Generally in the winter out here on the prairie there is no grazing. No grass left, no grass growing, not a thing.
But here is Tima out on the lawn – grazing. Eating as much grass as she can find. Can you see the green tips appearing?
Everyone else just lay about in the sun.
I am not putting this lot out on the lawn!
The sun was a magnet yesterday. We were all out there in the sun. We were warmed to our bones – I had to go in search of my sunglasses and suntan lotion and a hat. THAT much sun.
John tilled one of the fields that the pigs had prepared last season. We will probably sow this in my pasture cocktail and oats (I still have a little left over from last year) today. The ground is perfect for working and because I suspect that we will have a long wet spring, (which makes it impossible to get the beds prepared) I am going to ask him to turn the big garden beds this weekend. I know it is early but this season is so crazy so far that I am rolling with it. These were sown in oats last autumn as green ground cover and he needs to turn all that in. Best to get ahead while the ground is good.
We have very heavy loamy soil created by glaciers and flood and fire over the ages and it does not like to be worked when it is wet. In fact I wish I did not need to work it at all but I prefer not to use round-up or other chemicals so (in the absence of a team of workers) we have to remove the weeds manually by scraping or light tilling to prepare the soil for the annual vegetable crops. There is always a trade off isn’t there. Of course the pigs and the chickens are also my favourite weapons against weeds.
But we will see – it may still be too wet.
We are slowly drifting into permaculture. Many of my beds are now permanent with the berry bushes and perennial crops. This year I will establish the big herb beds – many of which will be permanent too. It takes a long time to create gardens based on a the practice of permaculture and I have well established areas but like many little farmers my farm is a mixture of principles and codes and undertakings. I am not fond of labels and rules.
This is an interesting How To for setting up a Permaculture Farm. It is interesting but for a much bigger and more ideal farm than this one. I am an opportunist really. I have what I have and farm on it as best I can. It is not as though I went out and looked for land to farm on. It was just here so I built a few fences and jammed some plants in the ground and went from there in a kind of organic mossy manner.
I hope you have a lovely day. It is very misty this morning and will be warm again I think. Yes, today will have a high of 66f and once this mist burns off – more sunshine. Record highs. And I am going take full advantage of these record highs. We are rocking on.
When I was in London my friends and I went on a wonderful walk from Angel out to Smithfields. Both of these friends of mine are bloggers as well (we have known each other for years) and one of them – Mad Dog – documented the day. I am providing the link here because the little restaurant called La Lola that we visited was so lovely and the young men who ran it so kind (they even gave me one of their aprons), that if you are in London you might want to check it out. Here is the link to the story of our day and my new favourite London establishment. As described by my friend and long time member of The Fellowship: Mad Dog.
Have a lovely day,
Love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
37 responses to “Winter Grazing”
I’m back from my jaunting round India, had a wonderful time, and came back to a well tended and weed free garden courtesy of the house-sitters, but I think she might’ve used some weed killer here and there and I’m not happy about that, as I’d been very clear…..no poisons. She must’ve bought some, as I don’t keep it. They also planted out the tomatoes, basil and eggplants I hadn’t had time to do, and they’re flourishing! The water and rock melons I planted in the large veggie garden to suppress the weeds have run rampant and as a bonus, I might get some fruit too. Come cooler weather, I’ll start planting my winter crops in amongst the dying vines…..I’m also interested in that roll down method that Margaret Mehaffay mentioned. Now for my 2nd cuppa while I catch up on a month of Farmy goings-on 🙂
Doing what you can with what you’ve got is real life. I bought for the empty half of our vege garden a couple of seed packets of Mr Fothergill’s Green Manure Mix -Fenugreek, Oats, Sub Clover, Wooly Pod Vetch, french White Millet, Buckwheat, Broccoli Rapa- intending to use a similar practice to the roll down method to grow it over winter then chop it in before it set seed. But before I could do it, the G.O. planted it out with potatoes. That also is real life…
Here’s a lovely word: apricity. It is the warmth of the sun felt on a wintry day. The sun is warm but all else is cold.
I found myself wanting sun glasses yesterday! We’ve now had two days in the low 50s, and I’m surprised how much of the snow has survived. But I think it’ll rain today and might get to almost 60(!) tomorrow, so that snow had better say its goodbyes. We’re still a long way off from tilling, though. I can’t wait to check out that permaculture link! I’ve got a book about permaculture that I keep going back to, and it always feels so inaccessible — not the book, but the practice. How do you get going when you don’t have the $$ or time to do it all at once? I’m sure there must be a way!
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Your method sounds very familiar, forever evolving whilst remaining particle 🙂