To connect this series with my regular gardening a bit, let’s talk about fertilizing the fields and garden beds in a self-sustainability scenario.

A bit of the topic was already mentioned here and there in previous posts, but there is definitely more to it than I have written so far.

First, let’s assume that the solid sludge from the sewage cleaning facility is recycled back into the environment via composting instead of being taken out to be treated elsewhere. Dealing with shit is not pleasant, but it is an essential part of agriculture. Second, all the wood ash from heating would need to be recycled back into the coppice and the fields. Third, all other waste – manure from the animals, inedible biological leftovers etc. would have to be composted. Building up enough organic material in the soil fairly quickly should not be a problem.

Yet still, some outside inputs might be necessary from time to time.

Depending on local geology, calcium could be a problem in two different ways.

If the bedrock is too rich in it, then the problem might be that the groundwater cannot be used for watering the plot too much, because it would alter the soil chemistry. And some plants (like blueberries) could not be grown.

With geology close to my real-life garden, however, calcium inputs would be necessary, at least in the beginning. Once good levels in the soil and the environment overall are established, it might not be necessary anymore. Hens will happily eat crushed eggshells and crushed bones, thus recycling the calcium and making it bioavailable fairly quickly.

The second nutrient that could be a problem is sulphur. An anaerobic septic tank can convert some organic sulphur into elemental sulphur, and thus reduce its bioavailability to the grass in the subsequent gravel bed. And it would also be depleted by burning the wood from the coppice. Some sulfur would return with rainwater, but it might be needed to supplement some plants that need more, like garlic and onions.

Nitrogen is also lost in all stages. Whenever a stink occurs, nitrogen is lost (and sulphur too). In an ideal scenario, the legumes should fix enough of it to keep the growing going more or less indefinitely with proper crop rotation. Still, occasionally it might be advisable to add some to boost the harvest, especially at the start, before a buffer in the pantry is accumulated to account for dips and outright crop failures.

AFAIK, potassium and phosphorus are not depleted by offgassing during decomposition or burning, so they might need to be added only in the beginning to jumpstart the system. Once that is done, they will be recycled through the sewage cleaning and ash nearly perfectly.

A 100% self sufficiency is possible in this regard, but having the ability to get some inputs from outside reduces the reliance on nature’s lottery a bit.

 

This year, I decided to fertilize all my little fields, vegetable patches, and greenhouses. The biggest one is the newly established, 60 m² field where I run the Three Sisters experiment last year.

Fertilizing this plot of land will consist of growing legumes this year. An approximately 1,5 m wide strip was sown with green peas, a ca. 4 m wide strip was sown with yellow peas, and the rest was sown with alfalfa. I had to use planks to do it; the ground was extremely wet at the time.

I will harvest the green peas for canning, I will let the yellow peas ripen and dry in situ (if the weather allows it), and I will probably mow the alfalfa once with a scythe, and a second time with the lawn mower. The current plan is to leave most of the biomass in place, and till it under in September. After that, I intend to sow it with spelta.

The oats started to poke out of the ground, which makes me happy. I did not fertilize this plot at all, but I will do so with lawn fertilizer in due course. The reasoning is that since oats are grass, a lawn fertilizer should be adequate and not harmful.

For potatoes and fruigetables I bought organic granulated fertilizers that should release the nutrients slowly over the vegetation period. For the potatoes, I just estimated the ammount and I have spread it on the patches before planting the tubers. For tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse, I weighed the amounts more precisely, and at the lower end of the recommendation written on the packaging. In a greenhouse, too much fertilizer is more harmful than outdoors. I will also fertilize the pumpkins and squash patches.

I watered the greenhouse thoroughly after I applied the fertilizer. I don’t have any tomato plants yet to put there, but I do want to jumpstart the soil biology before planting. And I do have three bell pepper plants that successfully overwintered, and I would like to put them back into the soil asap.

 

It is the time of the year when a gardener has so much work that it is impossible to take a proper rest. And today the time has come to plant the main crop of this year, the mighty potato.

It was only this year that I learned the term “chitting”, i.e., sprouting the tubers before planting them into the ground. I do not actually do that on purpose. The potatoes do that by themselves, and they force me to go along with it.

About a week and a few days ago, I noticed that the potatoes were sprouting, so I took them out of the cellar, sorted them out of the mesh bags into crates, and I put them outside in my tool shed. There they were protected from night frosts, but the temperature was a few degrees lower than in the cellar, so the growing stopped. And during warmer days, I actually took them outside, and I laid them out in the shade so the tubers get a bit of light. That way, the sprouts remain short, thick, and relatively strong, instead of becoming long, spindly, and brittle.

When doing this, I also noticed the differences between the varieties. The red varieties Bellarosa and Camel have white-pink colored sprouts. Dali has yellow-white sprouts. And Agria had sprouts of an interesting purple-lilac shade that I forgot to take a picture of.

I managed to plant both yellow varieties today. They went into the ground and will be hilled up. The Agria is an indeterminate variety, and I remembered from the past that Dali can also make more than one layer of tubers when hilled up. So both of these should benefit greatly from being planted deep and subsequently being hilled up with soil.

Tomorrow I will start planting the Bellarosa and Camel varieties directly onto the lawn.