The sunflowers are blooming; find a yellow swallowtail butterfly feeding. Also growing here are buckwheat and cowpeas. This is our best, most fertile, field. Others are not doing as well, some are just barely growing. We need to build the organic matter in the soil, which will enhance its fertility. I am trying to implement the practices of regenerative agriculture with marginal success at this point.
This fall I will be planting a covercrop of cereal rye, which I will fertilize heavily to build organic matter in these deficit soils. In general I am trying to reduce the fertilizer inputs and rely more on legumes for nitrogen-fixing and a diversity of plants interacting with microrhizal bacteria and fungi in the soil for the rest of the nutrient needs. But for this to work the organic content of the soil needs to build.
Honey bee.
Flower closeup.
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