Posted on Mon, Nov 30, 2009
Today (Sunday 29th November 2009), there is a door way in the 'heavans' when Venus is moving through Scorpio and the Moon is moving through Taurus. After some research by 2nd Year BD students they found that this is the best time indicated by Marie Thunn to burn pests (not weeds) that are causing trouble in the garden. Steiner indicated in the Agriculture, when Venus moves through Scorpio is the best time to carry out this preparation.
So you may be wondering what on earth am I talking about? I'm asking myself the same question!
In the Agriculture course Steiner indicated that if pests are burnt and the ashes spread in the areas effected a message is sent out which will deter the pest. This method can be applied to weeds, where you burn the seeds and in my case pests such as pigeons, rats and deer.
On Sunday I burnt Pigeon and Pheasant feathers and a skin of a deer. The ashes have been saved and I will distribute them when I see signs again of there unwanted presence in the garden.
This is a trial for me, I've never used peppers before and I'll test certain areas in the garden, in particular with the pigeons I can spread the ashes over one of the brassica crops and not on the other. In the case of the Pheasants I have noticed that a number of them are collecting near the lorry body in the garden in the morning and evenings, so I'll spread them there to see if it has an influence on where they rest. I don't regard the pheasant as a pest as such but they are visible so I can observe any change in habit. The deer are a little more complicated, because they only come to the garden in the evenings any change in pattern will be hard to observe, I will spread the ashes around the perimeter of the grounds to deter them from entering.
Click HERE for a link to a constellation clock and HERE for an explanation of all the planets symbols from the Indian Biodynamic association
Other than burning animal skins.... we have been trying to get some projects finished in the rather small gardening group I am working with at the moment. We realized today that we have started many projects and not finished so many. This week is the last week of there help as the next two weeks will be spent plucking Turkeys at Tablehurst farm next door (Poultry Pre-Sales Management), then it's the holidays... So soon..... gosh, but to be honest if the weather carries on like this we'll be lucky to get much done, there are puddles around most of our fruit bushes so working on that ground would be very unproductive, and digging in the rhubarb would not be wise either. So it's leaf raking and seed ordering until the new year....
I'm hoping it won't be that long though :o)
Posted on Wed, Nov 25, 2009
I started this week with a coffee, I haven't been drinking much but I got the feeling that it's that time again. It's hard in the winter to get up and go... the winds are strong, the rain is cold and your wellies, no matter how warm they say they are end up feeling very cold and wet inside by the end of the day. So I drink a coffee and get motivated to get stuff done.
I've been compiling list after list of jobs that need doing, and questioning the urgency of each one. It really helps to do this, if a chart is draw with Important/ Not important as two columns and Urgent/Not Urgent as two rows, you can pin point what needs to be done and when. I also factor the weather into this decision making process, for example felling trees isn't a smart thing to do on wet and windy days, but pruning soft fruit is (although it's not fun when wet it is safe).
Top of my list for this week was to finish pruning all the currants, we had started it a few weeks ago, but it was a long way from being finished. So the wheel barrow tyres were pumped up and the secaturs were sharpened and I went to start the job, after one or two plants I realized that I needed to read up on my soft fruit pruning.
The bushes all require slightly different treatment, the Black Currants need to have the 3-4 year old wood removed to encourage new vigorous growth and the young shoots are left, the Black Currants will produce good fruit on the young wood but as it grows older the fruits become smaller.
The Red and White Currants need quite the opposite treatment. A structure in the bush needs to be formed, in order to support a number of 'leaders' which will then support the fruiting branches. Over the years it's hard to see exactly what people were trying to achieve with the bushes at Emerson, you can trace cuts back and only guess what the method was, it's quite fun and makes me feel a bit like a historian or archaeologist.
We have been removing lots of older, diseased, damaged and less productive wood, in favor of the young branches which I can see have the potential of making new growth next year. I'm also trying to make more space around and through the base of the plants to allow air circulation and the same is being done for the center. Remembering back to the summer and sitting on the grass in the summer harvesting the berries I can recall that some of the trusses were not so easy to reach so we are trying to form a shape that is easier to reach when fruiting.
The thing about pruning is that you can only predict (like the weather) so far what will happen after each cut. You normally cut at a bud so that that bud will continue to grow in the direction it is pointing, but sometimes that won't happen and another branch lower down becomes the leader.... So with all the best intentions when pruning you only know exactly what happens the year after, i'm very excited already to see how the plants will respond.
I am fairly sure that the bushes have not grown much in the past because the weight of the netting restricts the growth throughout the summer. You can actually see that plants under the posts are taller than the ones in the middle. I'll fix that this year by putting in two new sets of post to hold the netting higher off the plants.
Posted on Fri, Nov 20, 2009
It's been a wet week again this week, with heavy showers and then spells of sunny and gusty winds, another week where i'm left wondering what we can do in this fabulous British climate.
So with all of this wind and rain most of the leaves have come off the trees around the campus and there is a murmur that leaf raking day is fast approaching us, on leaf raking day the whole college chips in and helps to clear leaves from the driveway up to the college. This day also means that the site where the leaves are deposited needs to be prepared and the old piles of leaves have to be turned, a daunting task for one person but a reasonable one for 3, so I took it on with the students. It took a few afternoons to do the last and most recent pile, you wouldn't have thought this when you first saw the pile but after the first afternoon it became apparent that it would take a bit of time. It's quite remarkable how long leaves take to break down, at Emerson we have up to 4 piles of leaves, the first is the most recent collection of fresh leaves, the second the year before where they have stated to break down but some shape is still visible of leaves in the heart of the heap, the third pile is becoming more crumbly in texture and is looking a bit like shredded paper and the final pile is a beautiful carbon black substance which is crying out to be put back on the earth. So with all the piles now turned we are ready once again to receive another trailer load or two of leaves into the compost area.
We were lucky enough (unlike the north of the country) to get a break from the rain for a couple of afternoons, this allowed the ground to drain and dry out a little, and enough to work lightly with the soil. The Rhubarb this year was great, but it gave the impression that a bit of TLC was needed to rejuvenate the crowns (crowns are what we call the root of the rhubarb). This process has started with the thorough weeding of the whole patch, we have some areas of cooch grass growing so more care will be taken around these patches to remove this perennial weed. The next stage will be to prepare sites around the patch where the crowns have died off in previous years, digging a hole and filling with well rotted compost, manure and even some leaf mold will help to stimulate the growth for next spring. With the new sites prepared some of the older plants will be dug up and divided (using a knife of spade) selecting the best looking crowns, and re-planted into the holes, with a slight covering of soil over the top of the crown. We don't cover the plant with compost or manure because this would encourage the root to decay from the top, it's better to spread extra compost and manure above where the roots are so you're feeding the soil for the roots benefit.
Having said all that we haven't finished digging the site over yet, but if the weather does as i predict (clears up after the full moon at the end of the month) we'll get a clear run before Christmas to do that work.
Oh and my tractor arrived this week.... ;o)
Posted on Sun, Nov 15, 2009
What a week....
It hasn't been the easiest for me, I have had a very busy time with all sorts of things happening in both my personal and work life, and it felt a bit like I was getting swallowed up by it all. I think I'm getting over it all now but it was an unsettling week.
For starters, I was ill with this 'man flu' that has been spreading like wildfire through the college, it's a hard position to get into because I have things that I have to do every day, so it's not so easy just to take a couple of days off to rest.
Then the planners come back with all sorts of problems with the application I sent in two weeks ago, and after more work and research i pointed out that it was actually their mistake. This again is stressful and frustrating, they are a very strong group of people and the only ones that can say yes to our greenhouse application, so you always need to be very patient and polite even if you know they are wrong.
There was also a theft in the garden, in which a number of my personal belongings were stolen, a most unfortunate incident in which someone happened to pass by the storage container when I wasn't around for a short time and had a 'field day' with the stuff in there.
And the last thing was the winds on Saturday took the roof off the new lean-to which we'd built this week.
So, how does one react to all of these situations? It just seems to be making me stronger in the will and determination realm. I'm still here and can fix the roof, and buy new things if I want to.
I had a great conversation with Richard Evans over the weekend and we were talking about instinct and gut feelings, I had the sense a few times this week that some things weren't right, but I didn't act on these, and as a result, I have in a way, paid the price. This is fine, it's a lesson (or several) learned and I just need to make sure I put it into practice; and act on these 'feelings' when I get them.
As for the theft, I was put in a position of distrust and a lack of confidence in people for a time, but then when the roof came off and was stuck in a tree, I had no choice but to ask for help... and it came, in the form of a great bunch of agriculture students, more than happy to come and aid me on a damp but sunny Sunday morning. They all stayed there until we had sorted the mess out and tidied the area up, full of ideas and were all very willing to get stuck in and use their initiative. For me this is just beautiful - life the way it should be, it's reminded me how things can be and usually are. Sometimes bad things happen and they often overshadow the positives - the key is to stay strong and just carry on, otherwise they'll get to you. And to top it all off, when we were done in the garden today (Sunday) we all went back up to the student accommodation and had fresh homemade croissants for brunch - what a delight... my faith restored and tummy filled, I'm back and ready to build a new shed, stronger and better than the last one (even if the tin is a bit bent), knowing where the weak spots are and what to do to make it more sturdy for the next storm....
Good old Emerson College, always full of surprises and challenges... and if you see them through, you're sure to come out better for it.
Posted on Wed, Nov 04, 2009
I'm having a successful week, there is progress in areas which have lately been running a bit slowly.
Firstly from last week, I have paid for the tractor in full now and am expecting a call anytime to arrange a time to deliver the machinery. The materials for building the lean to are here and I'm scratching my head about how to assemble it all, there are a few helpful folks around who are willing to show me how to build it, so i'm sure it won't take too long to put it all together.
I have also managed to get the new revised greenhouse application in, it's the fourth edition now. With a wildlife survey included and all in PDF format, this means that I don't have to send three or four copies of everything to the planners and instead send it all through an email, one of the joys of the modern world I guess, less paper and hassle over all, and I get a copy automatically so I don't need to remember to copy one for myself.
The pruning of the soft fruits has started with the students. It was a really cold afternoon but we got a bit done and everyone is learning and understanding what we are doing which is great. The blackcurrant's are a bit funny, some have very vigorous growth and others are rather dormant. To try and correct this we are hard pruning the slower ones to stimulate new vegetative growth and treating as normal the more productive bushes. A good dose of garden compost will be applied around the bushes and we will also loosen the soil to promote the root growth. An application of the cow manure preparation 500 will be used early on next year to stimulate the growth of the new shoots. We also have the gooseberries to prune soon, it'll be a new group by then; the task is much greater for the gooseberries, they haven't been pruned properly for several years now so there will be a lot of clearing and hard cutting, i'm sure we'll see the rewards in the spring though. But there's a long until then.....
Posted on Wed, Oct 28, 2009
It's a massive day for me tomorrow, it's half term and just at the same time I get contacted and told that the John Deere tractor I put a deposit on in Bristol is ready to be viewed with the stone burier... It's the first time I've bought such a thing and I really excited. It's still not going to be a done deal until tomorrow but either way it's a big step in the right direction. I bought all the materials today to build a lean to on the lorry body which will provide the shelter needed for the tractor if/when it arrives.
This week has been, I feel, quite a progressive and rewarding week. I produced a little leaflet for the dinning rooms earlier under the advice of Andrew Edmond (one of the current Directors) at the college. It's illustrated and contains some text from me about the my pick of the week vegetables, and Cilla has added a recipe for the back page so the students can cook some of what she is making at home... Next time we'll put a beetroot and chocolate recipe in there, very nice :o)
The first group of 1st year Biodynamic course students will be moving on after next week, it's been great having such a nice and willing group to work with to start so the others have something to live up to.. . . . . I'm hoping that we can do some fun stuff next week as a large group like coppice and pruning work. Cilla has also suggested that we can peel and core apples for her, as these jobs take a long time and it'll mean we get more apple crumbles, a good way to persuade anyone. It is hard however to organize these groups of students, this one is 6 and has a range of abilities and experiences, so finding the right people for the right job sometimes a challenge as you never want to send the same people to do the same sorts of things everyday. Hopefully working on the fruit bushes and in the woods will create more of a learning opportunity for everyone.
Posted on Sat, Oct 24, 2009
I'm really getting stuck into the parsnips now in the garden, you get a strong sense of winter when they start to come out of the ground, dirty, covered in mud but smelling very very sweet... But once we carry them up to the storage unit, cut the tops and wash them, they are transformed into something else; a sweet smelling, beautiful white vegetable that you can eat all winter and warms your belly.... I'm looking forward to Cilla (our chef) making something great out of this biodynamic produce soon. The cabbages are also coming on well, some of the later ones we planted are getting gobbled by the pigeons but just as long as they stick to those i'll let them be... if not then all the brassicas will have to be covered up with fleece, and the garden won't look as inviting as it does at the moment. We are having raw cabbage in the salads and steamed as a vegetable with our meals at the moment. It's a great winter warmer and as the winds and rain draw at this time of year it'll help to keep us all warm and healthy.
The Biodynamic Agriculture Training 1st years have been away on their farm tour this week so I've not been having much help in the garden. Most of the jobs I couldn't really start, knowing that there will be 5 students coming to help in the afternoons makes me find other jobs that i can do more independantly. So i helped in the estate cutting some trees down that were blocking light and made a start on the coppice project near westwood.
All the apples have been picked from around the campus, Colyn, Martin (another Biodynamic Course 2nd Year), Anne Marie (the grounds guardian) and myself finished off the last of the trees on Friday.
Oh and theres one other small thing that happened this week, I put a deposit down on a new/second hand tractor. Its a John Deere 955 with a loader and forks and it'll come with a stoneburier. I'm fairly excited about getting it all sorted and really hoping to get it delivered to the college by December, all being well. It's taken a lot of research and time to find one and I finally spotted it an managed to make a deal, once i've visited it in Bristol and checked it all out i'll be giving them the final cheque, they will deliver it to the college which is great because I didn't fancy driving it from Bristol to Sussex....
Posted on Tue, Oct 20, 2009
Something not so great happened on Monday, I found our Drake had passed away, he had become rather unwell over the weekend but passed on Sunday evening. Unfortunatly one of the harsh realities of working on the land is the way of life and death, I was fairly sure there was nothing I could do to save him as he was getting weak quickly, you just have to let go of things somethimes even if it doesn't please you. The other two ladies are doing fine, they seem a little confused about where their boss is but other than that they just seem happy to be getting fed and not bossed around too much.
I'll see how the winter goes with the other two and decide in spring if I need to get another male, it doesn't seem right to have such an imbalance in the flock, it would be normal if there is at least one male with the females. I was also hoping that we might get a breeding pair and some chicks in the spring and this won't happen if theres no Drake. So i'll have to make a decision in the early part of next year about our bird stocking quantites....
Posted on Fri, Oct 16, 2009
If anyone is interested in buying some of our home made organic jam made with biodynamic red currants please email me for details
robert.tilsley@emerson.org.uk
Its a simple jam, just red currants, sugar and water, cooked down to a good consistancy, it's an ideal spread for toast and lovely with Camembert grilled with breadcumbs, or even on pancakes.
We are asking £2.50 for a 1lb jar and the shipping will be quoted when you place an order.
Posted on Sat, Oct 10, 2009
We have moved the Carson Garden blog site. It makes sense to keep all of the college enterprises under the same umbrella, and it makes for better management.
This week has certainly been full. After 3 days of rain we get a break in the weather on Thursday allowing the students to get some more of the onions and garlic planted. I've realized now (after planting 3 beds) that we have a few too many onion sets. It doesn't make sense to plant too many as we still have the spring sets to plant and if they all went in there wouldn't be room in the rotation for much else. We also have one bed of garlic planted and once the first row of courgettes are out then the next row of garlic will go in. It's exciting to see that the first lot of onion sets I planted a couple of weeks ago are starting so show signs of the first shoots coming.
As well as the planting marathon we are also dealing with a harvest marathon. The carrots have all been dug up now. It's a funny process: first you dig them up, then you top them and put them in sacks, and then you put them all in the ground again. When you are storing carrots it's best to keep them in dark, cool and damp conditions. If you don't dig them up they tend to get damaged by either slugs or the carrot root flies. And if they aren't affected by either of these they will start to grow again and become woody and less flavorsome. Once they are all dug up we take the leaves off, leaving about 1cm of the top. They are then put into sacks and placed into a hole in the ground which is lined at the bottom with a layer of straw, this helps with the drainage. When they're all in the ground we put another layer of straw over the sacks and cover with the earth we dug out. We pulled out 110KG of carrots for storage in this way, including everything else we've harvested this year, it means we grew about 250KG of carrots this year, not bad for the first year.
Yesterday I did some work with the chainsaw around the college, one of the jobs was to make a hole in the hedge between the Rachel Carson Centre and the Biodynamic Garden. It's the time to start doing such work because the sap is leaving the trees so you are not likely to damage the trees permanently. Although in this case we will need to stop some from growing back. The hole has been put in so we can install a gate. There was a general feeling amongst people that having a window into the carson garden would help to draw people to it. I also started to do some work in the woods in West wood, an area of woodland owned by the college. The student body at the college has been asking for more wood for the clay oven we have, as well as wood for the fire inside Pixton. I did some work pulling out old logs and cutting down dead branches to help and hopefully start a stream of wood coming to the college. I have some larger plans for maintaining the coppiced Hazel in the woods but need to read up some more on how to maintain them correctly so as not to cause any damage to this beautiful piece of woodland the college owns.
The ducks are still fine, although I did loose them on Tuesday. I went to put them away and discovered that they were nowhere to be seen. I got quite a shock from that, obviously they turned up again otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. It dawned on me that actually I am attached to them already, which wasn't really meant to happen. And to top it off, we spent Wednesday afternoon pulling off slugs and caterpillars from the brassica. They are getting a bit confused about there role now. They're eating the Cavello Nero more than the slugs at the moment. I'm not sure how to address this one but rest assured, when I know I'll write it down.