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#hedge

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daieno bika

Yesterday was a good day for cutting willow stakes and stabbing them back into the ground. So I spent four and a half hours doing so, and accomplished this!

It’s maybe 20 feet of #fedge that will eventually become an actual hedge to fence in the horses.

For now it needs protection in the form of an electric fence to keep them from chewing off all the growing parts before it gets established. It will take me multiple seasons to extend it all the way to where I need it to go.

Why do this instead of building more board fencing, you ask? (No one asked. I’m going to tell you anyway.) Well, the land our rural co-op exists on is very hilly, which means some parts are high and dry - great for putting posts in the ground and having them last for decades - and some parts are low and soggy - terrible for putting fence posts in because they will rot. Also, board fencing can be pricey, even if we’re doing all the work to install it ourselves.

But we still need fencing in those areas to keep the ponies contained. I don’t like using electric fencing for perimeter fencing. I want a real physical barrier that won’t suddenly stop working when it’s icy, snowy, the charger isn’t working, etc etc. I also don’t super like having the horses get shocked. Which does happen to poor Henry sometimes, because he can’t see very well and doesn’t always register that the fence is there before he walks into it, and then he gets a nasty surprise. There are things I can do to mitigate each of these problems, but… long term, I want to reduce the use of the zappy fence as much as possible.

Luckily, willow will grow into a nice coppiced thicket with a bit of encouragement, and we have lots of it growing here! I can cut whips from right nearby and use them to build living fencing that will benefit more creatures of our landscape than just the horses, and it doesn’t even damage the areas I harvest from because they’ll sprout right back up with even more stems. I think this is so cool. I can hardly wait to see it sprouting once the weather warms up a bit more!

I’m also looking forward to getting my hands on Paul Lamb’s new book, Of Thorn & Briar, about the craft of hedge laying in the UK. This willow weaving thing I’m doing isn’t quite that, but it’s not entirely dissimilar, either.

A line of criss-crossed willow stems that starts at the corner of the board fence in the right side of the image and goes most of the way to the left side. The inside of the field and one horse are visible beyond the willow project. A set of bright green loppers is lying on the ground to the left.
The fedge from the other side, and from a closer view. You can see that I'm doing a simple pattern, and it's not all that tidy. The diamond shapes made by the crossed stems are all different sizes. But the goal is for it to be sturdy as it grows in, not for it to look like a formal garden. Thus, I am proud of my chaos-weaving.
#hedge#OfThornAndBriar#HedgeLaying
Public
Broadfork

The hedge laying is done for now. It needs tidying and I need to find some better stakes and more binders to finish the job, but the pleaching work is all done.

There’s now a recognisable pathway between the nature reserve and the plot.

Moments after taking this a fox poked its head around the corner before ambling off again. 🦊
#Hedge #Allotment #Gardening #Biodiversity

A relaid hedge of various species including holly, willow, hazel, hornbeam, guilder rose and blackthorn down the side of an allotment plot. There’s now a clear pathway between the hedge and an allotment plot. The greener side of a shed has pallet wood and a paving slab leaning against it. Next to an elder is a palleted compost heap and the start of a hűgel bed which looks like a pile of brushwood and hedge clearings.
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Bishop Whitewind

I am the lorax I speak for the trees.
Here I post mostly work or not at all if I can help it. I can be found all over the internet elsewhere however! Consider this place my front door.

The volume of my work and my services are offered at the #free store.
What does an #anarchist business model look like? This is what an anarchist business model looks like.
I call it the free store plus, because you can plus me some money if you like. While I don't hassle, and I am a humble man, calamity ironically struck before I was prepared. The #homestead is not finished, many of the systems are only halfway completed at best. My little storefront is now my only source of income ko-fi.com/b_whitewind/shop
A direct link to my #botany #horticultural and work out in the #green is here. If my services aren't what brought you by
ko-fi.com/post/The-permacultur

My main social is now elsewhere. My taste are rather outlandish for the crowd here, which I can respect so I've taken the party elsewhere so to speak. Find me touching grass at
bsky.app/profile/bishopwhitewi

While most of my work is mirrored on ko-fi, you can find a direct link to my YouTube channel here.
youtu.be/KN5-Y8TXKlE?si=_iVdFD
Unlike my various social media accounts, the only time anything is posted to Ko-fi or my YouTube channel is when it is work related. So if that's what you're here for, that's where you'll find it.
My personal account is now bsky.app/profile/bishopwhitewi
Again, thank you for stopping by, and blessed be.
#Witch #Witchcraft #Meditation #Permaculture #Garden #Gardening #Hedge #Hedgewitch #Solar #Offgrid #SolarPunk #Sustainability #Anarchy #Vegan

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Bishop Whitewind

This is what I've learned this year. Suit it to taste/#climate.
Fava beans, lentils and/or Scarlet runners depending on the temperatures.
Swiss chard, figs and blackberries, woodland or alpine strawberries depending on climate.
Mulberry trees, hazelnuts, and chives. There is also something called tree kale or purple tree collard.
Amaranth grows where it's very hot. Use the beans and #composting to nurture the soil.
3-4 Kilowatt hour incoming #solar charge, and about 9 to 10 KW hours of lithium phosphorus batteries.
Run nothing but 48 volt systems or you're wasting your time.
This radiant installation pictured below has given me a 20° variance between external and internal temperatures.
I use the lights from some cloning chambers I built into the house to stabilize the temperatures through the winter. Vent heat from LED light fixtures into the house. If you need more heat, use a wood burning stove.
It gets a little chilly but it can drop below 20° f and it stays habitable inside.
This is one layer of the insulation, my math called for two. Halfway done I will still make it through this winter.
I use the water storage to further stabilize the temperature.
I made it 80% of the year with just this pitiful water catchment system I installed in a hurry.
It is two small tarps going into a shady 30 gallon water bucket.
The upgrade will be an 8x8 tarp headed into a 50 gallon rain barrel.
The gardens take more water than humans. For months sometimes it's simply will refuse to rain.
When it does rain, the power takes a hit thus of the batteries.
Expect to put the farm ahead of everything else.
Cut down invasive trees. Use them for firewood and to hide you from the outside.
Do not bulldoze Fern Gully. Any clearing you create will then have to be managed.
A composting toilet that separates the liquid is essential.
Be mindful of bugs at all times in all places or eventually they will remind you forcefully that they exist.
An #ecosystem of dragonflies, lizards, and bats has sprung up to deal with endless swarms of insects.
Yellow jackets live nearby and outnumber the bees 50 to one. The yellow jackets and wasp do most of the pollinating as unfortunate as that is.
In this new world you have forbidden bees or nothing.
Birds are a double-edged sword, but there is nothing worse than an unchecked bug swarm being your existence for the rest of your life.
Squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks, All manner of groundhog, hedgehogs, larger animals such as deer join the crows.
Work something out with the birds, work something out with a yellow jackets, work something out with the animals and the trees.
You are building an ecosystem, a small world.
The condensation from the leaves creates a rain every morning.
I'm not sure what tipping point stops this, but I have no plans to find out.
This kind of depends on going #vegan, I'm not going to lie. Supplement it with textured vegetable protein, nutritional yeast, and multivitamins.
A simple thing is to glob peanut butter into a bowl of course cut oats, then sprinkle with cinnamon.
You should plan on some sort of internet connection, recreation, and a shower or two at least every week, or you will quickly go mad.
Time your heavy labor for shower days. That way you won't be stuck gross.
Keep peroxide, witch hazel, creams, and health and beauty aides of course on hand.
Wash your clothes in a bustub and rinse them out in the storms.
Learn to build fences and barriers both living and material. Grow blackberry up a deer fence made of t-post, these posts can be driven to anchor a row of cinder blocks to the ground. This will also deter vehicles. A layer of barbed wire deters humans.
Create walls of hazel and figs. Learn to work the #hedge.
#ClimateDiary #Permaculture #Homestead #Anarchy #Solar #SolarPunk

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