quite some time.
Sarah, I'm very proud of her too, she's really been sewing more as of late! A baby is *such* a good excuse to get motivated. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe mostly use cow manure on the garden but we have composted pig, chicken and turkey manure and then added that. We've never needed any commercial fertilizer. Rabbits would be a great small animal addition, the boys would love them!
What variety of corn do you plant? I've been looking for a nice heirloom to make our standard.
ReplyDeleteErin, we've tried many varieties including Greenfield Dent and Bloody Butcher. We're growing Country Gentleman this year for sweet corn and Hickory Cane for cornmeal, both OP.
ReplyDeleteMrs. G who can't comment as herself on anybody's blog including her own. :-(
Thank you so much! I've got Early Sunglow (I think, I forgot what it was for certain the moment I threw away the packet) in this year and am hoping for good results. I'm amazed that it's growing so well even in freshly turned, never-farmed sod. :)
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