4 comments on The Energy and Environment Round-Up: October 21st 2007
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"As long as the Sun shines, the grass grows and the waters flow"
Boy those First Nations guys really had some prescient lawyer to draw up a tough treaty to break. No grass there and the water running low but still the sun is there as backup.
Today is Oct 21...the 22nd is the average date of the first killing frost for Ky.
Today was quite warm..maybe in the low 80s here on my farm in western Ky.
To date I have yet to see any frost on the ground in the morning and many annuals are nowhere near dying back..
I am patiently waiting for the grass in my garden to be killed so I can burn the seed heads to prevent them reaching the soil. Then I can mulch for the winter.
This winter will be important IMO to observe as to the effects of CC. So far its been very dry and long periods of very very hot weather. The crops did ok but not as good as it could have been.
We have plenty of water..no problems there.
The wheat got killed this last spring by some very very late spring frost and below freezing weather.
Being somewhat close to the largest river in the USA means our aquifer should stay charged. The river was very low..and still is yet the barge traffic has continued but slower.
When it rains up river then of course its reflected down river...but the worst problem is the river rising way too high and flooding crop lands. No problems there this year.
And we always get a spring 'rise' and a fall 'rise' but not a sure thing..it just happens. I don't think there will be a fall rise this year.
We are IMO about 15-18 inches in deficit on our annual rainfall. I was finally able to drive a stell fence post in the ground today. Before last week it was very very hard to do so.
My turnips are flourishing as well as the Florida Large Leaf Mustard. Will be eating boiled turnips soon.
airdale-whats happening here
PS. I have been posting on TOD about use of hairy vetch to add N to the soil. I coulnd't find any seeds today in any areas where I usually find it but next year I intend to sow it in half my garden..and expand that garden twice over.
If a good N fixer can add 250 lbs of N to an acre that is way beyond what I thought they were capable of.
Thanks Airdale - I always appreciate your posts. I didn't know vetch fixed nitrogen (learn something every day!), but I'm glad to say I have plenty of it on my farm - in patches wherever it feels like growing. We call it alpaca dessert as it's my alpacas favourite food. There's none of it at all in their paddock because it hasn't got a chance, so I sometimes get the kids to 'harvest' a patch and pass it over the fence.
I have no idea what variety it might be, but it's obviously hardy in our area. I'll see about planting some in my orchard next year. I already have a nitrogen fixing tree in there (Robina pseudoacacia), but growing vetch might help as well.
Airdale, Weatherunderground says Paducah's about 8" below normal for the year so far. This month you're catching up a bit. Of course, that's just the rainfall, that doesn't measure soil moisture, which is probably what you're seeing.
We put down ladino clover on our new field, since I couldn't get any other good green manure for a decent price. I'll have to find a good supplier that I can talk into stocking something in the fall each year.
Stoneleigh - I have fifty black locust in tree pots in my back yard waiting to go into the perimeter of that field I just talked about. Black locust rocks. Vetch, alfalfa, clover, are all nitrogen fixers, but they all need inoculating bacteria in the soil to do their best. You probably already have it in your soil.
I was really happy to see that Toby Hemingway's "Gaia's Garden" recommends putting black locust between walnuts and other trees. There are already black walnut trees on this land, and we're planning to put in fruit trees next spring along with the locust.