A vegetable lazy Sarthe

[Did67]

As a plant "goes up to seeds" (or flowers), it builds fibers (this is what allows it to hold) ...

So yes, all of this is hard to appreciate.

[Stef72]

thank you for your return Didier!

for mustard you comfort me in what I wanted to do. For nitrate stories, I am not at all sharp, I understand that leaching can occur especially at this time with heavy rains. So finally if possible we should avoid spreading manure, put organic matter (hay) whose decomposition will cause such leaching?

Regarding the hornets, I should have pointed out that they are Asian (vespa velutina) and not European (vespa crabo). As I have only a hive for the moment I closely monitor everything that could harm him, and I tighten the buttocks not to lose it ...
Your remark on "honey cows": yes I acquired a swarm of bees called "buckfast" from a professional. Selected for its productivity and especially its softness. Being a beginner, it is this criterion that motivated me, especially since I have a few neighbors.
I ask myself the question of acquiring another swarm of bees called "black", less productive in honey but more resilient in our climates. But it is indeed breeding, and the bee's mode of reproduction will not guarantee me that it will remain black when I start to divide my colonies ...
In any case, I would have liked to start with "black" to which I will have offered a habitat during their natural swarming, but my "traps" have never worked to date ... so I ended up by buy a colony ...
In all cases, I think I have the margin before saturating my environment in bees, there is something to boot ...

[Did67]

1) Yes, nitrification will turn as long as the soil is not cold enough. The remaining nitrate left by the crops and what is still nitrifying at the moment risks leaching.

This is what made me slip from "autumn haying" to a living cover - with the "nice weeds" option (no need to sow, well adapted to the cold) ...

Plan in the spring and cover with hay, to give a length of advance to your vegetables. Otherwise, if weeds and vegetables start together, 9 times 10 (and maybe 10 / 10?), It's the weeds that win.

I try to improve myself in the dosage of hay, so that in September, the big hay disappeared, releasing my weeds ...

All this is playing the balancing act! With the climate that fucks the brothel. Too hot, too dry, it does not break down as expected!

But another factor: a meadow 1 or 2 years ago still has too many troublesome. It is only later that the ground is "cleaned", by dint of not being turned over. The seeds in position to germinate have already germinated. You tear / cut the pain in the ass, they regress. You let the "sympathizers" go to seed, which you dispatches (Véronique, oxalis, chickweed). And little by little, you have a system that makes your work easier ...

2) For the bees, I scratch a little because there is a "fashion" side that feeds me. We idolize the honey bee and ignore all wild spaces.

I have nothing against beekeeping. But you just have to know that it's a breeding. That indeed, there are selected breeds. I write in a magazine that is at 50% devoted to beekeeping. I see the ads for syrups (in jerrycans, cubitainers or ... semi-trailers!).

What is "bad" for cows is idolized for bees. Like that is man. In emotional communication. A cow is stupid. But a nice bee. Necessarily.

Everyone wants to both mow their lawn to keep it clean and have a beehive. Our bees are dying from pesticides. No doubt. But also from hunger. Because there is not much to browse, in spaces that man wants "clean"!

Here. Don't take my rant personally. They are "systemic" - these are systems that I criticize. Not the people.

[Did67]

I understand that leaching can occur especially at this time with heavy rains.

Damn, I forgot to specify, with my rants. It's clever.

We will experience a period when precipitation is greater than water loss from the soil. The soils, gorged, saturated will "overflow". In the tablecloths.

this is happy. Our drinking water comes from aquifers. That don't fill up in the summer. Summer rains, when there are any, fill the agricultural soil reserve (the RFU). Hence the distinction (zapped by the media which made a gloubiboulga) between "agricultural drought" - the RU of the soil is low and "hydrological drought" (the water tables are low). We can have one without the other. In each direction. One depends on the fall / winter rains. The other is summer rains, which have no impact on the groundwater.

In short, from now until the end of spring, when the plants develop and consume water again, and also when the rainfall drops, the agricultural soil is saturated and "overflows" in the water tables. .

But the "organic" layer on the ground and in the surface horizon will cool down. Little by little, the biomass will be "in the fridge". Nitrification will decrease to almost cease. Due to the temperature being too low (that of the ground varies less than that of the air).

So now is the time to "trap" nitrates. Wring out the soil as much as possible. By plants.

[Stef72]

Thank you for the details on the nitrate Didier. I understand that in fact we have the advantage to try to practice phenoculture ++ with inter-crop cutlery to remedy this aspect, which will also allow us to use significantly less hay over a full year.

On my new boards to come I will also try to manage my "pissers" upstream to have a functional board more quickly ...

To finish on the bees, yes I see it since the beginning as of the breeding (I have nothing against, it is a family practice of long date) and I know that everything must be done to take good care animals under his responsibility.
Which for me does not mean to feed them with syrup (I've never put it to date). But to follow them well to act in case of disease or serious parasites.
Otherwise in the specialized magazines is always advertising for everything and anything, to everyone to think about its practices. For fishing it's the same, you can do that with simple stuff, or with a lot of more or less useful gadget. As long as there are buyers, these products will be for sale!

[Did67]

We agree. And I have as much respect for good beekeepers as for good breeders (I'm not Vegan!).

Both systems, like others, pushed, reveal inconsistencies.

As would a vegetable garden of lazy dogmatic and pushed to its extreme (hay, that hay!).

[Stef72]

Hi to all of you,

Short walk to the garden on the occasion of a thinning, I had the idea of ​​going to observe the flight of cleanliness of my bees but the greyness took over the time that I arrive at the garden ...

On the other hand I could see that my garlic was beginning to point the tip of his nose through the hay. I took the opportunity to recharge because the layer was too thin for my taste.

Good night !

[Stef72]

Hi to all of you,

as it was raining under my little shed which serves as a "break room", my friends helped me remedy this. Thanks to them, it's still more serious to have good conditions when you want to be lazy in the garden:

Have a good day !

[Did67]

it's still more serious to have good conditions when you want to be lazy in the garden:

Laze in good conditions? I think you got it all!

[Stef72]

Hello and happy new year 2020 to all lazy gardeners!
I see wish all of us have beautiful harvests and motivating projects.
At home today it looked like this: