2016.04.21:
A tub of salads and turnips has been planted outside and replaced by tomatoes.

2016.04.29:
Growing…

2016.05.03:

Many plants have already been taken to the garden with mounds, kales, cabbages, salads, tomatoes, corn. For very early planting out, there are still frost very often during the nights. Which is not bad, what will resisi will resist, what will die will die and we’ll continue.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbuM15qF24

2016.05.09:
3 tubs of cabbages/kales have been taken outside and squashes and cucumbers, some celeriacs have been pricked out in individual pots and again some corn have been taken outside to the garden with mounds, because other ones taken out earlier have all died, they should withstand frosts easily, but apparently not when they’re too young. New Chinese cabbage sowing.

2016.05.14:
All the cucumbers, almost all squashes and almost all tomatoes that we took outside much earlier than normal have died in the garden, still too many frosts. But some are perfectly well in my own garden. Only salads and cabbages/kales can hold on well. The new corns that were taken out a couple of days ago are holding on outside too.
New sowing of tomatoes, salads, ricinus, millet, tetragones and cucumbers.

2016.05.21-22:

The chinese cabbages are ready to get out, and some squashes, cucumbers, cantaloupes, tomatoes, eggplants as well. Some are for my personal garden where they’ll have much more merciful conditions than in the mound garden, there for the cantaloupes, peppers and eggplants, it’s still too early.

New sowing on the 22nd, many various squashes, pickles and red cabbages. Also all very mature squashes have been taken out to another field to have harvests with those, a field with a climate more clement than the difficult one of the mound garden which is in a basin where temperature differences are increased both ways and with a lot of humidity. Also cucumbers were taken away to that terrain.

2016.05.28:
Nothing changed, the plants are growing, I just went by to water the plants.

2016.06.12 :
Abotu one third of the plants have been taken outside, many squashes and cucumbers, tomatoes, some celeriacs, peppers, cantaloupes, salads and various kales/cabbages.
New pickles were sowed, again many squashes, Chinese cabbages, tomatoes, salads. The eggplants were re-potted in bigger pots to continue growing in the greenhouse (so that their roots can grow in the manure) and some cantaloupes as well.

2016.08.05 :
In the last two months, most of the plants were taken outside. There have been new sowings, mostly squash and cucumbers, but cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes too. To grow them outside sort of not at the correct season to see what it can give? And tomatoes to keep them in the greenhouse throughout the fall and even winter.
The greenhouse since mid-July is a bit in the mode of production under cover, planting trays are removed gradually and many eggplants, peppers, cantaloupes and tomatoes have been planted in pots with soil and into contact with the manure so that they can take root in it indoor and carry on their growth quietly and safely protected. There is also a rodent (or more?) who settled in the greenhouse and ate every squash seedling since more than a month, see here for more details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xJIO0RW0KU

2016.03.19 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbC3bzuHGJc
Everything is going very well Installation of the outer fence, raptor poles, hedges etc.

2016.04.30 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2-4OJpeDHc
Small update, not much happened since the weather has been quite good for 2 weeks but then cold and very cold for the next 2 weeks, the growth of everything came to a halt for a while.

2016.05.09 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv35-tbi4V4
Small inspection, some tomatoes are still alive. And I also sowed new sweet peas with ricinus seeds at the same time, as those seeds are toxic (as much as the plant itself), this is to make life very hard for rodents!

2016.05.16 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAa1VqjsTD4
There were still some frosts at night. Most of the cabbages/kales are still there, the tomatoes had a very hard time, only one or two are still alive, which is already great! The sweet peas I resowed last week are still in place, the first from a month ago had too much troubles with the cold.
As for the rodents, I had new ideas of poppy seeds, bitter almonds and licorice. There are supposedly very toxic for them, so if we can sow some of those at the same time as we sow other things they like, it should be very disturbing for them, while waiting for the natural predators. Since we still have to make these buzzards/owls pillars and will need to wait a couple of years for edges where foxes can hangout close.

2016.05.28 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA0I5g76W4I
Overview, everything is going really well. Having the green house always full of new plants and being planted outside as soon as they’re ready to go out is working well. Btw. something that has never been mentioned, we always skip the usual hardening periods for plants on purpose, we do that on purpose so that plants are encouraged to become more robust by having to adapt quicker to big environmental/climatic differences.

2016.06.12 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWSl-w-RoWw
Everything is going and growing quite well
No need to tell us about carnivorous indian runner or kakhi cambells ducks and other ones like those for slug control.
We know them, but the place is not yet setup to enable us to have them there, because that field is far removed for houses, if we place ducks there we have to be sure they’re safe and have water. For the moment, that’s not ready
And it’s good that plants learn to adapt and become much more robust, if slugs finish them, it’s because the plants are not healthy, you can see it with wild plants, the jerusalem artichokes do not get eaten that must, neither do wild carrots. These plants just learned to live in perfect harmony with all their surroundings for hundreds of years qithout human intervention

2016.07.15 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k2TXtmJJ9U
Small visit of the garden, many plants are growing very well. We discovered that chick peas can grow very well in Lorraine
Some plants struggled quite a lot during the rain period that lasted around 2 months, salads, squashes, tomatoes, cabbages died. But the most robust are still here.
Some Chinese cabbages went directly to seed, they struggled, hence the survival mechanisms kicked in, create the next offspring that will be more apt to resist!
Else, another detail that is important and that I forgot to explain in details, around here a lot of people failed growing their salads, they all went to seed directly, these people were using anti-slug products… Whereas, yes we lost some, but the onces that withstood the slugs are all great looking now and not going to seed at all, it clearly seems that slugs attacks on salads help them to produce more leaves to protect themselves.
These kinds of observations are very interesting to look at in a completely natural environment. The good development of some plants depends on an interaction with the fauna!
You’ll see it next time, many cucumbers (of my own seed already quite robust!) had to endure harsh conditions, the main stem just grew and grew for 30-40cm without ever managing to make one leaf, slugs were eating it all, but they survived, hence these will be some more good seeds for next year!

2016.07.17 :
Some pictures for a change

First mound :

Second mound :

Third mound :

Fourth mound :

Fifth mound :

Raspberry cuttings from the autumn 2016, winter 2016 are taking their place nicely on the west side of the interior garden.

A fig tree that is setting up roots in the harsh conditions

The north side of the interior garden, some raspberries that are there since 2 years now and aromatic plants, thyme, rosemary, sage, laurel, mint. Everything is installing itself nicely and slowly.

The east side, the gooseberries, blackcurrants and flowering currants from cuttings from the autumn 2015 and winter 2016 are also setting up nicely.

The most robust and healthy eggplant of the garden!

This tomato plant is growing very quickly!

That one (most probably, cherry tomatoes) produces an amazing amount of flowers, interesting to follow!

And the east side of the exterior garden with butternuts and pickles freshly planted that seem to be handling it very well.

2016.08.05 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xJIO0RW0KU
Slowly but surely, we learn new things about the natural regulation of the fauna.
There is a small addition at the end, in the greenhouse, because a rodent (or many?) is present and eating all the squashes seeds planted for over a month and a half. It took me time to understand. So there are many missing squashes in the garden this year (again because of rodents like last year, but not the same way ), it is frustrating, I lost a lot of my own seeds stored from the previous years, but hey, I learn for the future. Either place custom wire cages over each seedling tray (at the moment this is the most feasible option) or raising the trays, or for the future in a broader and holistic point of view, in a large greenhouse, always have one or a few cats around! Again the best natural method of controlling rodents and all the fauna is to coordinate and understand the hierarchy of predators in full. Still, for the moment, in this small greenhouse that is not yet possible.

2016.09.21 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGshk1kb4Iw
Not much to say, it was time to collect some seeds and sow others to keep on increasing the diversity in vegetables of the place.
Harvest of cucumbers, the ones that lasted the longest (april to september), harvest of some salad seeds and sowing on the fly of others, same goes for the celeriacs.
As far as tomatoes are concerned it was still too early, we’re waiting till the end for the ones that withstand the most the climatic conditions of autumn (eating the other meanwhile ).
I also found one commercial carrot, there should be more coming when/if it rains in September (which is the period where they can naturally resow themselves)
We’ve also sown various onions/leeks/cabbages/kales etc. on the fly; it’s the time, so they’ll be there to take root naturally when they can.

We’ve also added a grass to cover the soil, to not have high grass below the gooseberries/currants.

Else there are also some very late squashes (planted very late!).
Let’s see in october what happens next

2016.10.11 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXaB-JX_lvk
Small update, since last tile we had two weeks of quite cold and rainy weather, which almost killed most plants that cannot withstand frost, because in this humid and entrapped by the forest the temperature differences are exacerbated, hence some frost already occurred, or temperatures very close to zero during the night. Hence it’s time to collect some seeds

Something I forgot to explicitly explain in the video is that all the plants are from my own previous seeds as much as possible. This year the cabbages and kales are from new seeds since I never had any in the previous years (except kohlrabi and violet broccolis), the salads are new because I didn’t have yet enough seeds last year, some squashes are new to increase diversity, but peas are always new because I don’t want to change them, I want them to cross pollinate with the “vesce des haies”, I want that plant to start mutating into producing peas (I still do collect some peas that I keep as seeds for probably next year or some other time). The eggplants, peppers, cantaloupes and cress are also new additions. It’s a small vegetable garden, I try to increase the diversity as much as I can, but letting plants go to seed takes space!
And I made a mistake with the date, it was the 16th of june

2016.07.10 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOfabKEsgo

Small update, I didn’t do anything since 3 weeks, I let the plants in peace to discover their own natural harmony by themselves in the company of the ‘weeds’.
It’s a very good year for the plants to learn to live with slugs and gastropods since it rained quite a lot. That way they can learn to let some part of themselves to be eaten by slugs without being completely devoured, the weeds know very well how to do that!
I have to repeat it, slugs are only there to finish organic decomposition quickly, if a plant is eaten entirely by them, it means that that plant was never healthy and/or never had the opportunity to learn to cohabit with them!

2016.08.12 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNysh_2jX8E

This video is a bit longer than usual so that I can explain you some ideas more in details.
What I intend to do, and that seems useful to share with you, to have no more plants go to seed and take all the space by lying on the ground, since they occupy the garden for much of the season, if the garden is small, when they lie down they take much more space than where they have their base. In the end, this year I had 2-3 bins covered (and therefore unusable) by radish seeds, carrots, parsnips, broccoli. They take up a lot of space, the next year I will ensure they stay upright and do not fall sideways! That way it will also leave the field free for cats below, otherwise they can not even hunt, there is no space!
Apart from that, I explain some transition stages over several years to adapt tomatoes to Lorraine summers!
For the 3 sisters method (corn, climbing beans, squash), in Lorraine (and in similar areas), we can probably use artichokes instead of corn, corn does not grow fast enough in these areas.
The variety of vegetables that resow themselves increases slowly and surely
Good viewing

2016.09.23 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FudcyqT9Fmw
All is going on well, it’s a project over many years as you should have already noticed from all the past videos Hence, harvests, harvest (of seeds) for the time being, it’s not yet time for big productions, I always let the vegetables live with the concurrence of the natural weeds, which most people usually remove often And I let vegetables grow like weeds, so it’s not that easy for them, but they’re improving slowly and surely with some little bit of help

2016.10.12 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c710qILLcGo
Like in the large vegetable garden, but less dire, it was cold and rainy for about 2 weeks, but no frost here yet So squashes are doing well, the tomatoes that had the hardest life through tall grass etc. reached their end but left some beautiful tomatoes offspring

Otherwise, as you can see, it’s fantastic as I had hoped, the first rains of autumn allowed lots of dormant seeds in the soil to germinate as they wished, carrots, parsnips, onions, I’m hoping for salads maybe? Beets, broccoli violet also maybe.
And other plants are doing well, I’m eagerly waiting for cabbages/kales to go to seed, but I think it will be for next year!

In short, fantastic, wild vegetables a becoming reality slowly and surely!

2016.11.27 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls2f1wggvMY
Just a small review for the end of this year, will have to wait for next year to reach some new insights about what’s happening now.
One thing is sure, carrots should not be sown in august (at least commercial varieties), as you can see in the video, they should remain on the old carrot and fall off later on, probably during winter to sprout in the beginning of spring. I have saved many seeds, so I will sow them on the fly at approximately the same time I see those on the last carrots standing falling off.