Thistlehook Internship (Week 4)

MONDAY

Monday was exceptionally wet and rainy, so we spent most of the day in the barn and garage. Firstly, we rebuilt a sieve to be able to sift through potting mix and compost as well as break up peat moss. Using the sieve, we then broke up some peat moss and used that to mix up seeding mix. We also used the sieve to sift through potting mix, trying to get rid of rocks and large woody bits.

Seeding Mix Recipe:

• 4 buckets (20 gal) peat moss
• 4 cup bonemeal
• 2 cup lime
• 1 cup azomite
• 1 cup sulfur
• 4 cup lime
• 1 bag mushroom compost
• 1 bucket (5 gal) vermiculite

Doug got this recipe from Bare Mountain Farm which is a no-till flower farm  in Shedd, OR. He made some switches and substitutes to this recipe (i.e. swapping pearlite for vermiculite, swapping rock dust for azomite). This recipe made enough to fill 4 bags worth of seeding mix.

With the new seeding mix made up, we were able to seed three 72 trays.

Here’s what we seeded:

• 72–Agastache astromontana (Giant Hyssop), Pink Pop variety
• 72–Antirrhinum (Snapdragon), Chantilly Bronze variety
• 36–Dill
• 36–Coriander

 

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday began with our morning chores, which consists of (1) misting the blueberry cuttings in the hatch, (2) watering all of the cuttings, yarrow, and seedlings in the greenhouse, and (3) checking the west pasture orchard for any downed or damaged cornus.

After our morning chores, we weeded and raked the apple and pear orchard (which is seriously nasty looking because it was poorly maintained by the previous owners of the property, but evidently looks significantly better than when Doug first arrived and the trees were 20-30 feet tall!). These apples, pears, and the plums just outside the orchard are all used both for their fruit (personal consumption and the cows) and for the flower market (cut branches either with blossoms or green fruit).

I then moved to the blueberries already established on Doug’s property (not our cuttings from Week 2) while Anika painted stakes for the peonies. I pruned the blueberries and weeded the patch. After lunch, Anika and I sheet mulched them, using cardboard and mulch on top.