I've shared this on other forms of social media over the weekend and it's been interesting seeing the different comments from the other platforms.
I really dislike my scrappy front lawn. I never mow the grass so it always looks a right mess. I've already put raised beds on the one half (this is the other half) where I grow some crops over the summer.
I'm now thinking I'd like to grow a small patch of cereal in this area.
It's not huge about 25m2 so I know it's not going to feed us much but be an interesting experiment to do with the children and show them how hard it is to produce our own food, staples as well as the veg we already grow.
I know my diet is heavily cereal based, with oats for breakfast most days and homemade bread (wheat) for lunch.
In doing this I could produce a little food and more seed stock to continue the experiment should I choose to the year after. I already grow plenty of veg and think that trying some thing different keeps it interesting. My dad already thinks I'm mad as he has dozens of acres down to wheat this year but I think trying ti manually could be a good experience to share with the children, so they can watch it grow day by day.
Anyone else who reads this done this? Was ti worth it?
How would you go about preparing the land? I certainly don't have enough weed free mulch to cover it all to go proper no dig unfortunately.
What varieties would you use? What spacing?
No right or wrong answers, just want to see how other people would tackle this.
And don't worry, my neighbours already know I'm a weirdo...
I’m going to grow oats this year in a similar sized area. I want to see how viable it is to manually harvest and process for human consumption rather than animal feed. I’ve got hold of a hulled variety which should make harvesting the kernels a bit easier.
ReplyDeleteThat's great, keep us posted on how you get on, I'd love to share the post if you get any results! What method are you using for planting and preparing the ground?
DeleteCould you put the hens in a pen to clear and manure the cereal area?
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea. Might be worth fencing it off for a few weeks and letting them have it. I'm down to about 8 hens now, shame I didn't do this when we still had the meat birds, they would have been ideal for how much muck they produce.
DeleteLooking forward to seeing how that turns out for you.
ReplyDeleteShould be interesting either way. Imagine I'll feed the birds a fair bit as well!
DeleteWheat. It makes a beautiful stand. I do this about every year now. Kill out the grass (herbicide, or just lay cardboard/scrap plywood over it for awhile) then plant extra thick. It will grow. Chickens do love it if you can pen 'em in. Otherwise, scythe the wheat and enjoy keeping the neighbors entertained.
ReplyDeleteLove that you do this. Do you have enough to make your own bread? Your place looks like my idea of the American homesteading dream, wide open spaces and lush green surroundings.
DeleteThanks for the kind words. I love living here. It is, indeed, 'wide open' as there are only about 7500 people living in the whole county! And it is lush - but that comes at the expense of comfort sometimes. We often have 100F temps in the summers with high humidity. Everything has its faults. As for the wheat, yes I do make bread with it, but I don't go 'whole hog' and make it all from whole grains. I usually just add a half cup or so of whole grains from my patch to the regular flour. Makes a wonderful bread though!
DeleteI bet that tastes amazing! I love the space you guys have our there, everything is crammed in in the UK, we live in the countryside but not very far from anyone really.
DeleteMy Mom would put chickens on it to clear it & fertilize it - or pigs but the neighbors would really hit the roof - & then plant spuds to break up the soil. It looks pretty compacted. I'm a big fan of raised beds - think of all the different grains you could try!!!
ReplyDeleteThe chickens sound a great idea, I might have to do that.
DeleteThe soil is seriously compacted. I'm thinking about making a broad fork and going over it to loosen the soil a bit before trying anything. Have enough material to fill raised beds would be my downfall I think. I have two on the other other side of the front garden though.
Another blogger I read did something like what you want to do and documented it on her blog: http://www.rural-revolution.com/2012/08/harvesting-wheat.html
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! I'm in love with that post! amazing! And the blog as well. I'm going to start reading that one! incredible! I'll have to read ahead now and see them processing it. Thank you! I loved reading that!
Deletethis will be interesting to follow. I have recently found some old Scottish books on kitchen gardens and the growing of cabbages and kale (like) plants, in areas called kail-yards. It is a viking word kail, I would presume it is where modern day name Kale comes from. I will have another look in that book shop as it had some really old ones and no doubt there will be an almanac of old containing details of home grown oats in Scotland. I thought it was best that I found some old books on growing up here as I wont use chemicals etc I have an idea about a lot of seaweed like my parents used to, and make lasagne beds with cardboard and make the raised beds with out the edging just lot of layers and hope the rain breaks it all down. it is going to be an experiment just to get anything out the ground this year I would think!
ReplyDeleteI will be waiting with anticipation to see what you can grow there.
oh, what are the books called? Sound like just the sort of thing I like to read! I love learning some snippet of information from an old source like that and trying it out.
DeleteCan't wait to see how you do up there, the challenges of gardening keep it really interesting don't they?
Nothing useful to add but I'll be following with interest :-)
ReplyDelete