Myth : Tropical Soil is Fertile

When I moved here I had plenty of people tell me that everything would grow great here. Lush. Tropical soils were fertile. I was actually believing this until I tried growing flowers and veggies. Yes, I had been sucked in by the myth of fertile tropical soils. I thought gardening would be easy and take care of itself! 

Grasses grow great on my farm. Ohia, eucalyptus, and guava trees thrive. Things are always green. But when I started growing flowers and veggies I learned something very significant. Those grasses and trees don't need very fertile or moist soil.

My mother's grass. It was mowed too short when it was first started.
Now it never grows thick nor tall. I could improve this but she is not
interested in having to mow the grass more than once a month. 

The fertility of soil on my farm crashes as soon as the sun can reach the soil surface. So wherever I mow the grass short, the soil dries out, the sun kills the micro-organisms, the grass growth is stunted. Whenever I tilled or flipped over the soil, things didn't want to grow well in that spot. Thus the soil itself appears to have rather poor fertility, with it's fertility highly dependent upon the ecology of surface micro-organisms and surface moisture. A thick grass mat keeps the soil surface shaded and moist. Remove that, and the soil's toast.

In my first few years of gardening, I really crashed the soil ecology. In order to get harvestable vegetables, I needed to rely on commercial fertilizer. I knew that I needed to change my gardening methods, but I was so busy clearing land, building the house, and caring for my parents that I resorted to commercial methods for the quick fix. That meant lots of irrigation, fertilizer, herbacides, pesticides, fungicides.

Now after many seasons of adding compost, manures, trace minerals, inoculated biochar, and constant mulches, my soil is producing great veggies. So many people look at the garden and think, "Tropical soil is so fertile!" The same exact thing happens when people look at the community garden here. I always hear, "Well of course, you're starting out with good tropical soil." FALSE! These gardens are thriving because of the work that has gone into improving soil fertility. It didn't happen by chance.

I'm still experimenting and learning about how to handle the soil on my farms and at the community garden to make them fertile. Some tricks that I find work:
...keep the soil surface covered with mulch.
...if I don't have enough mulch, then let the weeds grow and shade the soil surface. This is a better alternative than letting the sun bake the soil surface.
...add compost with each new crop being planted. Plus till in the old mulch.
...use inoculated biochar in the compost, rather than plain dry biochar. I use urine, manure tea, or compost tea to inoculate the biochar.
...use manures in the compost.
...never let the soil bake dry.
...use a little ocean water in the compost for trace minerals. Or use fermented fish waste when I have it.

As I said, I'm still experimenting. I've been using ocean coral, burnt animal bones, and wood ashes. I'm switching to low-till in the improved areas so that the soil surface is only disturbed in a narrow bed where the seeds will be sowed. I'd like to install drip irrigation, but that will have to wait for now.

Ah, so much to learn, so many experiments to try!

Sheep Update - Meet Billy

Little Billy, curious about the camera.

To date I've managed to sell all my non-bottle fed sheep except for one. Still have her for sale. Quite honestly, I'm glad to see them go. For now on, just give me bottle fed sheep!

He's curious about the grass, but doesn't eat it yet. 

My little flock of six bottle lambs is growing up. Although at times it can be a pain in the neck having them follow me around, I don't regret raising them this way. They come when called, willingly let me handle them, tolerate being groomed. I can deworm them with ease and check them for flies daily. No more chasing sheep, being knocked down, getting sweaty and dirty. Bliss! Makes me one happy shepherd.

This past week I've decided to sell the little dorper ram lamb. Actually, I'm making a trade with him. This leaves me with 2 dorper ewes and stud service from this ram in the future. Because the dorper ram is leaving, I've decided to keep the Barbados/St. Croix mix ram lamb that's now one week old. By keeping him, this gives the flock two rams plus one outside ram for stud service. That should be enough.

So........ Introducing the one, the strong, the frisky, the finger sucking, bottle drinking Billy Gra-Ram, Billy for short. While musing over ram names, we both liked Dodge Ram (Dodger for short), but Billy Graham popped up into hubby's head for some reason. I hope the real Billy Graham doesn't mind the honor of having a nice ram named after him. It's just all in fun, afterall.

Little Billy is providing to be a very quick learner. Took to the bottle on his second try. Already knows my routine. In a few days he will be introduced the the flock and see what he thinks of the big guys. But for now little Billy is up by the house learning to bond to my legs and my voice. He is learning that being touched all over equates to the arrival of a milk bottle. That it's normal to have one's hooves handled, things poked into your mouth, the house dogs sniff you all over. And to come to the sound of my voice.

Frugal Games for Saving Money Up

Money is a major issue for most homestead farms. Extra is not just laying round. I've talked with a number of local homestead type families to see what strategies they've used. And I came away with some nifty ideas. These are "games" that people play in order to make money issues less painful.

1- Family #1 keeps their monthly budget money in envelopes. For example, $200 in the envelope labelled "Food". At the end of the month if there is any cash leftover, they transfer it into an envelope labelled "Something Special". Then when they have enough set aside, they reward themselves by spending that cash on something special for the family. Along this same line, they snitch a dollar here, a dollar there from some of the budget envelopes. Just one dollar so that it doesn't really make a big difference. That dollar goes into the "Something Special" envelope. The mother says this also encourages her to try growing more of their own food, plus it's an incentive for her children and partner to try eating new foods and recipes. Her partner now willingly buys clothes at the thrift shop because the money that they save on each item used instead of new goes into his "allowance" envelope.

2- Family #2 (one guy) fixed up a bicycle he got on Freecycle. Every time he rides it to town he figures that he saves $5 in gas. He puts that cash into a jar. Then when some tool or "guy toy" comes along that he's just gotta have, he has the cash without killing his budget.

3- Family #3 takes all their coins that they get as change and puts them in a jar that they glued the lid shut (slot cut in the lid to poke the coins through). That way they can't snitch money out of the jar without the rest of the family noticing. That money becomes a Christmas present to themselves, split up equally to each person. They can then each go out a enjoy spending it without a guilt trip.

4- Family #4 works together on Saturday mornings for 3 hours doing something to earn a little cash. Picking up and processing macnuts from trees that the owners aren't interested in is one of their most common jobs. They also pick coffee from an abandoned orchard, process it and eventually sell the green bean. They've also picked and  juiced various citrus and lilokoi, selling the frozen juice to restaurants. The money goes for family entertainment-- birthday parties, vacations, snorkel equipment, movie tickets, picnics, etc. This gives the whole family enjoyment that they otherwise could not afford. Anyone who wants to work past the 3 hours then earns the money for themselves.

5- Family #5 says both cash and time is in short supply. They grow excess food on their little homestead, but do not have enough extra time to sit at a farmers market to try selling it. And since their excess is not consistent, they have had no luck selling it to local restaurants. The parents have done the ground work and support for their children to sell the excess to neighbors. The kids are paid a commission on what they sell, with the family's share of the sales going to buy much needed seeds, fertilizer, garden tools, etc. so that they can expand the garden. They are planning to get a few egg laying chickens next spring, thus garden waste and unsold veggies can go into making eggs.

I've used the coins-in-a-jar game to save money. That one works for me. 

Moving to Rural Hawaii -- A Really Big Change

One of the hard things we found about moving here is that everything is so totally different from wherever you came from. It's sort of like moving to a foreign country where they speak almost the same language. When hubby and I lived in England, I experienced that same sort of sensation......I was mostly comfortable with the language, but everything was so different. Yes Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore! On top of it, switching from a urban/suburban life to a rural life was pretty drastic. 

So many of the people moving to Hawaii have the wrong impression about what they are moving to. They are seeing the world through rose colored glasses, for sure. We experienced a bit of that, but we were far more realistic than most people. I tried really hard to know what I was getting into. Athough we were running away from the stressful life and running to "paradise", we at least made an attempt to keep our eyes open and see reality. 

So what could be so different? Whoa....how about just about everything! 

1- Weather. We left damp cold winters, hot humid summers, snowstorms, ice storms, thunderstorms, heat waves. We moved to a mild climate, much like a perpetual first week of June in New Jersey. 
2- We left behind masses of mosquitos, ticks, chiggers, greenhead flies, strawberry flies, and fleas. We now battle constant ants, centipedes, giant cockroaches, and lots of spiders.
3- We traded snakes in for geckos. 
4- We had 4 major shopping malls within 30 minute drive with plenty of stores, restaurants, and businesses. We now are happy to have at least an Ace Hardware within 10 minutes. "Real stores" are 2 hours away. 
5- Before we had dozens upon dozens of restaurants to choose from and every cuisine you could desire. Now you can count our choices on one hand, and forget about foreign cuisine. Just be glad that the food is edible. 
6- We use to have choices when we wanted a service. Now we are glad to at least have an auto mechanic in the area, a hair dresser, a bank, a business service store, a gift shop, a drugstore, a dentist, a doctor, etc. No choices, but at least we've got one. 
7- We left behind the crowds of people and the traffic congestion. To find a crowd you need to go to the post office at 2 pm when it reopens after lunch. Traffic congestion is Sunday around the churches. 
8- We use to drive on streets with lots of traffic lights. Most were two lanes each direction. We were surrounded by high speed turnpikes and parkways. Now we have just a few simple roadways and no traffic lights. Not all of our roadways are even paved here. 
9- We left behind the nightlife. Nightlife now means going to bed at 8 pm. 
10- We left behind the stressful life, the suspicion, the fear, the major crime. It isn't perfect here, but I don't miss all that crazy lifestyle. I've come to appreciate the dull and boring, but the safe and relaxed. 
11- Winter/spring/summer/fall. Gone are the dramatic changes of the seasons. Seasonal changes still happen here, but they are more subtle. Oh, I miss to sound of Spring Peepers, the smell of spring, the scent of lilacs and hyacinths, the first warm day, the smell of autumn leaves, the crisp feel of the first frost, the sound of snowfall. But I surely don't miss freezing, sweltering, dealing with horrendous humidity on a hot summer day. 

Moving by itself is a major hurdle. But moving to such a different life is even more of a challenge, in my experience. Luckily I had some training runs beforehand. We had spent quite a bit of time living in England. We also spent time living in Taiwan. Thus I treated Hawaii as another foreign country. It made the move much more understandable. Not real easy mind you, but something that I had experience with adapting to. 

Leaving behind my city habits took a lot of time and even lots of effort. Adopting a rural viewpoint took even more effort. But I am truly pleased that we made the change. I don't ever want to go back to that previous lifestyle. Am I now a country hick? I truly hope so! 

Farm Gates

Simple swinging bar gate with center chain-lock.

People around here who live on a half acre or more tend to have their properties gated. Their land might be fenced, or have a stone wall, or just have the perimeter lined with trees or bushes. And if they live on raw lava, often just the driveway is blocked in some fashion. A simple chain and lock is common. Other times it's a length of fencing that is pulled aside to let a car pass. And then there are those of us who opt for a gate.

Wood facing on a metal gate. Solar powered opener. 

Why gate your driveway? Most obviously - keep cars and trucks out. But it also tells people that they shouldn't enter without permission. It's like the front door of your house. Knock but don't enter unless the door is opened for you. So even a simple rope cross a driveway is a reminder not to tresspass.

Gate made of  fencing with orange ribbons tied to it. 

Post and rail with board, set back from the road. 

A gate with close bars or with fencing on it is commonly used when the land has sheep that need confining. But such a gate is also used to keep something out....pigs. Feral pigs can destroy a garden or nursery in one night, so fencing and a proper gate is mandatory for protection against foraging pigs. 

Basic chain with lock. Kapu sign!

 I find it interesting to see the different ways people gate their driveways. Rope. Chain. Wooden gate. Metal gate. Plain. Fancy. Some people really get into having an individual style gate. Or some unique color. Makes giving directions a lot easier......."Go one mile and look for the red gate on the left."

Close mesh metal gate keeps pigs out. 

This one is designed to keep the sheep in. 

Wrought iron gate, jumbo style. Allows large commercial
trucks to pass through. 

Sturdy bar gate with chain lock around an ohia upright post.

And last of the photos, our gate here on our farm. We opted for sturdy metal to keep the neighbor's stray cows from destroying the garden for the umh-teenth time. Then we had problems with some feral pigs so we welded hog panel to the gate. Most recently the elderly farm dog started going under the gate, so we added plastic mesh to the bottom. To top it all off,  I choose yellow paint in order to be unique on the road. Very easy to give directions! 

Bright yellow metal gate with mesh. Locked of course. 

Grass Clippings

It turns out that the lawnmower is one of my really important gardening tools. It's never used in the actual garden itself, but it creates the material that is my favorite mulch : grass clippings.

Dry, brown clippings. Excellent for nest boxes and mulching.

In reality, I use grass clippings for more than just mulch. They are a major ingredient in compost, they are used as an edible litter in the chicken pen, plus I sometimes use dried clippings for lining the hens' nests.

Fresh green, and very wet, clippings great for the
compost pile. Also wonderful for the chickens.

Grass clippings make a nice garden mulch. They are easy to apply. I can control the thickness and get then into tight places. And they decompose as the soil microbes feed on them, thus creating food for the plants. Between crops, they are easy to till into the soil. And I can readily get more when I need them.

Mulch in the vegetable gardens. 

As a compost ingredient, they are easy to work with. Already finely chopped, they compost down quickly and are easy to mix with the other ingredients. I can choose to add very green clippings which are high in moisture and nitrogen. Or I can pick the clippings from overgrown pastures that  are mostly brown and quite dry. It all depends on what the compost pile needs.

Pineapple bed at the community garden. Mulch helps keep
the grass at bay.  

 The chickens love kicking around a pile of fresh clippings. They will end up eating a lot of it. And what they don't eat just adds to the pen litter. That pen litter is harvested weekly, sent thru the tumbler composters, and is ready to use as mulch in the garden in three weeks. Certain plants really respond well to this dressing, such as the kale, chard, collards, taro, and most greens.

Mulched areas have very little weeds. 

I harvest all my grass clippings from "clean" land, that is, land not treated with commercial chemicals. I have plenty of my own land that needs topping off ocassionally. In addition, my neighbor is really glad to have me come mow his acre anytime. I've actually had people offer their land for mulch harvesting, but presently I have all the land that I can handle.

I'm always asked about weed seeds. Don't I have problems? Quite honestly, not to date. Sometimes a patch of weeds will sprout in the garden, but I can either flip them over with a shovel, cut them with a scuffle hoe, or simply lay a thick layer of mulch over them. Seedlings are fairly easy to kill. But when I do have a trashcan full of seedy clippings, I normally direct that to the chicken pen so the girls can hunt out the seeds. They do a good job.

Horse Manure

Yoshi, my homestead horse. 

Meet Yoshi, superintendent in charge of manure production. Often referred to as the mobile lawn ornament, this retired ranch horse is an important farm employee. She works 365 days a year, demands minimal benefits, never takes a vacation, and doesn't belong to a union. She helps keep the pastures under control, keep my land taxes low, and produces all the horse manure I need.

Having on-site manure production is a farm requirement for my homestead. Years ago I use to go out a gather manure from others' pastures, but often the timing was wrong. Other gardeners beat me to the close piles, so I had to hand carry buckets a distance. Trudging around unimproved pastures dragging five gallons buckets was work! Manure gathering was time consuming. Plus I never knew when medications and dewormers were being used on the horses. I didn't want manure with unwanted chemicals in it.

Having always enjoyed horses, I wanted one of my own for the farm. While just the fact that it would produce horse manure was plus, I wanted a safe horse that wouldn't intentionally hurt me. If I were able to ride, that would be a bonus, but it wasn't mandatory. I initially purchased two horses with the fantasy idea that hubby and I would go riding together. That never happened, so my hubby's horse was sold. That left Yoshi as the farm horse.

Horse manure is one of the ingredients of my compost. It's a very important source of fertilizer on the farm. Using compost really works well for me, helping this homestead to be reasonably self reliant. No need to purchase commercial fertilizer for the gardens.