milpa beds
So this list of observations has been accumulating for a while, and now I am finally figuring out what it all means:
We have seven beds planted with corn, beans, and other vegetables. The three in the middle are doing the most prosperously, with sporting a variety of species and growing to be very lush - they seldom look dry or without sufficient water. They have created their own little rainforest, and I am not worried about them. They will take care of themselves (not that I'm abandoning them...).
Now, the one on the outside - the one next to "the Stupid Bed" - has not yet germinated. There's a volunteer that Marley says might be pigweed, as well as patches of alfalfa (the bed germinated the least amount of alfalfa, and that's the one Dave helped me sew on May 11th. How strange). Notably, the corn is just beginning to germinate, as well as the beans. I've noticed that there are some instances where the corn will germinate, or the beans, but not both - and they were grown in the same hole. I'm thinking that maybe putting them an inch apart would have been more beneficial ...but then, at the same time, the ones in which they are growing together surely must be better off? After all, the corn can take directly from the nutrients that the beans form ...although I've heard that nitrogen production doesn't really begin until beans flower and fruit - and that all the energy, all the nitrogena, goes into flowering and fruiting. And also that you pick off the early fruits, as opposed to the early flowers.
Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds! Go Biseat and Rebecca!!!
The bed on the other side - the one bordered by calendulas, that white plant, and the small columbines ...I'd say "12b", but no one would know what I am talking about... is very compacted. We're not sure exactly how badly, and it seems odd considering how recently the bed was double-dug. But then, perhaps it's because it is on the outside. Or perhaps it is just because it happens to grow that way. Who knows? It's certainly not worth judging without more observation. There is time and place for speculations...
I really should add more dilutions of liquid gold to those corn beds, just to see how they fair.
Now the other two beds, the ones planted alongside the leeks and onions, are doing fabulously ...although the growth is staggered (wow! Took me a while to come up with the word ..."stunted?" No. "slanted?" No. "steeped?" Haha, no...) and the corns closer to the sages are shorter than the others. At first I thought, just by looking at the second bed (the one farthest from the potatoes), that it was because half the bed has straw and the other half doesn't - the one with the straw probably retains moisture better and so has grown taller. Then I noticed that the entire other bed has straw, and yet the growth is still staggered. I thought, This doesn't make any sense. They both were planted on the same day. Straw doesn't appear to make any difference... Then I thought of two other possible explanations. Perhaps one is drainage - they are both on the far end of the irrigation line, so perhaps the cone doesn't extend quite that far. Another thing is ...shade. Perhaps those corn are being shaded out by their neighbors - the sages and the taller corns. I wonder if that could be it. In the meantime, however, I need to put some alfalfa or buckwheat there to help enhance the nutrients, as well as cover that last half bed over with straw.
Another thought ...in the milpa beds, it would be appropriate to grow the soils more by planting cover crops alongside the current plants. That way, we could retain moisture better in the soil, the cover crop would be actively breaking up the soils while the beds are packed so tightly ...and the younger plants would be giving nutrients to the older corn plants. That way, also, the beans might have something to climb up while they are waiting on the corns.
The funniest thing ...I recently saw one of the bean plants climbing up one of the sunflowers. That's so funny ...got tired of waiting for the corn (I know it's fairly common for beans and sunflowers to be planted together, in addition to or instead of beans and corn. I just thought it looked funny, and the sunflower does appear to be growing faster!...).
I love looking at the corn and beans growing together. The corn has a kind of swirly shape with its leaves, and the bean grows perfectly inside that swirl...
Maybe I ought to take pictures. I ought to see what it looks like on camera, so that many years later I can come back to it. If I'm not working and living in a milpa by then. Part of me hopes so... I would love to spend my life working by milpa, living by land...
But in the end, it depends. It always depends on people...
~Yvea
We have seven beds planted with corn, beans, and other vegetables. The three in the middle are doing the most prosperously, with sporting a variety of species and growing to be very lush - they seldom look dry or without sufficient water. They have created their own little rainforest, and I am not worried about them. They will take care of themselves (not that I'm abandoning them...).
Now, the one on the outside - the one next to "the Stupid Bed" - has not yet germinated. There's a volunteer that Marley says might be pigweed, as well as patches of alfalfa (the bed germinated the least amount of alfalfa, and that's the one Dave helped me sew on May 11th. How strange). Notably, the corn is just beginning to germinate, as well as the beans. I've noticed that there are some instances where the corn will germinate, or the beans, but not both - and they were grown in the same hole. I'm thinking that maybe putting them an inch apart would have been more beneficial ...but then, at the same time, the ones in which they are growing together surely must be better off? After all, the corn can take directly from the nutrients that the beans form ...although I've heard that nitrogen production doesn't really begin until beans flower and fruit - and that all the energy, all the nitrogena, goes into flowering and fruiting. And also that you pick off the early fruits, as opposed to the early flowers.
Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds! Go Biseat and Rebecca!!!
The bed on the other side - the one bordered by calendulas, that white plant, and the small columbines ...I'd say "12b", but no one would know what I am talking about... is very compacted. We're not sure exactly how badly, and it seems odd considering how recently the bed was double-dug. But then, perhaps it's because it is on the outside. Or perhaps it is just because it happens to grow that way. Who knows? It's certainly not worth judging without more observation. There is time and place for speculations...
I really should add more dilutions of liquid gold to those corn beds, just to see how they fair.
Now the other two beds, the ones planted alongside the leeks and onions, are doing fabulously ...although the growth is staggered (wow! Took me a while to come up with the word ..."stunted?" No. "slanted?" No. "steeped?" Haha, no...) and the corns closer to the sages are shorter than the others. At first I thought, just by looking at the second bed (the one farthest from the potatoes), that it was because half the bed has straw and the other half doesn't - the one with the straw probably retains moisture better and so has grown taller. Then I noticed that the entire other bed has straw, and yet the growth is still staggered. I thought, This doesn't make any sense. They both were planted on the same day. Straw doesn't appear to make any difference... Then I thought of two other possible explanations. Perhaps one is drainage - they are both on the far end of the irrigation line, so perhaps the cone doesn't extend quite that far. Another thing is ...shade. Perhaps those corn are being shaded out by their neighbors - the sages and the taller corns. I wonder if that could be it. In the meantime, however, I need to put some alfalfa or buckwheat there to help enhance the nutrients, as well as cover that last half bed over with straw.
Another thought ...in the milpa beds, it would be appropriate to grow the soils more by planting cover crops alongside the current plants. That way, we could retain moisture better in the soil, the cover crop would be actively breaking up the soils while the beds are packed so tightly ...and the younger plants would be giving nutrients to the older corn plants. That way, also, the beans might have something to climb up while they are waiting on the corns.
The funniest thing ...I recently saw one of the bean plants climbing up one of the sunflowers. That's so funny ...got tired of waiting for the corn (I know it's fairly common for beans and sunflowers to be planted together, in addition to or instead of beans and corn. I just thought it looked funny, and the sunflower does appear to be growing faster!...).
I love looking at the corn and beans growing together. The corn has a kind of swirly shape with its leaves, and the bean grows perfectly inside that swirl...
Maybe I ought to take pictures. I ought to see what it looks like on camera, so that many years later I can come back to it. If I'm not working and living in a milpa by then. Part of me hopes so... I would love to spend my life working by milpa, living by land...
But in the end, it depends. It always depends on people...
~Yvea
posted by Yvea at 6:35 AM
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