🍂 Journal Entry: Early Autumn Reflections at Ecothought Farm

Date: 24 April 2025
Focus Area: 🍁 Seasonal Planning | 🌱 Soil Preparation | 🌾 Crop Rotation | 🌧️ Moisture Management

Development in Thinking / New Insights

This autumn, we’ve been sharpening our framework around seasonal handover systems. Rather than seeing the shift into cooler months as a pause, we’re reinforcing the idea of dynamic succession. Autumn isn’t the end of one system—it’s the bridge between systems. Success in winter starts with intentionality in autumn.

We’ve also begun sketching out a formal method for mapping phenological observations (bud set, leaf fall, insect activity) to decisions about planting schedules—part of a broader push toward time-sensitive intelligent landscape indicators.

🔬 Trial Description & Outcomes

Trial Title: Inter-row Green Manure Cover for Soil Recovery
Objective: Improve soil tilth and nitrogen retention post-summer cropping.
Method:

• Sowing a mix of vetch, field peas and oats across three beds post-harvest. Also sowing poultry yards to provide green feed and scratch in late winter and early Spring
• Compared direct sowing into stubble vs. lightly tilled zones.

Duration: 6 weeks (ongoing)
Key Observations:

• Higher emergence in lightly tilled rows, though weed pressure increased.
• Soil moisture retention markedly better in stubble zones, especially under mulch.

Outcome (Preliminary): Stubble zones performed best for moisture, tilled rows for germination. Still evaluating biomass output and nitrogen accumulation.

Next Steps: Harvest biomass and incorporate lightly in late May.