was i mad? ive ploughed half an acre

[ellesherwood]

ive always had an allotment , love 'um. then i got a house with a v large gargen which i converted to an ' at home allotment '
then i moved again to a farm, but its all grazing land so this afternoon i ploughed half an acre, was i mad? it looks like a battlefield.

suddenly it looks such a huge area . Ah how mud makes things look so much bigger . so im going to do the usual and put potatoes in , ive never found anything better for getting new ground usable. of course it will give me rather a lot fo potatoes Anyone for chips.......mash.........baked potatoe........boiled potatoe.......

its sloping , and its clay , and its .......... going to be a challenge, i will keep you informed

[Rosendula]

Good work, well done.
What to do with all the potatoes then?

1. Sell some
2. Trade them with your neighbours for something else. Get them to clean your car, or knit you a jumper or something.
3. Give a sack of spuds to friends and relatives as birthday presents
4. Donate a few to the local primary school for potato printing

[ellesherwood]

nice ideas , especialy the potatoe prints idea , love that one. im really fortunate i have good trading neighbours. it was my neighbours tractor i used to plough the field, in exchange for a lemon cake. we are really blessed to have such really great neigbours. i love that community feel . id love to find someone who would knit for potatoes . i cant knit but have tons of spun wool from our sheep. guess i should learn ..... i feel a visit to the library coming on

[MuddyWitch]

You are not mad...just enthusiatic!

There are loads of threads on knitting btw, (try the 'Looks Like We Made It' section to start with).

When your spuds are harvested (or nearly so) you could post in the Swaps area & see what other folk have in gluts, (I'm thinking I may well have courgettes, beans, various herbs etc by then)

I have two requests:

PICCIES & LOCATION!

Ta!

*calms down & goes to get cuppa

MW

[Cheezy]

THe answer is YES,

Don't just think about spuds you could also cover what you don't "spud" with green manure, just don't let it set seed, and plough it back in. It'll giv eyou some more time to plan, and benefit the soil.

You could also plant a load of broad beans as these'll do the same as the manure, and you'll get a crop. ...and I lov ebroad beans.

[ellesherwood]

thanks for the ideas! will take them up . piccies on the way, have taken the photos and just waiting for my other half to find the time to upload them. (im rubbish on the computer) no a word i should use here, or someone might recycle me!

if the weather holds tommorow i am going to start to till til it . we also have some onions. love all the advise folks thanks so much.

[Sky]

If you've got nice fertile loamy soil I envy you.
We have acres of land but it's not really the sort of land you can grow veggies in, it's just covered half in pine trees and the rest in pasture. I did try a veggie patch but everything sprouted then died.

[ellesherwood]

this will make you smile....... i dug it up because we had just taken down a huge number of pine trees! some were only ten feet from the house so we had to take them down for safety reasons . Doing it, however has let the sun get to the piece of land that i have ploughed for the first time in about fifty years.

it has always been pasture, so i think i will have a really hard battle ahead fo me! however my armoury includes ( and this is not an exageration) a thirty foot pile of horse manure. so as a start i at least have lots of well rotted matter to put in it . i am waiting to put pictures on this site, which may interest you .

i love where i live , but i think you may have it hands down for spectacular scenery, what an amazing part of the world you live in, have you always lived there?

anyway, over the next week i am going to be doing so serious rotavating and i will let you know how it goes. any sugestions most welcomed.

[Sky]

No we've been here just a little over five years now, but it is fantastic and I still wow at the scenery.
I look forward to following your progress, it may prompt me to try harder for next season.
I have access to bucket loads of cow sh*t, is that any good for the soil or will that do more damage. We have a piggery just down the road so maybe a few trailer loads of pig muck and sawdust would be better.

[ellesherwood]

any of the above will do it the world of good . They sell cow muck in ten litre buckets here now ! i used to have a long row of beds and piled muck on one end and worked the other, by the time i had worked round all of them and got back to the one with themuck on it had always broken downenough to be both valuable and usable by the plants. i grew marrows which were comedic i loved to give them to people and watch them head back for their cars and strap the marrows in with a seat belt!!! made me laugh every time. i like to think people made endless wonderful meals using my marrows but i think its more likely they made them into canoes.

[Sky]

Right then you've inspired me to have another go at my veggie growing.
I'll be bringing bucket loads of muck home from work now on a regular basis and working into my plot.
It'll be just sat bare over autumn and winter now anyhows so might as well put something on it for another try next season.

[ellesherwood]

go for it! let me know how its getting on - enjoy

[SigridStallard]

You are certainly not mad and by the sounds of it, you have a great canvas in front of you and can take all your time and enthusiasm and design a garden of eden with hedges and trees in the right places. If you ever find the time, go sapling hunting with the family and plant elder and all other kinds of bushes to give future crops shelter, etc.

Yes, I do envy anybody like you. Here (Surrey) they even look at you in a suspicious way when you plant vegetables in your front garden.

If you can access it, you should watch the Natural world programme about future farming. That could right up your street as it encourages farming with nature and the human desire to do as little as ossible while still eating well.

Here is a link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... the+future

You go for it. Potatoes are so wonderful. Also there are a lot of cabbage varieties that can keep you well fed and will sell well too.

[ellesherwood]

thank you so much for that, lovely idea i am putting in some willow sapling to provide some shelter from the wind. thankfully they wont block the sun out, which is always good

also a local farmer is coming with a tiller which will save me so much time and then its ready to go. i already have a little patch of cabbage cauli and broccolli growing waiting to be transplanted when the tilling is done and a washing up bowl full of spinach ( which i love growing as the chickens thrive on it . thanks for all your great ideas and support , most welcome

[ellesherwood]

UPDATE. hows this for self sufficiency ? we had to take some trees down ( for safety reasons) we processed the wood into fence posts to surround the ploughed half acre . then we use the planeings off the edges of the wood to make the sides of the raised beds . As its on a slope, we have run an irrigation system from the roof though water butts and discarded hoses that we got from freecycle . i have planted up potatoes , onions , rhubarb , cabbage and corgettes so far, and have loads of other stuff happily germinating away in a 'hot house' made from an old rabbit hutch , stripped to the frame, and covered in thick grade polythene . hard work as its such stony land and as there isnt much in the way of goodness in the soil its back breaking to dig, but its joy, and im loving every minute of it. Thanks for reading and i hope my crazy scheme make someone else want to take up the spade and dig, size isnt everything remember, even if you have a window box its your plot, go for it , grow for it!