DISPATCHES FROM THE FARM

We are back to gorgeous spring weather - yum! We spent yesterday sowing more seeds to raise basil and zucchini seedlings for our summer crops.We grow loads of sweet basil each summer and always include a purple basil variety (Black Opal) and sometimes my favourite, the aromatic Thai basil. 

  

After a couple of years struggling to source a good quality, affordable certified organic seed raising medium (sandy soil, not too rich not too sandy), we are finally able to make our own using a mix of our own compost with sand. 

At this stage we manage to make enough compost for the seed raising and a certain amount towards feeding the crop soil beds but not yet enough for all our needs (it takes a lot of green waste matter to end up with a lot of composted material by the time it's all broken down). We use approximately 1 part green matter (veg scraps, some weeds and pasture cuttings and other fresh green waste) to 3 parts dry matter (straw for e.g.) and keep it moist (not totally sodden) and Tim turns it with the tractor every few days to keep it aerated so the essential micro organisms can proliferate and do their magic in breaking down the ingredients to eventually form a nutrient rich compost. We rarely add animal manure to accelerate the composting, mainly because we haven't been needing to but also we don't have ready access to it. We have added borage and/or comfrey leaves which do help activate the process. Following this recipe and process, it takes a few weeks to breakdown, depending on the weather and is the slowest during winter. We plan to get into learning about and analysing the compost microbes over time and a friend has a microscope for this purpose. 

Our seed raising mix is comprised of generally 1 part sand to 3 - 4 parts compost but varies depending on which seedlings it is for. Generally speaking the larger seeds require a less rich blend (i.e. less compost) as they carry more nutrients in their shells for getting started with.