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applestar
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gixxerific wrote:Might huh? :P You can't fool us, I'll be interested to see how much bigger it gets. :)
:wink:


HG -- About harvesting wild rice -- Sam Thayer makes it sound easily do-able. He even sells foraged wild rice [url=https://www.foragersharvest.com/products.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=37]on his website[/url].

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Ozark Lady
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My goodness, Apple, you are a very busy young lady.
After reviewing this post, I do think the pond can be made where it will flood and possibly drain. If the weather does its usual of rain early and drought in August.
I found it interesting that your melons went into your paddy, not by your choice. I didn't even consider growing melons on the pond bank... but they do tend to be water hogs when I grow melons, so why not try them there too!
Quite an inspiration! One question.... do you ever sleep? With so much going on in the garden, so much posting, and fantastic photos... do you have any time left over... for Apple?
How did the rice harvest end up? Did you get them threshed and winnowed? Come on this is better than a soap-opera... give the rest of the story!

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gixxerific
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Have you thought about the "One Straw Revolution" style of rice growing?

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Scary when Gixx and I are doing the same reading and having the same thoughts :P

Do you know what he means?

HG

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(I think what both of you mean is that you missed AppleStar's posts in the "One Straw" thread under Permaculture....going away now....)

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applestar
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:lol: :wink:

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Ozark Lady
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I have absolutely no clue what is meant by one straw revolution.
And the clues afterward didn't change the mystery a bit...
Who needs mystery shows? Gardening is a mystery everyday!

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gixxerific
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The Helpful Gardener wrote:Scary when Gixx and I are doing the same reading and having the same thoughts :P

HG
Don't know if I should offended or happy there. :P

OL "One Straw Revolution" is a book READ IT do yourself a favor it's a very intriguing read . But basically if I can get this right from memory. He grew rice in fields without any weeding or cultivating. Just by throwing seeds down into the mulch of straw leftover by previous crops, as well as not keeping his fields flooded with no pesticides or fertilizers per say. All of these and maybe a few other things I missed were/are totally against everything the Japanese were doing with rice farming, yet had as good or better yields.

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Ozark Lady
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Sounds like my kind of gardening.

I rewatched the Ruth Stout videos on You tube.

I still can't help but wonder... was her soil simply wonderful to begin with?

But, I like her methods... no till, no weeding, no fertilizing, no spraying, no composting, no watering... just plant, mulch and harvest.... my kind of gardening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ReIotPNVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyyVVdg_1Z0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQv6KX7h0QM


These are Ruth Stout videos... man, she looks uncomfortable to me, just stooping over to garden... I end up sitting and getting into what I am doing! Ha ha... But, she was what 95? I hope I am so active at 95!

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Ozark Lady
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I found this pdf, and downloaded it.. 225 pages.

Is this the one that you mean?

https://gyanpedia.in/tft/Resources/books/onestraw.pdf

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gixxerific
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Ozark Lady wrote:I found this pdf, and downloaded it.. 225 pages.

Is this the one that you mean?

https://gyanpedia.in/tft/Resources/books/onestraw.pdf
Exactly :D

:Edit: Just watched those videos on Stout. What an amazing women, I truly admire her.
The more I stick around this place the more I find that I am a permaculturalist hidden in someone else's body. I do some things like Ruth, she answered my question to what I should do with the potatoes I had all winter on the fridge among other things we have in common. While reading One Straw I realizes he an I did a lot of things alike. There are way too many rules in life some things just need to be done the way that feels right.

Wait I'm not a permaculturalist I am me. :D

Thanks for the vids, now back to the topic at hand.

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Ruth Stout, Fukuoka-sensei... :D

Gixx, the fact that you are already doing things these folks did, and the fact that I was doing some of this before I knew who these people were, just supports the fact that we are on the right road, and we should keep our eyes and ears open to hear what our gardens have to say, and stay aware for the next wise person who wanders into our lives with lessons we need to move forward. And trust ourselves to know the difference.

Quite the koku of rice you've opened up here AS... :D

HG

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I just got around to watching the Ruth Stout videos! Oh wonderful! I love her! How did I not know about her, and her a Quaker lady too!? (like me, for people that haven't gotten that part yet)

Her gardening is revolutionary (how does she get away with not watering in her seeds?), but she is just such a free thinker and blithe spirit!

A lot of the gardening stuff I read (sometimes even here :) ) my reaction is wow, they are working too hard at it; it doesn't need to be so complicated! Now I can say Ruth Stout said so!

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The Helpful Gardener wrote:Ruth Stout, Fukuoka-sensei... :D

Gixx, the fact that you are already doing things these folks did, and the fact that I was doing some of this before I knew who these people were, just supports the fact that we are on the right road, and we should keep our eyes and ears open to hear what our gardens have to say, and stay aware for the next wise person who wanders into our lives with lessons we need to move forward. And trust ourselves to know the difference.

Quite the koku of rice you've opened up here AS... :D

HG
Amen to that I think my main non traditional gardening fault of before was using (chemical) pesticides and fungicides in the garden, I always used organic fertilizers when I did use them (call me lazy) and planted however and whenever I wanted. The yard and me and chemicals we won't talk about that but change is gonna come there. Maybe we should write a book? :lol:

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Maybe we should write a book?

Aren't we? It would be very easy to organize these forums into chapters, cull some of the duplication and turn it into a book. HG?

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Find your voice, man. Anything built by committee ends up an elephant that was supposed to be a horse. Forums are choruses, books are solos. Both have their place (but can be nice together :wink: )

Sorry RBG; posted on top of each other. I think you see my answer. Besides, how would we split the royalties :?:

:lol:

HG

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Has anybody worked on projects to get school children to grow this type of garden? I would love to hear about it. Also has anyone ever just thrown hay on the soggy part of their yard and planted stuff? I think I will try that.

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Posting a last update for the Rice Growing Project 2009.
You know how things you plan to do don't always turn out that way? Well, I didn't get to plant barley last fall because it turned out that they don't overwinter in my area, and I didn't do the rice seed clay balls back in December OR in early spring. I DID scatter clover seeds last fall and early spring, but it turns out that the paddy gets too flooded and the clover failed to grow. :roll:

I also didn't scatter the rice straw, and I'll tell you why: The bundles of rice hung in the doorway to the Playroom, unprocessed, ALL WINTER LONG. :roll: :oops: Most annoying for the kids who had to duck under it every time they went by. (Bad Mommy! :wink:)

Well, the onset of spring has renewed my interest :> and the arrival of the latest possible seed planting time has forced me to finally cut off the seed heads and weigh them.

KOSHIHIKARI RICE: Total unthreshed weight = approx. 1.5 LBS. or 680 g.
CAROLINA GOLD RICE: Total unthreshed weight = just short of 1 LBS. or 430 g.

I don't know what the threshed weight would be -- there's probably some % rule of thumb. Not bad, considering (I think there were something like 15 plants of Koshihikari and 10 plants of Carolina Gold altogether), and plenty for seed grain if I had the space and inclination to actually plant whole fields/paddies of the stuff for family consumption, etc.

Alas, I don't have room to expand my little paddies much more, though I might whittle out another couple of square feet in each. Now I that I've successfully grown them once, I can concentrate more on implementing Fukuoka Sensei's methods. I'll start a [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24875]new thread for Rice Growing Project 2010[/url] later. :-()
Last edited by applestar on Sat Jul 03, 2010 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mbunny
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applestar wrote:Posting a last update for the Rice Growing Project 2009.
You know how things you plan to do don't always turn out that way? Well, I didn't get to plant barley last fall because it turned out that they don't overwinter in my area, and I didn't do the rice seed clay balls back in December OR in early spring. I DID scatter clover seeds last fall and early spring, but it turns out that the paddy gets too flooded and the clover failed to grow. :roll:

I also didn't scatter the rice straw, and I'll tell you why: The bundles of rice hung in the doorway to the Playroom, unprocessed, ALL WINTER LONG. :roll: :oops: Most annoying for the kids who had to duck under it every time they went by. (Bad Mommy! :wink:)

Well, the onset of spring has renewed my interest :> and the arrival of the latest possible seed planting time has forced me to finally cut off the seed heads and weigh them.

KOSHIHIKARI RICE: Total unthreshed weight = approx. 1.5 LBS. or 680 g.
CAROLINA GOLD RICE: Total unthreshed weight = just short of 1 LBS. or 430 g.

I don't know what the threshed weight would be -- there's probably some % rule of thumb. Not bad, considering (I think there were something like 15 plants of Koshihikari and 10 plants of Carolina Gold altogether), and plenty for seed grain if I had the space and inclination to actually plant whole fields/paddies of the stuff for family consumption, etc.

Alas, I don't have room to expand my little paddies much more, though I might whittle out another couple of square feet in each. Now I that I've successfully grown them once, I can concentrate more on implementing Fukuoka Sensei's methods. I'll start a new thread for Rice Growing Project 2010 later. :-()
FYI: Monsanto was voted the most unethical corporation in the world so before you plant GMO seeds or use ROUNDUP or any of their products. Check out what they say about it on the organicconsumers.org website. I saw this documentary called THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO and it was a real eye opener. Check it out here: https://wideeyecinema.com/?p=105 :shock:

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Thanks for the warning, but I really don't think my Carolina Gold is the gold-colored Monsanto-modified rice. I bought the seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and they posted this link for additional description: https://hoppinjohns.net/carolinagold.aspx

Hmm. they're not offering Carolina Gold seed this year. I *will* email them and ask, although they have a [url=https://www.southernexposure.com/gmo.p.html]NO GMO POLICY.[/url].

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applestar wrote:Thanks for the warning, but I really don't think my Carolina Gold is the gold-colored Monsanto-modified rice. I bought the seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and they posted this link for additional description: https://hoppinjohns.net/carolinagold.aspx

Hmm. they're not offering Carolina Gold seed this year. I *will* email them and ask, although they have a [url=https://www.southernexposure.com/gmo.p.html]NO GMO POLICY.[/url].
I would be interested to find out if it is the same kind, I hope you find the time to view the documentary as it is extremely well done and informative. Did u hear about them trying to patent pigs? LOL, I guess they figure it will go well with the rice :lol:

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Wow! To watch the progress of this garden is amazing! A rice paddy, I never would have imagined.
I am intrigued by the keyhole kitchen garden, but in all my years of gardening, I've never heard of this before. :o
Can anyone point me to some resources? There was a mention that some of the problems could be from overcrowding. Ideally should only certain crops be in this kind of garden?
I want to make one of these. It's clever, and so convenient for cooking. And it looks good too. Visual presentation is one of the reasons I've never had my kitchen garden very close to the house.
I still can't get over the fact that you grew RICE! I mean to the point that you got the little rice sheaves (or whatever they are called)!!

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I love [url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/3482845/How-to-make-a-Keyhole-Garden-East-African-style]this how to[/url]and the wonderful examples...

mbunny thanks for the link to The World According to Monstersanto; I've been looking for a version not broken into ten minute segments... :roll: GREAT movie...

HG

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The Helpful Gardener wrote:I love [url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/3482845/How-to-make-a-Keyhole-Garden-East-African-style]this how to[/url]and the wonderful examples...

mbunny thanks for the link to The World According to Monstersanto; I've been looking for a version not broken into ten minute segments... :roll: GREAT movie...

HG
Hi Steve, You're welcome I wish EVERYONE had to view that documentary. Here is the link to :PATENT FOR A PIG-THE BIG BUSINESS OF MONSANTO https://wideeyecinema.com/?p=110 and did you see the article about the alarming decline of the bee population? Here is the link to that article. https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/02-1
without the bees we are in a lot of trouble! :cry:

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This is just too cool AS. Now I have a new project in mind. Any seeds for trade?

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Thanks!! :D
Sent you a PM :wink:

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I didn't realize I forgot to add this update last year:

Subject: 2014 Spiral Garden Garlic Onion Pea Corn Squash Cuke Beet
applestar wrote:So, the compost pile placement in the center of the Spiral Garden is inspired by the African Keyhole Garden (AKG) design. (I'll add a link as soon as I can find a decent reference source -- trying to find a good one related to the original project that's not looking for a donation....)

I was originally inspired to build my New Kitchen Garden (NKG) -which I mentioned earlier- loosely based on the AKG design, but chose not to place a compost pile in the middle at the time, and just put my strawberry jar in the middle back then. Image Also, when I built the NKG, I was equally inspired by the mandala garden design and the permaculture concept of increasing "edges" to maximize space -- so the idea was to be able to walk around and have access from the INSIDE EDGE of the bed as well as the OUTSIDE EDGE.

This year, I decided to -in fact- place a compost pile in the middle. I'm using my trusty old plastic bin.
Image
It's a bit ODD to walk out of the kitchen/back door and see this rather big composter directly ahead of you. :o This Smith & Hawken composter was one of the early designs built to the standard minimum compost pile size specs rather than the newer reduced size (and therefore inefficient thermal mass) design plastic bins. So it really feels like it's taking up a good chunk of space. :roll:

The reason I went ahead and did this is that I want to raise up this bed quite a bit -- initially I thought I would use wall pavers and build up to at least knee height like the (AKG). But there is a bit of space limitation/constraint. So I opted for another clearance sale item -- a 36"x36" coir wire basket liner. I cut it into four 9"x36" strips and pressed them up against the chicken wire fence. Then started filling up with compost/sand/soil mixture along the liner. The four strips covered half of the NKG perimeter. I'm pretty sure I have another 36"x36" sheet in the garage so I'll be able to line the other half.
Image

Image

The little bit of filling used up the wheelbarrow full of mix that I had -- just enough for the pre-germinated cucumber seeds, so it's going to be a gradual process.... :bouncey:

Having the compost bin here, I can make compost and use it directly in this bed. I was already able to fill it 1/3 full by spring cleaning about 1/3 of the patio (including the mess you saw in the first photo :oops: ). I'll layer that with wind blown pile of leaves from along the back fence, and by the time I finish cleaning the patio of all debris and weeds, adding some grass clippings and kitchen scraps along the way, the bin should be filled and ready to cook. :D



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