Category: Gardening

Soil Testing, Is It Necessary?

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Garden

Honestly, I don’t think it is necessary! I really don’t think you need to test soil in order to grow a good garden. Great even! I’ve done it! I have planted many gardens, and few are the times I’ve used a Soil Test! Mainly because it’s difficult to justify the price of having a garden soil test done on a small, or family, garden. Or at least for me it is. Although I do know it’s handy, especially knowing the acidity, or PH level of the Soil. So, I kind of wish I’d discovered this Soil Tester sooner…

4-in-1 Soil pH Tester

It’s affordable, and it also measures Soil Moisture, Plant Temperature, and Sunlight Intensity! Without it, it’s kind of all guess work. Kind of like working in the shadows! So Surely that’s worth $20 … Right? 

Having this should help take some of the guess work out of the soil preparation both here at Briden Farm and over at the Barn Property.

As you can see here, I’ve already started spreading some Firewood 🪵 Ashes on the garden plot. 

Getting this Soil Test Meter now will not only help me get a clearer picture but will also help me see the before and after results. The suspicion is the soil is acidic, and my hope is the lime in the ashes will help create a more neutral soil. 

Vegetables such as peas, beans, corn, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, and other greens should benefit from this, and there are also other trace minerals in wood ashes. The University of Saskatchewan has a post onUsing wood ash in the garden that mentions some of them such as, “iron, manganese, boron, copper and zinc”.

If you’d like to learn more about our gardens or the methods we use at Briden Farm contact Brian to Book Your Farm Tour. Call 📞 902-907-0770

Categories: Gardening

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Spreading Ashes On Gardens

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Kitchen Wood Stove Ashes

Many of us in this neck of the woods heat our homes in stoves fueled with firewood; and that firewood creates ashes. Often those ashes are just discarded, or tossed out. However, there are a number of uses for firewood ashes from Wood Stoves. 

Yes, seriously, ashes can be used for everything from Stain Remover and Deicer to Household Cleanser and Odor Remover! Read what Napoleon has to Say!

So, if you have Wood Ashes you’re not using please let us know we’d really appreciate having them. We actually want them for a replacement for chemical fertilizers and garden lime! 

There’s nothing like wood heat to comfort us during our cool, damp winters. Unless it’s the vegetables that have been helped to grow by using the firewood ashes of our Wood Stoves! We may even use some of them to make Lye, for making Goat Milk Soap! Read more about Soap Making on Countryfarm Lifestyles.

Whether from Hard, or Soft, wood, ashes contain phosphorus, potassium, calcium, boron, and other elements that growing plants need. Ash is also very alkaline and sweetens and raises pH levels of soil. Click here to read The Chronicle and see what it says about replacing Lime with Ash. 

In fact, ashes may also be used to deter insects and other garden pests! 

Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you all of this, after all, we’d like you to give us your Wood Ashes! Or at least your extra wood ashes! 

By the way, never use Wood Ashes on your Potatoes, or where you plan to plant them! It’ll probably cause them to become scabby! 

Do you have other uses for Ashes from your firewood Stove? 

If You have ashes you’re not using, we’d love to have them…

Please contact Brian at Briden Farm 902-907-0770. 

Categories: Briden Farm Soaps Firewood Gardening Natural Fertilizer Wood Stove

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Milking Our Goat On Pasture At The Barn Property

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Milking Our Goat On Pasture

One of my long time dreams, when it comes to goats, is to be able to sit o a hillside and milk a goat. I realized that dream a few days ago! It was a misty morning, the sun just breaking through, and the hill was overlooking the work the goats and pigs have been doing at The Barn Property. Unfortunately I didn’t get a video of that! 

However, today, the Barn Property owner, Cheryl was there and did the following video of us milking …

We use our Briden Farm Goats, Pigs, Chickens, and Bunnies to help rid the area of invasive weeds, like Japanese Knotweed, Goldenrod, and Lupines. The animals do an incredible job, as seen in the photo above. Not only do they do a good job getting rid of weeds, the disturbance they cause the vegetation and soil helps to regenerate the land as is evidenced by the green grass that emerges after the animals pass through, as we rotate their pasture. 

If you’d like more information on how our Briden Farm animals work and the results, we do have testimonials and would love to talk to You. Contact Brian at Briden Farm 902-907-0770. 

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Categories: Bunnies Chickens Composting Goat Milk Products Goats Natural Beauty Natural Fertilizer Pastures and Fencing Pigs

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Weed Tea

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Weed Tea

This Post features a Briden Farm Garden Tour done 11 August 2022. It’s of our main garden where we’ve pastured pigs, goats, and chickens. Goats and Pigs last year, and chickens in April of this year. We use no Commercial Chemical Fertilizer, and mainly Weed Tea!

No! No! Not that Weed! 

Here’s what I mean… 

See, when You weed your garden, you save the weeds! The weeds, while they’re growing, are sucking the micronutrients out of the soil. So, when you pull the weeds, don’t just toss them aside. Put them in a half bucket of water for a week or so. Then pour it off, or strain the weeds out of it. Then add water, so half weed tea and half fresh water. Then use that mix for watering the garden. It replaces the micronutrients.

I use half tea, half fresh water, to help insure it’s not to hot, or to strong, for the plants. I also do similar teas with the waste left over when we go flounder fishing. Thus creating our own liquid fish fertilizer. 

So, most all of our fertilizer in the garden is from Weed Tea and a bit of our own Liquid Fish Fertilizer, which we call Seafood Chowder! 

 

Categories: Gardening Natural Fertilizer Uncategorized

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