Garden Binder: Resources

In early June last year, I was well into the planting season. Unfortunately, this year I have given up my little community plot in favour of bigger and better future gardens in Manitoba. I probably won't have much by way of garden this season but I do hope to plant a few kale plants.

I have been keeping a fairly detailed garden binder over the last few years and have found the information collected to be invaluable for future planning as well as memory keeping about gardens past.

General Notes
The first section of my garden binder is lined paper where I write general dated notes that include everything such as work done, seeds planted, watering dates, emerging problems and when plants first emerge. This section sees the most action during the height of the summer.

Garden Planning
The season's pre-planning occurs in this section through the use of detailed seasonal to-do lists, an outline of the garden layout on graph paper, as well as a paper copy of West Coast Seeds Vegetable Planting chart. Last year I included a detailed planting chart to help me sort out specific details for various indoor sowing and direct sowing dates for various types of plants.

Harvest
This section includes a Harvest Tracker, a chart of first and last kale harvests throughout my gardening history, and an Individual Seed/Plant informational sheet.

Projects
This section consists of printed information for various garden projects, recipes to try this season, and building projects.

Seed Lists
I maintain three separate seed lists. One is a wish list for future gardening years where I note new and interesting plants as well as unique varietals I want to try. I also maintain a list of seeds purchased this year to note company and price. The third list is a seed inventory list that includes leftover purchased seeds, trades, as well as saved seeds.

Farm Planning: Planning the Farm on Paper

We closed on land in Manitoba in early 2016 and have been living in Yellowknife, NWT since then. As a result of this technicality, paper planning has been the primary feature of our farm life thus far. Our paper planning has been fairly extensive over the last two years and while nothing physical exists I have still learnt several very important lessons as a result of the planning process.

(Mr. Frank Silver, June 2016) 

Expect a Large Learning Curve
As my experience with indoor composting worms highlights, all new projects come with a steep learning curve. It is important to anticipate and react to this learning curve to prevent discouragement when projects do not go as planned.

Limitations of Paper Planning
There will be unexpected realities when attempting to follow any plan - no matter how detailed. I like to plan some flexibility into the official paper plan to accommodate these unexpected realities. Accepting the limits of paper planning allows one to embrace changes as new information is presented.

(The land, April 2018) 

The Importance of Permaculture
Even though we have yet to begin a farm project, I have embraced the importance of permaculture. I research and detailed an Angora rabbit plan to begin in Fall 2018 but soon discovered that if the rabbits exist outside of a permaculture system the cost of inputs and the problem of their outputs results in an expensive, time consuming and unnatural system. Instead I opted to delay the rabbit purchase until they can exist within a permaculture system which will be more beneficial overall.

There is a time and a benefit derived from paper planning, I am excited to begin projects IRL!

Indoor Worm Composting: Lessons From the First Year

I have been exploring the wonderful world of vermicompost for the last year (see Indoor Worm Composting and Indoor Worm Composting: Update!)

Record Keeping
About half way through the year I started keeping detailed notes on my worm bins. I note the amount and type of food fed, vermicompost and worm harvest, and problems as they arise and resolve. This helped me see why my second bin developed a fruit fly infestation - I was basically overfeeding them which was apparent when reviewing the records. Accurate and detailed record keeping is a vital skill and habit to develop.   

Learning Curve
Any new skill set comes with challenges and the learning curve for composting worms was a bit steep for me - but I think I have a handle on it currently. Understanding that every practical, homestead, and livestock related skill will have a steep learning curve will allow me to set up future projects for success from the start by implementing changes slowly and scaling production at a reasonable rate. Recognising  that livestock projects have steep learning curves will also help me avoid disappointment when it's not all easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and hopefully help keep livestock safe during that initial learning phase.

Hive Mind
I have two favourite Facebook groups (Vermicomposting and Red Worm Composting) and I love pursuing the posts there for personal education (for example, someone was experimenting with an all cardboard worm bin) as well as adding my 0.02 cents when it comes to helping out newbies. There is always more to learn and my favourite Facebook groups encourage that type of open communication, learning and polite discourse. 

Hopefully these skills will allow me to scale up production in the near future. My system has to get larger to fully incorporate the food scrapes that we produce. Additionally I have some ideas to allow for a small stream of income to emerge. To that end I recently made a Beginner's Guide to Worm Composting zine.

Indoor Worm Composting: Update!

I've had my Indoor Worm Composting system since February (see first post here) and over the summer I switched from the 5 gallon bucket system to the more common rubbermaid tote system. I found that the materials became dense in the bucket system and I found it difficult to regulate feeding. The tote system seems to have a better surface area ratio which makes the upkeep simpler. 

Once I made the switch to totes, my worm population really took off so I started a second bin (which is currently stacked in my kitchen!) I find it difficult to remove finished vermicompost from an active bin as the uneaten food, bedding, and finished compost is mixed together so I plan on only feeding the new bin. This should allow the worms in the first bin to eat through all available food making harvesting vermicompost easier.   

I have also started a more detailed record keeping system. Each bin has a sheet that details the Bin #, date started, and the initial worm count/type. This sheet also has a place to record the date and amount of vermicompost removed as well as the date and amount of worms removed. A second sheet tracks the inputs for each bin by recording the date, bin #, type and amount of food, as well as type and amount of bedding. I hope this record keeping system will improve my worm wrangling abilities!