________________________________

I am sorry I have not written for the past two issues. We are in the process of building a lake on the property here, and that has been keeping me real busy.

The rain has finally stopped, and the mosquitoes have left. Even though I have sort of neglected the beds on the farm, I still have a bumper crop of lettuce, radishes, cabbage, onions, multiplying onions, horse radish, carrots, and beets. Soon I will have to plant the turnips, dill and more beets. I would like to pass along a tip for getting all of the bunching onions you could possibly want during the growing season. This tip was given to me by my father in law and it has worked real well for me. When the tops of the onions are about ten to twelve inches high instead of pulling them for the table, do the following. Take a sharp knife and cut the tops of the onions off just at ground level. This will cause the onions to grow again from the bulbs, and also it will cause them to multiply more. Just eat the tops or put them in soup etc. like you usually would. Using this method I started with only 20 bulbs last year and after eating all of the onion tops and some bulbs during the growing season, I was able to plant 1500 new bulbs this year. I also gave away about 500 more bulbs to people that ask me for some of them. Figure the percentage of growth on that one. You can continue to cut the tops and use them every time they grow to eating size again. When the season is over let the tops die down then dry and store the bulbs for next season. The bulbs will get smaller, but when planted the next time, they will grow to full size again.

Another tip that I have found very useful is to never pull leaf lettuce plants. Always pull or cut off the leaves. They will come right back out with more vigor than the first growth. This also eliminates a lot of dirt that would get on the leaves of the plants when they are pulled.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. God bless and happy gardening.

Byron Tumlinson

Cari-T Farm

  At last the rain has stopped. We got over 20 inches of rain in less than eight hours. The entire farm was under from 7 to 12 inches of water. Cabbages I had set out were not even showing above the water and that was with them on an 8 inch raised bed! I have farmed and gardened long enough to know that sometimes these things just happen. There is nothing we can do about them and so the best thing is to take the bitter with the sweet. I also know that if we do not get the rain now and get the moisture in the soil, we may not get it later. Lose one cabbage, and gain maybe 10 tomatoes later on. Every cloud has a silver lining or is it every silver lining has a cloud. So what have I been doing while all of the rain has kept me from farming? What else but reading books and fighting mosquitoes. We have mosquitoes so large that I have been considering bringing out the 20 gauge shotgun to defend us with.

  Even our dog and cat do not want to go outside. They are afraid they will be carried off to a secret place by the mosquitoes and be eaten. My dad told me one time we had a cow that had strayed from the farm. He went looking for her and when he reached a marsh, he heard the cow's bell ringing. He slipped through the grass to keep from spooking her and her calf. When he parted the last bit of grass and brush in front of him, he saw the cow. Imagine his surprise when he saw that mosquitoes had eaten the cow and one of them was ringing her bell hoping to lure the calf out of the brush so they could eat him also. 

  Jeff the local blacksmith swears he was attacked by mosquitoes so large the other day he had to hide under a 55 gallon drum. He said though that the mosquitoes started sticking their bills through the steel side of the drum. Having his hammer with him he proceeded to bend over every bill that came through the drum. The only bad thing was the mosquitoes flew away with his best 55 gallon drum. He said the last time he saw it, it passed a 747 passenger plane that had to take evasive action to keep from being hit by that darn thing.

Have a good day and happy gardening.

Byron and Caroline Tumlinson

Cari-t Farm

  Bio-intensive gardening is an old method of farming used in Europe for centuries. The secret to getting the most from your garden is to improve the soil to it's maximum. I have used the deep dig method of bio-intensive gardening. There are several more systems like the deep dig method that I plan on experimenting with in the near future. One is the No-dig method the other is using the chicken tractor. I am building a chicken tractor now and will let everyone know the results I get from it.

  My main focus at the present time is in the deep dig method. Even if you get your soil built up so it will give you large vegetables, if the correct planting method is not used, you still do not get the maximum from your garden.

  Here the seed producers help us out considerably. On the back of seed packets, and on the ID card in the pot of most plants you purchase from nurseries are instructions for the spacing of plants. Most will tell you to plant seeds so far apart in rows three feet apart, etc. It is a fact that plants do not know if you leave three feet between rows. In fact they seem to thrive in a closer environment. If the seed pack suggests 4 inch spacing, why not space them 4 inches in all directions? Instead of having one row and then an empty space of 3 feet, why not have 12 rows that are 4 inches apart? One of the beauties of the bio-intensive garden is you can raise up to 10 times the produce in a garden. Gardeners should learn that we need to mimic nature every time we can.

  If you go into the fields or forest, you will find three things that should be applied to your garden. Number one is nature always keeps mulch on the ground. Number two is nature scatters seed so plants for the most part are close together. This way they attract pollinating insects in the most efficient manner. Number three is nature does not mind inter planting. Inter planting always confuses predator insects.

  I was checking one of my beds today where I have planted spanish onions and in between the onions I planted loose leaf lettuce seeds. In a bed that I planted the lettuce by itself, it has some insect damage. In the bed with the onions, the lettuce is untouched.

  Following are some suggestions I have found helpful over the years when planting seeds.

(1) Always store seeds in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Even new seeds should be refrigerated overnight before planting.

(2) If the seeds are large enough, they should be pre-soaked in lukewarm water before planting. Seeds will not sprout until they have soaked up a certain amount of moisture. This just helps get them off to a faster start.

(3) Space seeds so their leaves will touch when they are mature. This cuts down on weeds and conserves moisture.

(4) After seeds are planted do not allow them to dry out before sprouting. Drying then wetting, followed by drying and then wetting causes seeds to be stressed and many will not sprout. It is best to keep the bed evenly moist until the seeds are up.

Have a great day and happy gardening.

Byron Tumlinson

CariT Farm

October 18, 2002

  I was raised on an old fashion farm in south Texas where I was required to participate in all of the farm activities. Like milking the cows morning and evening, feeding the chickens, ducks, and turkeys every evening.

We raised hundreds of acres of cotton, corn, maize, and sorghum cane. I planted, chopped, and picked cotton. To me it was a very hard life then. I mentally told myself I would never be a farmer.

That was 45 years or more ago. Now I am thrilled to be on my own bio-intensive farmstead in south Texas. The area we live in is noted for its mild winters and somewhat hot summers. There is an indistinguishable line between the seasons. In winter it may be almost freezing one day and eighty five the next day.

On top of that the soil on our farm is not the greatest in Texas for farming. When we first bought our place 2 years ago, we decided to install a barb wire fence to keep out our neighbors cattle. It had been dry for over a month, and when we tried to drive in the steel fence post, it was like driving them in concrete.

We worked real hard for an entire weekend just to install 60 posts. As we were living about 4 hours from our chosen farm and both worked jobs, we could only work on weekends. So the next weekend we headed back to "the farm" to install barb wire on the posts. I was approaching the age of 62, and had made up my mind that I was going to retire to "the farm" when I reached that age. Caroline, my wife, was excited about moving as we would be going back to the area where she was raised. We lived in the city of Waco, Texas, and were relieved and excited when we could finally load the moving van and head to our new chosen home in the country.

I have always raised a vegetable garden, but now I wanted to do it on a larger scale. We had purchased 2 acres of flat land that consisted of old sea bed. In rainy seasons water would puddle and the soil would sink under foot. In dry times as mentioned above it would be so hard you could not even drive in a stake. This was my chosen place, and I was sure I could convert it from cattle pasture to a productive mini farm.

Over the years I had become concerned about the chemicals used on gardens and landscapes and I had gardened organically for about 30 years. Immediately upon arrival I set about the task of improving MY soil. I began to inquire about sources of compost materials. I found that the city of Port Lavaca, to the north of us a few miles, gave away composted materials for the hauling. Also just a few miles from our farm I found a source or organic cotton burrs free for the hauling. One of the finest materials to improve soils of all types is cotton burrs.

I started moving pickup load after pickup load to our new farm. I noticed a benefit right away. I began to lose weight and the muscles of my stomach, legs, back, and arms began to get stronger. That is one of the benefits of living on a farm. People in cities pay thousands of dollars to get what I was getting for free. The first year (we moved here in the middle of June) I put in my regular garden and supplied our family with the vegetables we ate. It was at this time that I became interested in bio-intensive mini farming. I started my first bio-intensive beds at this time for the following planting season.  To prepare the bed, I dug down 18 inches into the hard packed sandy clay.

I was shocked when I realized in all of the digging I did there was not even one earthworm. I made me a soil/compost sifter from hardware cloth and 2x4 lumber. I placed this over my wheel barrow and as I dug out the dirt, I would sift it, and pile it aside to be returned to the bed. I then mixed the cotton burr compost and soil together and returned it to the bed. My beds are 4 feet wide for ease of reach and 8 to 16 feet long. After I got the compost and sand mixed and back in the beds, I placed another layer of pure compost on top of the soil/compost mix. I planted my seed and transplants directly into this compost. The results were nothing short of amazing. The plants grew and produced an abundance of vegetables. More than we could ever hope to eat or put up.

Because of this success, I have installed several more beds in the same manner. After the first hard work, the rest is real easy. Weeds are easy to control. Watering is kept to a minimal, and harvesting is a snap. The following year, the heavy digging is not necessary. All I did to the first beds is to replenish the compost to the top of the bed and plant. I do not ever walk on beds. The paths between the beds are now about 8 to 10 inches lower than the beds and the soil in the beds are black and fluffy. Perfect seed medium. While working in the first beds this year I noticed an abundance of tiny earthworms. Proof positive if we take care of the soil, even dead soil, nature will help in every way.

I still have about 3/4ths of the land not being productively used. This year I am going to experiment with a chicken tractor to clean the weeds and grass off of the planting area. This will not only eliminate the weeds and grass it will also help fertilize the garden areas. Next time I will explain the planting techniques for bio-intensive gardening.

Happy gardening and have a great day.

Byron

CariT Farms

________________________________