Tools

Welcome to the page about getting it done!

Certain tools are appropriate. How often does the perception of Small-Farming get portrayed as  “pitchfork and spade” technology?? Well, if you want to get your hands dirty, that’s fine, but lets not get blisters! If you feel you need to put your back into it, are radishes and cabbages worth any injury? Of course not! which scares me, especially in an age where whole generations were brought up on food made with extremely high horsepower machinery and giants of industrial enterprise. Even our most active people aren’t always equipped with the physical rhythms and mental strength to finish a full day of honest farm-work in a safe fashion; –
The no. 1 rule, of natural growing: ECONOMY! Expend less energy, work within the environment with tools that suit the context of the job. Mimic natural process for natural food.
Check out these tools page posts. I hope these concepts offer real help in staying effective and productive as Small-Farmers.

Regards, – Wade

Have you ever…. seen a rotary plow??

Posted on: Saturday, October 20,2012

It’s been a few days since I had time to post. sorry!

At least I can update you all on the state of our garden, explain how we are doing things, and where we’re at generally.

Check out this green manure crop!

Our spring turned warm really smartly quick this year, and the beans just grew a bit crazy!  How the heck do we turn all this stuff under!? I reckon we’re talking maybe 6-7 tonne/acre dry matter! Underneath the beans there is wheat and spinach and a good amount of thistle too, but not like we planted that…

We dont have a mower or mulcher to cut down this crop, or a crop roller, so I had to break out the my BIG scythe blade to do the job. I dont often get a chance to use it, – if you look close, I’ve only nearly cracked a smile, but it might be a grimace, thinking of the work ahead. Beans make an obvious choice for a green manure crop. For starters, we know they make HUGE BIOMASS! and they are legume plants (not that it helps on a lot of organic soil, which already have too much organic nitrogen from manure inputs), the stems are fleshy and the leaves full of a gelatinous sap that sandy soils need and love as the plants break down. the Wheat we use because its cheap and the fibre in the leaves takes a little longer to break down. underneath these beans the stems are just starting to dry off, which will help recircle (yes, i did say recircle) Carbon back into this equation, which in turn will help the sappy, moisture rich beans decompose in optimum fashion. The thistles = silica and offer a hint that we worked our soil too wet last season.

              

                             

Normally I just use the scythe to harvest fresh compost material, and it’s a hard tool to beat for that job! but the beans are thick and top heavy, they fell like buttered toast! It was all down in twenty minutes!

At this point, I thought – “Bugger. what now?”

A rotary hoe would just clog up, offset disc wouldn’t penetrate that carpet, spade?? HA! Not likely. Even my reciprocating spader, which makes a meal of really tough situations would never deal with this lot. Anyhow, as far as green manures go, it would be enough to leave it as is at this point, utilising an in-situ mulch, there are enough roots under the surface to texture and aerate the soil (it’s nearly 60/40 above and below with wheat plants), but I’m greedy and want it all! that green stuff is full of sugar/protein/minerals/enzymes/biology/life! all good stuff! Bring on the ROTARY PLOW!

A rotary plow, a soil auger that moves through dirt horizontally. lifts and fractures dirt gently, buries everything!!

I got a reversible version of this for my walking tractor, which means it has two augers, one for each direction, they flip over at the end of the row, otherwise you’d spend all day going in circles.. The really amazing thing about these is they leave no ‘hard-pan’ like a rotary hoe, use very minimal horsepower for a 10-12 inch deep cut, and if you hit a stump or stone, it just kinda skips around the obstacle. Very safe! I got stuck right in. Prior to starting the machine, I sprayed out some biology foods and humates to help the breakdown process along. Heres the proof in pictures.

All DONE! If there is only 5% of the crop on top with that much bulk gone under,

🙂

The Rotary plow made such short work of this bean crop, I drove it straight into another ‘bean-green-manure’ crop without cutting it down first, check this out! More leaf up on top, but amazing anyhow! What other machine walks into a standing 1.2m high crop and buries it?

I’d have to give a huge thumbs-up to these implements! It’s great to know that some of the tools available to smallfarm growers are actually top rate kit! For once there is a tool for the job that we don’t have to bodge together from old junk made for larger farms. And goodness knows, some days, smallfarmers need all the advantages we can muster!

The beans disappeared within ten days, I ran my spader through the soil again after liming and compost, and we have perfectly friable worked and manured dirt. Well, as far as I can manage!! Today I planted corn and melons into the soil above, cant wait to see those come up!

If anyone wants more info on the BERTA FRANCO ROTARY PLOW, then try Terry Evans at Vin Rowe Machinery, he’s got loads of experience in walking tractor outfits. Give him a call 0438 231362 Tell him I sent you!

Thanks for sticking with us!

Wade.

I’ll leave you with a simple picture, Not inspiring to most, but one a farmer is proud of,

Promise. Legacy. Vigour. Health.

 

Lets get to basics! – with a little hi-tech..

Posted on: Friday, August 31,2012

4 in 1 Soil Survey Probe – Simple Solutions!

So you wanna grow better food? And you want to grow it well – of course!!

If your looking at a ‘blank canvas’ in your vege garden plot (lucky you! fun with a F!), the usual guide books will surely ask you for a pH test, and soil temperatures, site orientation for sunshine, and don’t forget about water holding capacity! Where do you start?

Maybe have a look at this little number..

4 in 1 Soil Survey probe : pH, soil temp, sunlight meter, moisture meter. Too easy!!

All those environmental factors for sure contribute to truly great produce! And short of a full blown chemistry kit, sometimes we just need to know we’re in the ballpark! There’s enough challenges in growing to get stuck in statistical pork-barrels! we’ve found on our little farm we can achieve much more with speed and practicality, than scientific nit-picking accuracy. It’s true, if you have any real significant soil problems, you’ll likely need to investigate further – this robust little beauty covers all the basics – giving you plenty enough information to make an informed decision. Including:

  • Soil pH: in half digit increments, no clumsy powder and dye and stick in sight!
  • Soil Temperature: C and F! Get your seeds in ASAP!
  • Available Sunlight: check that shady spot in the corner!
  • Moisture Availability: Too wet/dry after adding organic matter?? now you’ll know!
  • Compact, convenient and robust! It’s only 300mm long, will fit in your pocket!
  • and fortunately, a battery is included (not that I’ll vouch for it lasting the distance! but hey it was a nice gesture ).

If we’re all honest about moral family food production, then no soil is ever beyond producing something truly valuable! So have a go!

What drew me to the 4 in1 Soil Survey Probe was that I now have a basic measure, that was consistent, that would help me gauge the influence of the changes that I make to my soils through liming, or compost, mulch, and fertiliser additions. Its kind of easy to think a little lime is good and so, of course, more is better…  which it’s not (Google “chlorosis”).

Hey, I should show a couple more pics of the info you’ll get..

pH – back-lit and clear

Temp, sunlight, moisture – happy plants!

farenheit for foroghness!

A word about pH. The term “pH” refers to Hydrogen. And a logorithm measure of how much hydrogen ion is free to move within your soil. A pH measure of 7 is neutral, lower numbers are acids, getting stronger by a factor of ten each digit down to 1. Higher numbers are Alkaline getting stronger by a factor of ten each number up to 14. Usually we’re told to use Lime to raise the pH (number), and sulpher flowers to lower the pH (number). It’s a curious thing – why should either of those minerals have any effect on a measure of Hydrogen? It leads one to think that it might just be a little more complex. Do I hear you say..

“..whatever!”

 

All that stuff above might make a little more sense in relation to..

Best fit your soil pH down these mineral bars = better food!

Even a quick look will suggest that maintaining your soil within the range of pH 6 -7 will give your plants the very best chances to flourish and ward off pests and pestilence. It will give you better chances of achieving a more mineral-dense harvest. A huge headstart in making food for healthier homes! More minerals give rise to the chance that there will be more vitamins and proteins that nourish our health, not just our appetite.

The 4 in 1 Soil Survey Probe, is a handy tool that allows one to check their plot often, conveniently, and helps us all plant seeds in their natural season. And its economical!

I got a few extras when I ordered all of our for our farm. It made sense for shipping. We’ve used them a while now and had nil hassles. This probe does the job. Get one quick, I dont have heaps!

This price includes shipping within Australia!


Postage included! Choose your state!




 
and you know what, – Farming is Fun!
Wade

Broadforks save backs!

Posted on: Tuesday, June 19,2012

I started growing veges while recovering from a back injury. I was limited to the amount of work I could handle with a spade, fork, rake because I’d be laid up for days with pain. Only when Eliot Colemans classic book “The New Organic Grower” was recommended to me, I found a tool that let me think of growing more than 10 square meters. It only took fifteen minutes with a Broadfork in my hands to start dreaming of growing better veges full-time!

Sorry, did you say –

“What on earth is a Broadfork??”

The broadfork is an old dutch tool for building better crops from the soil up! It makes the job of soil preparation short and safe! Its a tool that you’ll write into your will for the next generation! Lets have a closer look at one:

My original Broadfork, 10 years old and going strong!

–  So, what you get with these tools is five (or seven) super strong tines that can penetrate eleven inches!

–  Tines mounted on a footbar designed to use body-weight and gravity to get the fork all-the-way-in! And uses leverage to do all the hard work!

–  Sturdy uprights and a cross-bar handle that suits the natural arc of the tool in your hand to keep you working longer.

– The tines are staggered lengths so that if they hit clay, they wont bring up too much, or get ‘bogged’ – the stagger really helps fracture the soil as you make each pull.

– It’s a tool that can aerate, and break up compacted layers of soil, while working a surprisingly large volume of soil at each ‘bite’. It will heal over-tilled soils in time.

But you already have a traditional ‘garden-fork’ -what’s so bad with it?

–  It wont work as much dirt as deeply, and only works a third the width.

–  It relies on your shoulders, hands and back to be in dangerous positions when being  used for long periods. Every cubic centimeter of soil must be lifted by the poor user!

–  Cheap steel tines will bend if you catch any kind of root, or stone.

–  Well over half the weight of a broadfork (5-tine) anyway! What good is that?

Believe me! It will save you sweat!

I got mine from Gundaroo Tiller, a small-farm tools outfit near Canberra. And through talking to Joyce Wilkie, the finer benefits started to appear, and my crops were responding great too! She pointed out that a Broadforks action wont invert, or turn-over soil as the “double-digging” methods that we were sold. Which means all our expensive and thoughtful fertilizing wont get buried deeply, where young roots cant get at it, where it would be highly diluted anyway. And when she pointed out that through aeration, Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide are major building blocks of every plant (O, C, H, Si have been said to make up nearly 98% of the physical plant structure!), And water infiltration is a major consideration to annual vege crops, I had a real hard time to do anything but listen to experience! And still the broadfork was up to the task!

Serious thanks to Mike and Joyce for their friendships, minds and hearts – and teaching me to use mine!

A year or two later, with permission, I started building my first broadforks after the Gundaroo Tiller pattern, to help bring this tool to South Australia. I now build tools for all kinds of folk, elderly, school-kids, community gardens, professional market gardeners, weekend warriors, and all use it just fine. I really get a kick out of sending these tools off, saving people work (and pain) so they can enjoy the fruits of their labours all the more!

Please Contact me if you want more information about Broadforks as a tool. I manufacture 2 variations:

5 tine broadfork, 45cm working width 

   – excels in tighter soils, or raised beds with defined edges

7 tine broadfork, 65cm working width

   – BULK TILLAGE! yes, it’s the big one! for open fields and intensive bed production!

BUY ONE HERE! (if you need one! want one!)

5 tine broadfork, 45cm working width 
7 tine broadfork, 65cm working width