My garden of the mega-lazy in the 63!

Agriculture and soil. Pollution control, soil remediation, humus and new agricultural techniques.
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Lolounette
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My garden of the mega-lazy in the 63!




by Lolounette » 27/09/17, 10:29

Hello everyone ! : Cheesy:

It's been a while now that I'm rummaging through the forum Submarine and I have long hesitated to register to share my experience of ultra-lazy gardener with you. But finally since your own reports have interested me a lot and inspired me I thought it was normal that I also share my little experience with you so that we can advance the schmilblick! :)


So to re-locate, in September 2016 I moved into the old house of my grandparents: an old town house dating from 1806 that we undertook to completely renovate. This is the former farm of my great grandparents then grandparents who were small grain farmers, small breeders of a few hens and a few pigs, small growers of potatoes and other sugar beets, etc., in the region of Riom at foot of Puy-de-dome. A small old-fashioned farmhouse that still housed a pair of oxen in the 50 years and which was then gradually passed to the small tractor, underwent land consolidation, etc ... Exciting history of the peasantry in France ... short! other times other folder!

Not being a farmer, I have not kept the - yet beautiful - wheat fields of the farm (I clearly heard my grandmother turn in her grave the day of the sale but hey!) But I I kept about 300m of the house, in the center of town next to the town hall, the small plot of 750 m2 where was once the henhouse of the farm. This wasteland - without water or electricity - had been abandoned for more than 25 years (apart from the sporadic presence of some sheep) and I recovered it in June 2016 invaded brambles, nettles, elderberries, etc. : basically machete required to get to the bottom and insistent letters from the town hall to clear!

In July 2016 we spent the brushcutter everywhere, cut the most troublesome trees, stacked everything in huge piles and re-discovered the presence of the former hen house. As in parallel we were in the middle of renovating the house and we had to have moved in early September no time for more intervention at this time. By cons in parallel we emptied the old barn of the farm which contained very old hay adorned with a little old straw, branches, wood dust from fagots that the grandfather used to light the bread oven ( to rehabilitate: another folder!), lime plaster dust and other unidentified things.

Instead of bringing all this to the recycling center, I spread everything at the bottom of the plot in a thick layer over the 50 m2 where I planned to put a future vegetable garden (in place of the old bramble tree and the nettle field) in the hope of limiting regrowth until I have time to take care of it "later" and I added on top of our kitchen waste as the winter progresses ...

Pretty late this spring (early May I think, I knew precisely and of course I did not notice anything) as my tomato seedlings began to overflow from all over the house, I repointed my nose on the ground with my mouth in my heart (yes, we are wintering late in Auvergne : Mrgreen: ) to realize that the grass and other nettles were more than 1 m high on the front of the plot (not mulched) ...

On the other hand, on the back, on the site of the old mulched hedgehog, not a grass and under the mulch, a magnificent, surprisingly loose black earth. Moment of little happiness! How lucky to have such a fabulous land and populated earthworms the size of a worm (no no I do not exaggerate I'm not Marseille! Enouoooooorms I say! : Shock: Anecic so obviously!)

The moral of this story is that obviously the mulch last fall was an excellent solution to control the brambles without any effort. The stumps are still below, but when you pull a little on it they come without difficulty considering the exceptionally loose soil in early spring.

But then before thinking of the kitchen garden it was necessary to start by mowing the front meadow and nettles to access it: everything to fake and sickle please! (the brushcutter died after 1h working for the 2eme times in 2 seasons so fed up, it's expensive, it's heavy, it makes noise and it stinks, I decided that I would do without and that I would do old-fashioned like my grandpa, NA! 8) )

Well the fake it amused me for 2 h but it was not super sharp : roll: (Because my gesture to me was perfect, since I had watched my grandpa very well at least 2 times being small and that anyway I come from a long line of big reavers so it's in my genes. : Cheesy: As a result if the grass cut anyhow to 20 cm soil and clumps it is inevitably that the scythe was not sharp, CQFD! hey, it's not even true that the guy I bought at the flea market told me that I was holding it upside down and that I was going to mow my ankles! pffff : Oops: short again a folder to resume later, I do not let it go, I prioritize tasks, nuance! : Lol: ).

Anyway the sickle (sharp it!) It's better because suddenly we cut and we pick up the grass at the same time: so all benef as hay recovered (almost dry on foot) I spread it directly on the plot of the future vegetable garden (the old mulched roquier plus the part filled with nettle in the extension, you follow ??). And there was enough to make a good soft bed of 20-25 cm on all the surface of the future kitchen garden (but which necessarily had to be much less packed than if the hay came from a millstone) ...

This done I finally found myself in front of my future kitchen garden and that's where the game started! : Wink:

The sequel to the next episode if you have the courage to continue reading me! : Lol:
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Did67
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by Did67 » 27/09/17, 13:27

Mow with a fake is an art!

a) have a scythe in good condition, well sharpened (hammered and sharpened) and well adjusted (yes, this is a fake!)

b) have a gesture that cuts well close to the ground (just a few mm above the ground, without banging in the ground, if you pass higher, the grass, not supported, goes to bed) and with a maximum of speed.

It is easier to practice with erect plants with rigid stems: nettles, alfalfa ..
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by Ahmed » 27/09/17, 15:51

In the handling of the forgery, as specified Did, the ground plays the role of "the anvil" (part which one finds on the secateurs), it is a kind of counter-blade essential for a good cut. Mowing "with dew" greatly facilitates this operation: the stems are weighed down and softened by humidity.
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by Did67 » 27/09/17, 16:03

Ahmed wrote:... the stems are heavy and softened by moisture.


Between mowers: and very turgid (very rigid, we will say).
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by sicetaitsimple » 27/09/17, 19:25

Lolounette wrote:

This done I finally found myself in front of my future kitchen garden and that's where the game started! : Wink:

The sequel to the next episode if you have the courage to continue reading me! : Lol:


So if I understood correctly in July 2016 750m2 of mowing a fallow spread on 50m2 of future garden, and towards April or May 2017 rebelote?

They have an appetite for your soil organisms!

Looking forward to the next episode!
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by Lolounette » 27/09/17, 21:59

@ sicetaitsimple: Not in 2016 we passed the brushcutter but I did not pick up the hay, it remained where it fell: I was too busy making the platres in the house, no time for the rest!

By cons this spring I picked up hay awkwardly mowed and I put on 50 m2 dedicated to the kitchen garden but anyway there is no 700 m2 grass surface on the ground because there is a building and trees under which nothing grows : Wink:

I do not think I can be really self-sufficient in hay in this configuration, but I still have some reserves of old hay under my elbow and in summer there is also the mowing ditches around the field to recover ... I would see if I have to buy to complete or not ...

@ Didier and Ahmed: I know that I'm embarking on a complicated thing, I've watched a lot of Youtube videos about mowing, fiddling, sharpening etc and I have only one certainty is that it's not won! : Lol: Already my fake has a metal handle with fixed handles that I can not adjust to my size, the angle of the blade is not easily adjustable, the blade is much too big for a beginner, I have them tools to beat her but not yet dared to throw me, etc! The folder is open but hey if I really want to mow seriously one day I will already have to start by getting a tool to my size and I can beat the blade properly : Cheesy:

But even with my current equipment on the populated part of nettle it had worked rather well.
it is on the dry grass that there is room for much improvement : Lol:
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by sicetaitsimple » 27/09/17, 22:32

Lolounette wrote:@ sicetaitsimple: Not in 2016 we passed the brushcutter but I did not pick up the hay, it remained where it fell: I was too busy making the platres in the house, no time for the rest!

By cons this spring I picked up hay awkwardly mowed and I put on 50 m2 dedicated to the kitchen garden but anyway there is no 700 m2 grass surface on the ground because there is a building and trees under which nothing grows : Wink:



OK, it's clearer, thank you. But excuse me for wanting to understand, if you just left the mowing on the spot, why it did not push 2017 beginning on the site of the kitchen garden and that it pushed away elsewhere?
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by Lolounette » 27/09/17, 22:45

because in the fall of 2016 I spread on the site of the vegetable garden a thick layer of "haylage residue" from the old farm that I was renovating (mainly very old hay but not only!) : Wink:
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by sicetaitsimple » 27/09/17, 23:01

Lolounette wrote:because in the fall of 2016 I spread on the site of the vegetable garden a thick layer of "haylage residue" from the old farm that I was renovating (mainly very old hay but not only!) : Wink:


OK, it was written in the original post but I did not understand well.
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Re: My mega-lazy garden in the 63!




by Adrien (ex-nico239) » 28/09/17, 12:20

Welcome Image

Lolounette wrote:in the region of Riom at the foot of Puy-de-Dome


At what altitude is the vegetable garden?



Lolounette wrote:

But before thinking of the kitchen garden it was necessary to start by mowing the front meadow and nettles to access



Do not blame me but for my part I would like to say: mow the meadow .... what a pity

And for a lazy mega either with the fake or the sickle: what a job ... Image

What a pity because having a beautiful wild meadow grass with lots of critters that swarm in just next to his kitchen garden for me this is a great advantage ... much better than that of recovering some grass mowed for my garden .. ..

At the limit if it is the only access to the garden to make a path of acceptable width but mow for a little grass my faith [img] https://imgfast.net/users/1514/ 33 / 72 / 11 / smilies / doute.gif [img]

I tell you this because it's funny when arriving in our new place I also had the idea to mow the large wild meadow that adjoins the garden and I dropped, preferring to leave it intact and in case I could not find anyone to mow it I also had the idea to start learning manual mowing ....
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