A Rotation Through the Yard

It's that time of year.  Spring doesn't last very long in the south.  We enjoy it before summer hits.  Trees are budding out and, after a season of dormancy, a lot of weeds are coming up in the yard.  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "a weed is a plant whose virtues have never been discovered.  Our yard is primarily St. Augustine with a smattering of Bahia and Bermuda grass.  Right now, we're seeing a lot of White Dutch clover.  It's a lush beautiful plant and we see the honeybees flying to flower after flower.

When the White Dutch clover grows in patches in the yard, many people fire up their lawnmowers after a season of dormancy.  Not us.  It's time to get out the solar powered electric fence and portable step-in poles and reel of wire rope and put up temporary fencing in the yard.  We'll run the cows in the yard instead of the lawnmower and let them clean up all the weeds.

Here is LuLu excited about filling her belly with fresh grass.  In this instance, we can see what's on her menu.  In the foreground you can see that the first course is wild geranium, I think the Carolina geranium, to be specific.  

Here are all three cows, heads down, doing their best to obliterate the overgrowth of weeds.  I wish that I had taken an "after" photo to show you the before and after comparison.  The cows really did a good job knocking all this grass down.  To the right, you can see that I have a swarm trap up on top of a ladder.  I'll be baiting it probably tomorrow to try to catch a swarm.

Since I took this photo, I've moved the temporary fence and the cows to two additional areas in the yard.  By the time I cycle them back to this location in the yard, it will be grown all back up again.  Last year, due to the cows AND the drought, I only mowed the yard two times the entire year.  I'm hoping that if/when I need it this year, I'll be able to crank the lawnmower.  If not, the cows and goats are up to the task, I'm certain.

Not as Good as I Thought it Was

I'm not a horticulturalist.  While I do enjoy growing things, it's mainly because of the thrill I get watching a 'dead' seed transform into a live plant, especially one that yields great food to eat and enjoy.  But I can't tell you the genus, family, etc.  Some people, like my son Russ, can tell you everything you want to know about different plants.

Take, for instance, the photo below that I took in my garden this weekend.  This plant comes up every year around St. Patrick's Day in my garden.

Aren't the lavender-colored flowers pretty?  Look at the big 'heart-shaped' leaves.  I always thought that these were in the clover family.  Clover sets nitrogen in the soil.  I've always let them grow in the garden for as long as I could so that they could 'fertilize' my soil for the spring crops like beans, squash, corn, and cucumbers.

The trouble with that is that I was wrong.  Dead wrong.  These are NOT clovers.  They are oxalis or wood sorrel.  Lots of people must get confused by the leaves, because it is also called false shamrock.  Many people grow these from bulbs and use them as ornamental houseplants.

While very pretty in the garden, they are invasive and spread all over.  When you try to dig them up, you discover many, little, copper-colored bulbs.  I over-looked the invasive nature of the plant as I thought it was setting nitrogen.  I thought wrong!  Not only is it not setting nitrogen, but it is using up my nitrogen!

I took another photo of the pretty (what I originally thought was) clover and then began to aggressively hoe it all up, tossing flowers, leaves, stems and bulbs over the fence to our goats and chickens who were all too happy to gobble them up.

I did read that the leaves and stem are edible by humans too, but that was after I had rid my garden of them.  They contain oxalis acid, so those with kidney stones or gout are warned to not overdo it, but in moderation it is fine.  It is said to have a tart, rhubarb-like flavor.  Next year no doubt, it will come up again.  Before tossing it all to the animals, I'll try a little bit.  "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!" I found this recipe that seems simple and interesting and I'll try it:

Below is an Oxalix Cooler recipe from Sunny Savage

Oxalis Cooler

1 quart water

1/2 cup Oxalis leaf/stem/flowers/seedpods

1 Tablespoon agave nectar or honey

dash of salt

Mix all ingredients in a blender. If possible, let sit overnight in refrigerator and enjoy!

Credit: EAT THE WEEDS

Cranking Up the Lawnmower(s)

Usually some time in October, I mow the yard for the final time and put the lawnmower in storage in the garage for the winter months.  I leave it sitting there for as long as possible.  Around this time each year, big patches of lush, green, White Dutch Clover pops up in the yard.  In order to get the yard looking spiffy after months of neglect, it is time to get the lawn mower out of the garage.  Or better yet, get the lawn mowers out of the pasture.

It's a shame to let all that clover go to waste when Daisy and Rosie can take care of it better and more inexpensively than the John Deere riding mower.  I got the step-in temporary posts out and put them in place and then got the reel of poly-wire and unrolled it, encircling a portion of the yard that contained some of the clover that needed cutting.  I didn't even need to attach the electric fence charger as the cows have learned their lesson and respect it, 'hot' or not.

Lawn mowers in action

It was a nice Saturday and the cows were pleased to get out into the yard and mow down some clover rather than stand around in the mud eating hay.  They welcomed the opportunity and as I led them out of the pasture, they broke into a gallop (if cows could gallop).

Happy cows filling up on clover

They clipped down the clover almost as fast as I could have done it with the lawn mower.  Clover is very nutritious for the animals and must taste great as they really eat it up quickly.  I'm pretty careful to limit their access to it, though.

Clover is a legume that if the animals overeat, it causes gases to build up in the rumen.  Normally this is not a big deal.  The cows belch and eliminate the gas.  In some cases, though, the animal is unable to belch and severe bloat ensues.  Left untreated, this can be life-threatening to the animal as they have difficulty breathing and can suffocate.  As a boy I read a great book by James Herriot called "All Creatures Great and Small."  It contained the stories of a country veterinarian in England.

Dr. Herriot treated cows with bloat and I still remember the story in which he used a tool called a trocar.  The trocar he used was basically a funnel with a sharpened bottom and a flat area on top for hammering. When the doctor would get called out to treat a bloated animal, he'd position the sharpened funnel in the hollow of the animal near the flank and hammer the funnel through the hide and into the animal's rumen.  Ouch!  The gas and accompanying partially digested grass would blow explosively out of the animal's stomach, covering everyone nearby with green, smelly rumen contents.  The animal's life was saved and after a bath, everyone is better off!

Fortunately, our 'girls' have never had to be trocarized, but in watching a television program called, "The Amazing Dr. Pol," I learned that modern trocars look like this:

Image Credit

The trocar is hammered in and then screwed into place and then the stopper is removed to 'un-bloat' the animal.

After the cows had eaten for a while, I noticed that Rosie sat down in contented fashion to chew her cud and Daisy's eating had slowed down, letting me know that they were ready to go back into the pasture.  They had eaten just enough to be satisfied.

Happy Cows (even though I can't detect a smile)

I'll put the cows in this temporary paddock in the yard one more time to clean things up.  Then I'll get the John Deere lawnmower and mow the leaves and remaining grass into piles.  I'll then rake the leaf/grass mixture into piles that I'll carry to the garden and compost.  That organic mixture will become rich compost that we'll mix into the garden soil next year, making an encouraging environment for earthworm activity and subsequent fertility for vegetable crops.

The Garden of Weedin'

Saturday was a good day to be in the garden.  I had a number of things on my list to get done and it started with weeding.  In the winter, we have a lot of winter weeds that come up.  I try to pull them, shake off the dirt, and throw them over the fence to the cows.  They are grateful beneficiaries of the winter weeding task.  Even the chickens absolutely LOVE to eat the weeds I throw over the fence. They must stay on their toes, though, to avoid being trampled by 900 pound cows.

One of the things growing between the rows of the garden that many people call weeds is clover. Clover is actually a legume that is working hard setting nitrogen in the soil that will be used by our Spring garden crops to grow.  It also shades the rows, preserving moisture in the soil and shading out other pernicious weeds.  Of course the cows and chickens love to eat it, so I'll pull off some of the tops to give them a little snack while leaving the roots and enough of the plant to continue growing.

White Dutch Clover

This is a great cover crop.  Best of all, it's one we don't need to buy seed and sow.  It comes up on its own in the garden each year.  It's the gift the keeps on giving.

We do have other things growing in the garden around this time that are not beneficial like clover. I'm almost embarrassed to show you the next picture.  This is my garlic patch that was planted back in October.

There's garlic in my weed patch

I have a 30 foot row of garlic, planted 3 wide.  Over the course of the winter, weeds pop up and crowd out the garlic.  Garlic doesn't do well with weed pressure. Today's the day to get something done about it.  There's no easy way to do this.  It is a job done on your knees pulling weeds out by hand.  You must be careful pulling the weeds so you don't uproot the garlic plants.

I pulled a nice pile of weeds that the cows promptly disposed of and then proceeded to beg for more. Once done, I broadcast some composted chicken manure by hand on the newly weed-free garlic row to feed the garlic. Then I went around the hay ring and picked up a bunch of hay that the wasteful cows were trampling instead of eating.  I mulched all around the garlic, making a thick mat of hay to crowd out and discourage any weed growth, while pulling the garlic leaves up through the hay.

After the weeds are gone...

What a difference, huh?  I like things like this where you can immediately see the fruits of your labors.  A nice soaking rain will activate the chicken litter and make the garlic jump out of the ground and get a nice dark green color.  The weeds beneath the thick mat of hay won't get sunlight and won't be able to penetrate the canopy of mulched hay and cause future problems for our garlic.  We normally harvest it in the June-July time frame.

Weeding is a necessary evil - one that only the cows really enjoy.  Once that was out of the way, it was time to do some harvesting.  We'll talk about that tomorrow.  It was a bumper crop!

So I fired up our 3 Lawn Mowers Today...

With the warmer Spring weather, the grass is really starting to grow in our yard. I heard the roar of the zero-turn radius lawnmower as my neighbor fired his up and quickly mowed his lawn to Country Club Golf Course-like specifications.  This only highlighted my unkempt, unruly winter weed/clover yard accented with live oak leaves strewn about as contrasted to his.  (You can see his yard in the upper right hand side of the photo below)  So I fired up my three lawnmowers as well...

3 Lawn Mowers/Weed eaters gettin' the job done

Our mowers don't need gas - they produce it.  In order to get them mowing down this portion of the yard, I set up a temporary paddock using some electric wire that I unrolled and place on some step-in posts.  I then went and got our solar power electric fence charger and hooked up the hot wire to the fence and the ground wire to a stake.  I then used a tester (hanging) to ensure that the fence was 'hot' and it was. Then I went and retrieved Daisy, Rosie and Maggie, our 3 lawnmowers who were all too happy to mow down the grass and clover in the paddock.

The Electric Fence set-up

Although Daisy doesn't smile as humans smile and actually always has a long face, I think she was happy to get in there and eat up the clover.  She was the first one in the paddock and ate the best, most succulent clover before I introduced Rosie and Maggie to the paddock.

Daisy in the clover patch

While they ate in the yard, the other animals left in the pasture bemoaned the fact that they were left behind, because the grass in the pasture is slower coming in.

Eating her fill

White Dutch Clover is a favorite of our cows and they'll pass up other items in the salad bar to go park themselves smack dab in the middle of a clover patch and eat.

Cleaning up the Clover

Now while they ate, I worked in the garden, BUT I kept a sharp eye on them.  I learned a lesson the hard way that when our cows finish eating all the grass and clover in a particular paddock, they'll start looking at the grass on the other side of the fence.  Whereas before, it was heads-down eating, now that they've eaten all the grass, they're ready to roam to find greener pastures and they will run right through that hot wire.  

When you see a scene like below, you want to quickly go retrieve the cows and put them back in the pasture or they'll be running down the road, being honked at by passing motorists as they seek out other grass to eat. If it sounds like I learned this lesson by experience, it is because I have. 

The 'After' Shot

Notice the difference between the first picture in this blog entry and the last.  Daisy, Rosie and Maggie have really done a good job mowing the yard.  Our yard crew is second to none!  Now I'll take down the fence, mow the leaves into a row, rake up the leaves and put them in the garden for mulch and to be composted.

How does your garden grow?

Mary, Mary, quite contrary
   How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row.

The old nursery rhyme asks an important question.  In my garden, I don't have any silver bells or cockleshells growing and my wife will be pleased to know that I don't have any pretty maids in my garden either.

So, how does my garden grow?  Well, it grows green and healthy due to nitrogen.  But nitrogen must be "fixed" first.  Here's a little bit about nitrogen that I learned:  (Source: Wikipedia)

Nitrogen fixation happens when nitrogen (N₂) in the atmosphere is converted into ammonia (NH₃)  Atmospheric nitrogen or molecular nitrogen is relatively inert, meaning it does not react with other chemicals to form new compounds.  Fixation processes frees up the nitrogen atoms from their diatomic form to be used in other ways.

Now, I was never very adept at chemistry, so a lot of this is outside of my grasp, but what I do understand is that nitrogen is essential for life because nitrogen is required for the basic building blocks of plants, animals and other life.  Nitrogen fixation is essential for agriculture.  In an earlier post, we discussed how nitrogen fixation occurs naturally in the air in lightning and is the reason why rainwater is so much better for your crops than tap water.

There are other natural ways to fix nitrogen.  There are plants that contribute to this, specifically those in the legume family.  In my garden clover fulfills this role.  Clover contains symbiotic bacteria called Rhiozobia within nodules in their root systems that produce nitrogen compounds that help the plant grow.  When the plant dies, the fixed nitrogen is released, making it available to other plants and fertilizes the soil.

The other day I was weeding in my garden and pulled up some white dutch clover to make room for a row of corn and witnessed this:



Nitrogen producing nodules on clover roots in my garden

Can you see the little white nodules on the roots?  Those are producing nitrogen.  How cool is that?   I'm growing my own fertilizer!  This is referred to as "green manure."  Here is a close up photograph of the nodules: 



This is so very beneficial.  So what I do is feed the top portion of the clover to our cows that methodically line up at the garden fence whenever I'm weeding.  And the root part of the clover?  Well, I turn that back under in the row to provide fixed nitrogen to fertilize the soil for the next crop. 

This enables your garden to grow!  You really want to grow legumes in your garden to keep this process going.  Hopefully that will translate into something like the potatoes below that have "shaded out" the rows.

Irish Potatoes "shading out" the rows

As a young boy we grew soybeans on the farm, first row-cropped, then drilled.  Shading out was a much desired stage of growth.  When that occurred, you didn't need to cultivate anymore because the sunlight couldn't reach the soil between the rows and thus, no weeds could grow (Hallelujah!).  Nitrogen is a key ingredient promoting green growth and accelerating this process.

Kyle, Kyle, why the smile?

How does your garden grow?

With nitrogen fixed by white dutch clover, making potatoes shade out the row!