The Helpful Gardener
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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

mbunny
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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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applestar
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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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applestar
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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].

mbunny
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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:

tunia923
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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)!!

The Helpful Gardener
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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

mbunny
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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:

gros michel
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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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applestar
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Thanks!! :D
Sent you a PM :wink:

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applestar
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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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