Today's shots: hot, hot summer days

I wanted to remember how dry and dead the property gets after a hot couple of weeks.  It's the middle of August.  Tomorrow and the next day has a forcast of temperature over 100 deg F.  My soil still has almost no fungi and no protozoa nor nematodes.  It is still succesptible to drought.  Hopefully, next year we'll see a drastic change for the better at this time of year.

Slug ideas

From Mike Hoag (Lillie House Zoo) on Facebook.  I wonder if I can order firefly larva online.

I saw a slug a few days ago! Don’t think I saw one last year. That was my first of the year. I got firefly slug crew keeping them in check for reals. And that’s in a deep mulch chop and drop garden with LOTS of tender greens.

BUT, that means keeping some long unmown grasses near the vegetable beds or in them, because that’s where fireflies complete their lifecycle. Gotta tolerate some nature, and if that looks “messy,” no slug patrol for u.

Biodiversity resiliency principle FTW.

Mike Hoag

Year 1, slugs weren’t BAD. Year 2, slugs were starting to kick in but so were vespids and fireflies. Year 3 was probably peak slug, and they almost required management, but I didn’t actually do anything. Year 4 they were in decline. Since then, they haven’t been a noticeable problem.

Mike Hoag

When we moved in fireflies were rare, so there was a slug problem. Luckily, the yard was so dead that slug populations were low, too. But now we’ve got lots of fireflies and no slug problem. NATURE. WHOA.

Mike Hoag

It takes time for ecosystems to come into balance. Also, the adult fireflies may live in an area, but it is in the larval and pupal stages that they eat slugs, and these stages require long unmown grasses and undisturbed soil. So there may be lots of fireflies hovering around the garden, but if the garden is being dug and there aren’t some long grassy areas very near the beds, or if there are barriers like raised beds between them, then the fireflies can’t get to the slug buffet.

Mmmm mmmm sluggy sluggy goodness for firefly larva. Image: backyardsforwildlife Dot org.

Mike Hoag

Notice this fella doesn’t have wings. And it hatched from an egg laid at the base of a long grass plant. If there are barriers or raised beds between him and the slug buffet, he’s not going to be able to get there.

Looking for proof that intensive planting is a great method

There's a ton of building evidence for planting anything intensively, with a few caveats.

I've read about the Miyawaki method for quickly establishing a healthy forest ecosystem.  Spoiler alert: bring in soil with an excellent microbiome and minerals, then intensively plant a huge number of forest plants at all levels.  https://daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-method-a-better-way-to-build-forests/

I've read Mike Hoag's comments about this, which are pretty sound.

To be specific, Miyawaki was looking at re-establishing forest for ecological purposes, not productivity. So where productivity is the goal, we can use Miyawaki densities to aid early establishment, but then thin and use sacrificial trees as support species and mulch. Or use two-dimensional systems. This is what I’ve recommended and done now for years in zone 4 agriforest systems and for hedgerow systems and copses. Traditional hedge density is much, much higher than what is recommended by western “science” on it, and is documented with research to work far better. There’s actually a UK study where they tried to recreate coppice lots in traditional coppice areas, but the researchers thought they could improve the “stupid’ old designs by using modern “research based best practice” spacings, which were researched for entirelly different purposes! Well, all their test coppice lots failed to produce usable copse wood! So, the answer is “it depends,” but Miyawaki’s research is incredibly valuable to Permaculturists. Geoff Lawton also uses this for establishment of zone 4 systems. The hedgerow in the picture uses traditional European densities and it established and became productive rapidly.

I'm obsessed with this pic on Pinterest, and it's my guiding image for my next set of plantings.

And this woman who plants super close together so that the plants keep each other warm.

For my own evidence collection, I'm posting videos on a YouTube playlist about the areas in my yard that show some proof.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgoGJHEZoVjf-UVbihcbHmNFXxZvKGLrB

Like this one:

Charlotte Anthony has always been about planting into existing vegetation.  If you do it right, it's amazing.  Like, pull up the vegetation in the immediate area around the new plant or seed, then mulch.  The diameter you clear/mulch depends on what will grow back and how fast and how tall, and that comes with experience.

Now it's time to do some calculated experiments.

Update 7/23/2020:  In the mentorship class I'm in, people asked how I recognized the successional stage of the brown patch as "1st-level" and the green patch as "2nd-level".  I couldn't share with them the images and lists I get from the Soil Foodweb School, but I found an old image online.  I had the wording wrong.  I should've said "early grasses" and "mid-grasses".

"Science doesn't cut it", evolving into how I realized I was racist

OMG.  I'm watching a free webinar on "Sacred Beekeeping".  

The host said "Science doesn't cut it" early on, and went into a bunch of new-age stuff, saying actual words but conveying no real meaning.  

I found myself getting really annoyed and pissed off.  Her sentences were grammatically correct, but illogical.  It was disorienting.  How can she say "science doesn't cut it", and then talk nonsensical sentences?  I've heard new-age speakers who make total sense, but this host gave nothing but bullshit.

Gah!

Lemme first say that I believe that there's "sacred" stuff, and stuff that goes on just outside of our conscious awareness.  For example, when you're in your garden contemplating a problem and then you're struck with the inspiration to do something you've never done before.  Another example is when ideas come to you in dreams.  Another is the unique, low-level anxiety that you get (while awake) when your indoor plants are begging for water.  :)  Is that only me?  Oh well.

People who say, "science can't explain that" or "science doesn't cut it"--those people don't understand what science is.

Science is an endless quest for understanding the natural world.  Keyword: endless.

Scientists never say they know anything for sure, or that they're done with any given chunk of information.  So, for this speaker to say science doesn't explain it, she clearly thinks science is a completed and static thing, which is the opposite of the truth.  Even scientific laws are subject to upheaval in the face of any new contradictory data.

True scientists welcome new information.  

They welcome corrections that bust their assumptions and new data that disproves old theories.  And do you know why they welcome it?  Because if they let confirmation bias keep them from accepting the new information, it would block their minds from understanding what's really going on in the natural world, and thus they would not be able to make new discoveries (because they'd be working with foundational ideas that are flawed).

So yeah, science doesn't yet explain why, for example, at work, if my hanging plants are thirsty, they won't let me concentrate.  Keyword: yet.  A scientist would never dismiss my observation.  They wouldn't say it's magical nonsense.  They'd just delay making a conclusion until after they did enough research and experimentation to propose a potential explanation.  And that explanation would still be open-ended, because that's what science is.

But back to the webinar....

OMG, now another speaker has come on screen.  I guess this is the key speaker; the expert on sacred beekeeping.  He just showed a nonsensical slide.  I feel like I'll be sued for libel if I post more specifics about this webinar, but my god, this webinar has been going on for 25 minutes, and not a single concrete piece of info has been conveyed, nor a concrete idea, nor advice, nor actionable technique, nor anything that actually makes sense.  Not even a logical idea or connection between ideas.  And the all-white audience is nodding at everything the speaker says.  WTF?

This blind support of nebulous information reminds me of a disturbing trend that I've noticed in American white people.  

When I watch videos or webinars of black people or others of color, who are talking about gardening techniques and soil microbes, there exists substance!  There's first-hand evidence that supports their ideas and they present proof of the techniques they're using.  Is it because POCs have always had to go the extra mile to be heard?  To be respected?  Or believed?

Aaaaand, for some annoying reason, my thoughts are interrupted and my attention is drawn back to the webinar.  The guy has just asked if everyone gets what he's saying.  They all nod.  I just look cross.

Gawd!  Initially, when this "expert" was introduced, I watched all of the women in Zoom perk up and get doe-eyed, smiling, and attentive.  Yeah, the dude is fairly good-looking.  But now I feel like anything he says will be soaked up by these women and they'll ignore the lack of logic coming out of his mouth.  Even the host (female) got all fluttery when she introduced him, and she sang his praises like she was in love with him.  Am I exaggerating?  Well, my annoyance is influencing the level of snark in what I'm writing here, but what I'm saying is indeed what's happening, so... no.

We have to be better than this.  Women, white people, we need to listen for substance.  Yes yes, I know there's barely any substance on my blog, but my blog is mostly for me, and my kids in the future (if we hold onto this property), or for the future owners of our property.  My blog contains mostly notes.  I'm not a permaculture influencer wannabe.  I'm not yet an expert at anything I'm studying.

Sigh.  I need to go on a diet of input.  I need to stop ingesting the content that's just "lets talk about ideas--my airy ideas and theories which you should take as tested fact even though I haven't tested them."  That's the junk-food content of American white people in the permaculture space.  Or any space.  

Well, there are some white people whose info I'll still seek out.  Like those in the Regenerative Leaders list that I posted on here.  But I need to update that list.  

Recently, I've been watching a lot of people of color on YouTube, and honestly, I've been feeling like I'm a joke compared to them.  Hmm.  Maybe that's why some white people get all pissy when a POC has some obvious skills and knowledge and is DOING stuff--it makes the white person feel inferior, and scared, because who's going to accept their bullshit when there's real substance offered by a POC?  

Seriously, I have experienced this myself.  Like, I want to be a soil fertility specialist, and help farmers, and be taken seriously, and have my advice be respected, but I'm still in the mostly-theory stage.

So, I felt threatened when I saw POC who were the real deal.  

When I watched a black guy show a funky new compost system that he invented and (here's the key) the proof that it worked and how it worked, I felt uncomfortable resentment.  

When I watched another video of a black woman who is helping grow food in the inner city in abandoned properties, I heard her say, "Yeah, we tried that but it didn't work because... so we're doing this instead, and see how it's working...".  I felt bitter resistance--resistance to believe that what she said had value.  

I felt like my future was threatened, because again, who will want to work with me when there's real substance offered by others.

BUT...  Why didn't I feel that way when I watched videos of my white mentors?  

The answer was written in So You Want to Talk About Race.  (Thank you, @IjeomaOluo!!)  It was because of systemic, subconscious racism.  I'm such a fool.  I didn't think I had any subconscious racism in me, but I did.  And I don't think I would've noticed it had I not read So You Want to Talk About Race a month ago and had that book percolating in the back of my mind while I was getting annoyed at this webinar.  I'm ashamed this was still in me.

Anyway, back to the webinar.  Now the speaker is showing a clip of ballet dancers chopped up with clips of bees flying around a hive.  There's a list along the side of the screen, but no reason given for showing the list nor what we're supposed to infer from that list.  And the items on the list are unconnected nonsense.  WTF?

Enough is enough.  I posted in the chat, "Are techniques or workable concepts going to be discussed at some point in this webinar?"  

Geeze, and now the speaker is showing one of those desk toys with steel balls in a row, each hanging from a single fishing line.  In a video, someone pulls them all sideways and then releases them in order.  They're swinging asynchronously, creating a single wave that diverges into individual waves.  The speaker says, "look at the similarity that I noticed between the movement of these steel balls and bees in flight".  He clearly thinks he's very clever to have noticed the analogy.  Whoop-de-doo.  What does that do for a beekeeper?  How is that information useful for me to save the bees or keep bees?  And who hasn't noticed the similarity in movement between bees' flight, birds who are practicing for winter migration, and antelope running on plains?  He just said, "OK, keep that imagery with you," and all the women nodded like zombies.  Dude, why keep this imagery in my mind?!?  IT'S     NOT     USEFUL!

Oh good, someone just answered my comment.  They typed, "Great question!  If we don't get to it today, we are creating a workshop for the log/tree hive technique...."  I'm so glad I didn't pay for this.  Oh wait, maybe the lack of substance is on purpose.  Maybe they're saving the substance for the paid webinar/class.  But why would I attend that webinar/class when this presentation gives me no faith in the expertise of the speaker?  I don't want to attend a workshop where I basically pay to feed adoration to some dude with a messiah complex.

White people: Stop this bullshit and DO stuff; CREATE useful stuff to TEST out the ideas that you want to promote, to produce fucking EVIDENCE!  Make useful, logical arguments and connections; provide actionable, reliable information; orient your listeners!  Then you'll have something of substance to share--DON'T share before you've done all of this.  

And most importantly, support and promote the POC who have already gained expertise and evidence and who are selflessly sharing their info!!  (I'm looking at you, organizers of permaculture symposiums.)

And... OMG, I just realized... to all of those overt racists who get really mad at POC who have better skills and do more than you--don't you understand you're getting mad at them for doing something that you forced them to do?  Like, you've created the situation that you're criticizing them for.  Through systemic racism, you've created a situation where POC have to go the extra mile, and then when you feel threatened by their extreme level of competence, you go complaining to your racist brethren on your white supremacist websites and call those POCs a threat and concoct crazy theories for why they're a threat.  Racists are fucking vulnerable hypocrites.  (I'm looking at you, Permaculture for White Racists.  You guys need to read Permaculture and Racism | Good Life Permaculture).

People of color: Keep being awesome and better than we are.  

Also, I'm so sorry that I got to this age and I'm just now realizing all of this shit.

Update:  One quick search and I found some awesome people doing awesome things.  https://civileats.com/2020/07/14/the-doctor-botanist-couple-healing-a-community-in-the-rural-south/

They embody "doing stuff", experimentation, and evidence.  The lives and health of the vulnerable people in this couple's community depend on their methods being sound.  So yeah, listening to what they have to say will be more valuable than listening to people who spout theories that they claim they've tested (but probably not).  Maybe that's the difference.  Privileged white people don't have to rely on their own info for their survival.  Just watch the videos of white people who go off-grid.  You'll see them try out stuff that they've been told is true, and then when it doesn't work, you'll see them get confounded and confused, like they've been betrayed.  Then, at least, they rework their designs and get going again, but still....

Update 2:  Holy moley, I've just made a connection with https://matthewstephensonline.com/.  He has decades of experience and evidence!  Plus, he's got a lot to say on systemic racism in permaculture (spoiler: it's rampant).  And he's a permaculture instructor who emphasizes Bill Mollison's ethical basis for permaculture.  This is someone I want to learn from!!

Ending climate change

In my Soil Foodweb course, and in the books I'm reading like Dirt to Soil, and Restoration Agriculture, I'm learning about how it takes fungi in the soil (along with the bacteria) to hold moisture in the soil and nutrients as well.  I'm learning about how if farmers slightly altered how they graze animals, and stopped factory farming practices and grass-fed everything, we'd drastically reduce methane emissions.  And if farmers stopped plowing, we'd have pull more carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the soil.  And stuff like that.  Like, one needs to think of methane, carbon, pollutants, etc. 
A friend sent me this quote, which adds to the picture that is slowly forming and taking on color in my mind.

"Water retention isn’t just important for agriculture, but in buffering the effects of climate change, Jones adds. She says it’s a scientific fact that water vapor accounts for 95% of the greenhouse effect that is causing climate change. “If we’re serious about reversing climate change we need to put the water back in the soil where it belongs,” Jones says. 

I just wanna remember it in case my brain is getting so full and anxious that something has to drop.

Building a tool holder

Our garage is cluttered.  It's a pain in the arse (and laborious) to bring my tools from the garage to the back of the house and then back uphill to the garage, anyway.  I don't think anyone would steal what I have, so it's not essential to lock them up.  Even if I had to, I could put the tool holder on wheels and roll it into my office/lab.

I found some cool pics of ideas on Pinterest (thank you, Pinterest!!).

So, I took apart and old, lumbering, too big, too heavy workbench that the previous home owner built.  He used SO MANY materials!  I harvested enough for 2 or 3 tool holders.  

I started playing with the pieces like LEGOs, and I bought some strong hogwire, and came up with a loose design that made it possible to modify on the way without having to undo work.  I should note that I counted my long-handled tools (16) and my short-handled tools (9) before deciding how big to cut the hogwire.  I'll need to cut a piece between 2 squares for a tool whose handle is too big to fit through one of the hogwire squares (actually I might have to do that twice, but I'll still have extra spaces left over.

See, if I construct the horizontal square pieces first, then it doesn't matter if I mount the 4x4's inside their frames our outside, so I can decide that later.  This square piece will be the bottom one, sitting on the base, so I made it using 2x8 wood instead of 2x4, to add more weight to the bottom (so the whole thing will be less tippy).

In the end, I decided to mount the 4x4's on the outside by carving out space for the corners of my square bits.  See the carved out 4x4 on the left side.

I needed some hardware to continue, so I'll update later.

Update Aug. 9, 2020:  Whee!  I finished this up today.  And I protected it with linseed oil.

Little hinged shelf or work surface.

Today's shot July 6th, 2020

I'm in a rush, so here's today's shot.  

 

Things are going to seed, aging, drying up.  But check out this area.  I need to identify the types of plants in each section, but I have noticed that on the left are more weedy types of grass, so like, early successional grasses and annual, true weeds.  On the right are some later successional grasses (wheat, barley), and some stronger weeds like the prickly lettuce and some better flowering "weeds".  Why are the right ones greener?  The left ones are in the divit that usually has more water available in the ground.  And we've recently had a nice rain.  I know the stuff on the left is gone to seed, but so has a lot of stuff on the right.  I'm starting to think that the right is greener because of:

• More diversity of species.
• Later successional plants.
• No big patches with the same species.

I bet I could slash a small patch and grow some veg, and they'd come up well.  Maybe I should do that.  I'll do a slash-mulch in both spots and throw my tomatos and tomatillos in there and see how they fare.

And as a bonus, here's a little guy I found in the kitchen.  iNaturalist says it's a bold jumping spider.  He was SO CUTE!! 

 He had a total little personality, just like this guy.

Thermaphilic compost pile

I FINALLY figured out what to do for compost.  I had a couple piles of horse manure, wood chips, and sterile compost.  The last wood chip delivery (thank you, ChipDrop.com) came with stumps.  So it took 4 separate days of 2-3 hours work with my son and his friend, but we have merged everything in layers, with sticks strewn about each layer for aeration.  Each layer was also thoroughly watered while building.  I have a perforated pipe going down through the middle and coming out the side (for a updraft effect) to oxygenate the pile, and I have a soaker hose wound throughout to add moisture when it gets to hot or dry.  Now I just need the moisture and temperature meter that my husband is programming for me using Arduino.

It's placed perfectly for my next delivery of horse manure, but not so good for big heavy trucks to deliver chips.  Still working on the firmed-up drivable path (which has become my top priority).  Still though, I'm taking advantage of the slope.  If I have to turn the pile, I can turn it downhill to reduce labor.  And delivering it to places in my yard is mostly downhill.  It's currently sitting on a spot that will become a drivable path to the back patio, but it'll move soon enough.  I might even re-use the wood stumps to make the retaining wall for the terrace that will become that path.

Update 7/4/2020: We had friends come over and they said they could see heat waves coming out of the air pipe!  Cool!

Update 7/7/2020:  I put wood chips down on the exposed soil to prevent people walking and slipping on it.  But look how easy it was to unload a load of horse poop!!  Awesome.  I used to hate my slope, but now I leverage it.

Plans are DONE!

Just a couple of quick posts since I'm on my way out the door.

I FINALLY finished the plans that mark out specific areas for specific purposes, so now I know where I can make changes or store materials.  YAY!

Here are the different areas.  The 6 brown squares are for material delivery (wood chips, compost, etc).  They're positioned so that a big truck wouldn't have to drive on anything but the drivable path in order to back up a little to dump in the specified locations.

And here are the plans.  Though, you really need to use Expression Design to see the names of individual plants.  I know what they are, mostly.  Like, in the Food Forest, the two halves are mirror images, and they each contain a walnut-apple super guild (as per Gaia's Garden).  The fedges will be hawthorne/hazel based.

For a set of tutorials about using Expression Design to make a garden design, see https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgoGJHEZoVjfo5hvn7WRXLxXEbMoNBvXJ. 

Most demoralizing day ever

Or should I say, the most demoralizing day yet.  (PROFANITY WARNING)

I've had small setbacks.  I've had things get sick or die where I can't figure out why, and that really triggers me.  But today, I argued with myself all day to get the hell out there and do something.  I finally went and thought, hey, I'll just weed-whack the places where I'm going to slash-mulch.  So I did.  OK.  I was still feeling overwhelmed, so I thought, hey, go see the surprise recovery of the hazelnut!  That success should help cheer you up.  It looked like this 10 days ago (May 18, 2020):

I expected even bigger and more leaves.  Well, the bunnies or something got to it.  Bunnies live in the evergreen stand that this patch is in.  Here's how it looks today.

I got so angry.  I'm so mad still.  Mother fuckers.  OMG, I'm SO not in the right mind.  I should've seen this as a solution brainstorming moment.  But no.  I wanna cook that bunny.

So, I thought, geeze, just keep looking around.  I've had successes.  A few setbacks is normal.  I'm still a beginner.

So I looked at the rest of the garden.  Yay!  One of my Jerusalem artichoke patches survived the endless slug onslaughts. 

But the other patch?  Lost 6 of them to those choosy bastards.  Only 3 small ones are left.  Luckily I got some from a woman on the Homesteading Women's group.  Need to put them in.  They're already growing shoots.

The sunflowers are NOT doing well, though 2 look like they're gaining the upper hand over the raw manure.

My peppers... my babied peppers are hanging in there, but the ones I didn't cover in a polytunnel GOT EATEN!  AAARRGRGGHH!!!  Why the fuck did I bother?!?!?

FYI, I'm on my second overflowing bowl of ice cream.

LOOK!  Look, I have proof that the slugs WILL eat weeds.

BUT THEY DON'T when there's Jerusalem artichoke around or or... or MY BRUSSELS SPROUTS, YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!

The collards and kohlrabi are so far doing ok.  In fact they're finally over their transplant shock and are starting to grow.

Speaking of transplant shock, why is that?!?!  Temperature?  Or, ... they went from growing next to their buddies, touching roots, not lonely, and then BAM!  They're separated by a lot of soil.  I've heard both Charles Dowding and the woman from Dirt Patch Heaven say they like to be near each other.  I always felt it was a waste to over-sow, and then have to thin.  But you could always eat the thinnings, and if over-sowing makes them happier, then that's reason enough to do it.

But I digress.  The slugs seem to be leaving the miner's lettuce alone.  Although I did pull 3 of them off some leaves.

Look at my poor perennial kale!  I pulled 3 slugs off of 2 plants.  They are not happy, and they've been out there longer than most plants show transplant shock.  :(

They looked like this when they were in pots.

Now they're bolting from stress and panic.  :(

Something has removed or eaten or rotted all of the buds off of my strawberries.

Maybe it's this little shithead.

I can't bring myself to torture them.  The best slug repellent is to spear one with a toothpick and leave it writhing in pain near the plants you care about.  Other slugs run!  But I can't do that.  As much as I LOATHE them.  :(

My roses.  Poor things.  Need to look this up.

I finally went to my potatoes.  My pride and joy!  The plants that are doing amazingly well for god knows what reason.  And then I saw this on 3 of them (the same potato--the other potatoes are fine).

I was like, WOW!  How many slaps in the face am I gonna get. 

Oh, I found this article about roses, https://www.thespruce.com/black-spot-on-roses-4125530:

Black spot is a fungal disease (Diplocarpon rosae) that affects roses. The fungus develops as black spots on the leaves, which eventually causes the leaves to turn yellow and drop off. Besides looking unsightly, it can seriously weaken the rose plant. Black spot thrives during hot, humid, or rainy summers and hot days with cool, damp nights.

Hot days, cool damp nights?  Check!  But the spots didn't show up until after I sprayed with my home-propagated EM-1.  I wonder....

Affected leaves often fall off the plants, and if left unchecked, the entire plant can defoliate.

Oh!  That's happened 2 years in a row.  Just not this early.

Black spot is easier to prevent than to cure. Existing spores can remain in the soil and overwinter on leaves and stems, waiting for favorable conditions. The spores make contact with the rose by splashing onto it in drops of water.

Hmm.  We've had a lot of rain.  Or, maybe I spread the spores around by spraying it.

Remove any infected leaves and always do a thorough cleanup each fall. Remove and dispose of any remaining leaves when you do your dormant pruning in late winter/early spring. Spores can remain on leaves and stems and can reinfect whenever conditions are favorable.

Oh.  I'm supposed to prune them?  I didn't know that.  We inherited these roses with the house.  Uhm... you know, I was planning on incorporating them into the thorny fedge, but now... it's probably best if I just dispose of them all.  If I do get roses, I'd rather they be less laborious.  I'll have enough work to do.  Well, I'll try a neem oil application and see if that helps.  I wonder if you can see the fungus under the microscope.

Now, the potatoes.  From https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/brown_leaf_spot_in_potatoes_plan_for_this_early_blight_look_alike_in_2013:

The fungus that causes brown leaf spot, Alternaria alternata, is closely related to early blight (Alternaria solani). Like early blight, brown leaf spot overwinters as spores and mycelia on the infected tissue of various Solanaceous hosts. Warmer temperatures in spring trigger fruiting and the release of spores from both fungi, which are moved by wind and water onto potato plants. When moisture is available, the spores germinate and penetrate potato tissue, often through existing wounds. Initial infections of the two pathogens create similar symptoms: small, dark spots on lower leaves.

Great.  Another fungus.  

However, the foliar lesions caused by brown leaf spot never develop the dark concentric rings characteristic of early blight. They coalesce across large veins until whole leaves turn brown and hang from the plant. The tuber symptoms of brown leaf spot are commonly referred to as black pit, appearing as small black holes in the tuber surface. Brown leaf spot can also result in skin patches similar to those caused by early blight, most often observed after washing.

I'm not messing with this.  I'm gonna yank these 3 to save the other 20.

Sigh.  Now, what to do about slugs?  Someone told me to put a ring of coffee grounds around susceptible plants.  I can do that.  I'm also gonna harvest all of my blackberry canes and try to dry them straight.  Those not straight, I'll chop up.  I'll make little fences and minefields out of them.

Rabbits... well, Dirt Patch Heaven lady battles rodents and bunnies.  I'll have to re-watch her videos.  I know she uses cages, bird netting, fleece, and gallon milk jugs that are pinned down.

I'm done for tonight.  So demoralizing.  :(

But I will say that the researching and troubleshooting lifted me up again.  You know, when I first embarked on this project, and before I even moved the first wood round into place in the terraces, I made this huge plan.  I didn't follow it.  Now I realize I should have.  Until I find the notebook that has the list, I'll try to recreate it here:

1. Make a mapped plan.  Done.  I need to mark places for specific plants, storage of delivered material, and future animal housing, etc.
2. Clear driveable paths (so you can bring in stuff).  Not quite done.  Kind of important.
3. Start building fertility in the soil.  This includes regular inoculations, and composting.  I've got my 3 pits, but they're not full of anything.
4. Start propagating the plants you want in a nursery bed or in pots.  Plants for these areas, listed in priority:
1. The plants you're moving out of the drivable paths.
2. The pleachable plants for the fedge.
3. The trees for the food forest.
4. The supporting plants for the fedge and the food forest.
5. Perennials that will go all around.
5. Blah blah blah.

Notice that building fertility came before anything else.  Even though I was a raw beginner, that was a really good rule I should've followed.  Look what lack of fertility has done for me?  Struggling plants, diseased plants, weed overgrowth.  I think I need a new plan:

1. Finish mapped plan, including things I need to add like animal housing and storage of materials.
2. Finish planting my trees and starts.
3. Clear the drivable paths and find out what to do to make the soil stable.
4. Start building the fertility in the soil.  If you can add fungi to the soil, great, because that'll prevent weeds.  If not, maybe cover the soil in black plastic or wool carpet to keep the weeds from growing.
5. Start determining and collecting my short-growing perennial cover crop seeds.  Prep the places where you'll sow it in January.
6. Build the physical structure of the garden.  That means finishing the terraces complete with pretty retaining wall and embedded hardware for cold frames, trellises, and hoops.  Identify the big jobs and attack them one at a time, and see them through til they're done.
7. Schedule the things I need to do.  Ie, look up when to transplant the daisies and shrubs out of the drivable path, and put it on the calendar.
8. Once fertility is there, begin bringing in the perennial plants, and start your annuals.

Update 6/1/2020, 4 days later:

I didn't go out for 4 days, I had been so bummed.  Today I bit the bullet after the sun's intensity diminished, and went out to plant my pumpkins which were getting really big on the covered porch.

After planting about half of them, I turned around and saw this:

I felt so ashamed for being so pissed off on the 28th.  What a bounty!!  So delicious.  I think I ate 20.  There were about 100 though.

And then I saw carrots that weren't there 4 days ago:

I also cruised by the "other apple tree", which I forgot wasn't an apple tree.  It's got little yellow oblong fruits growing.  "OH!"  I forgot it was a plum.  OMG, I can't believe it.  There are apples, pears, and plums.  Also raspberries on the healthier raspberry bush.  

I'm kinda ashamed of myself.  I gave a little lovely ... chat (I won't say prayer) to everything to thank it all.  :)

Variations on a hot bed (and heat sources)

If you don't know, a hot bed is a raised bed or compost heap on top of which you put seedlings in trays or sow into a layer of growing medium.  The heat from the decomposing material keeps your seedlings warm.  This lets you start plants earlier outside.  French Intensive gardening does this with manure under a layer of soil in a cold frame.  Charles Dowding puts a large cubic compost pit of manure in his greenhouse and keeps his seedling trays on it in the cold months.

So, I saw this on YouTube:

She blew my mind!  She used straw bales with some rabbit manure on top, and regularly "charged" the biological activity by watering with manure teas!!  How convenient!!  How much less labor intensive than shoveling manure into a 4'x4'x4' framed space!! 

She compared it to another pile that was wood, wood chips, and manure.  She preferred the performance of the wood-based hot bed do the straw-based hot bed, but that's still less labor-intensive than a traditional manure-based hot bed.

But the concept of "charging" the bed to make it heat up again--brilliant!!  I wonder if you could manage the temperature that way.

Each method has its sweet spot, I'm sure. 

Like, in the French Intensive method, they spread out 10" of manure (1/3 hot fresh manure mixed with 2/3 older colder manure, to make it all heat up again) across the whole market garden.  Then they put older manure on top (maybe an inch or two) to insulate the manure underneath.  Then they lay the frames out, leaving only narrow walking paths between.  Then they fill in the frames with (I forget how many) inches of soil (fully composted manure and compost), and that's what they grow in.  No edible parts touch any fresh manure.

But the key takeaway from this video was the idea that you could finesse the temp of the medium by adding compost teas.  And if my compost is fungal-dominated, it would help the straw break down much faster and more completely.  I LOVE this!!

Oh, and later in the video, she has those water jackets around her squash and tomatoes, and they're sitting on the surface of the hot bed so the water probably stays warmer.  Awesome!

She has another amazing video that shows some tips and tricks that reduce labor in the garden.  For specific tips, listen starting at 1:44.

The way she talks about the heat benefits of closely-spacing plants (via broadcasting seeds) makes me think of these awesome photos from Pinterest.

With all of these techniques, I wonder if I could succession-plant and intercrop like Charles Dowding does to harvest things all year round and overlap the growing timelines of different veg, but do it without having to sow seeds in trays indoors.  What a time/money saver that would be!!