Shhh … Don’t tell mom that I’m a stripper!

April 22, 2012, 10:20 am
Filed under: April 2012

Market garden plots laid out

April 22, 2012

Okay, it’s not as exciting as you thought … but they are strips none the less 😮

I have laid out a three and a half-acre field into the strips you see above. This field is where we will grow pumpkins, squash, some mid-season sweet corn and ornamental gourds. These crops will be planted in the plowed strips.

The green strips in between, is where I will take a cutting of hay. Those sod strips will then be left for the pumpkins vines to sprawl across. The grassy strips will make a good place to drive the wagon when the pumpkin harvest is in full swing. It will keep us out of the mud.

On the east side of the field, we will plant a mixture of purple top turnips and dwarf Essex rape. These two crops are a delight for pigs and sheep. The pigs will be given the pumpkin field first. They will eat any leftover pumpkins and their seed. The will clean up the squash, eat grass and graze the rape and turnips.

Once the cold weather hits, the pigs will be moved to a winter paddock with a warm hut in which to sleep. The sheep will be moved to this field shown above. They will graze what the pigs left of the stockpiled grass. They will eat the turnip tops and turnip bulbs. This vegetable they eat all winter long until they are gone. The sheep also get hay to supplement their grazing, but usually eat the sweet-smelling dry hay last. I guess they know what they like best.

This is my first attempt to try this method. I have used the strips to grow food in of course, but I have not tried this planned, diversified approach to include the grazing animals. I hope that they will not only glean the garden plots, but will make efficient use of this entire field as a food plot.

I am sure to write about this more as the season unfolds. I will try to communicate success as well as failures with the system at the end of the season. I think it will go well… but I am sure lots of folks didn’t do so well the first time they tried stripping either!