I potted-on some pumpkin last night that was almost overdue. Some sunflower is also begging for it, as well as my last pepper starts. I was panicking until I realized that "the last danger of frost" is almost here. People in our area who don't like to gamble pick Mother's day for planting, and that's 2 weeks away. Our average last frost date has already passed. Before realizing that, I was worried because I don't have enough pots for potting-on, nor enough potting soil. (All the compost has been moved into beds now.) But I can just pot-on to the next size up instead of the gallon pots I used yesterday.
I'm excited about weed-whacking down the grass in the food forest and putting all of my leftover seeds into the piles of grass. I've run out of room in beds for stuff, so that's my only recourse. It's a trick I learned from Mike Hoag at Lillie House Zoo. He actually gives two methods in two separate posts. From https://lilliehouse.blogspot.com/2017/06/no-till-3-sisters-update-germination.html:
(Corn germinating in piles of mulch plopped directly on top of slashed meadow, with no barrier. Most of the mulch material was taken from our nearby hedgerow, which also acts as a fertility belt, mostly slashed comfrey, sorrel, chicory and autumn olive. This was covered with a layer of "brown" plant material like dry jerusalem artichoke stalks. A thin "finish mulch" of compost, cocoa mulch, and coir was used to create a seed bed for germination. )
1st slash, rake the slash into mulch piles and plant SEEDS, not starts, directly into the piles. Second slash is with a kama, before the squash run, around the crop plants. This maybe unnecessary and you can just mulch everything in place at the end of the season. Traditionally, there were 2 cuts....
So I'll probably try both. Mike has some recent blog posts discussing what he learned and how he has changed his 3 Sisters plantings in slash mulch. I'll need to read those.
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