Some say this isn't possible (winter planting) I say let's try

I'm gonna plant seeds today. The problem is it's the middle of January. And some might say it's too cold or there's not enough light. I say I've got an idea. All right, done with the morning workouts, soil aeration, hydration. Also done with this particular broadfork. It can't handle me broadforking in the freezing, broadforking working in unworked sod. We got to get a different broadfork. That's where we need to plant. I think our seeds will sit dormant until they can grow. These are very special winter-hardy cover crop seeds that will germinate at 45 degrees and grow as little as 25 degrees. Now, where's the bucket? It's better. We're gonna do 20% Austrian peas and 80% rye. Trying to develop a new habit this year. Everything has a place and everything in its place. I just wanted to leave that. It's a pain in the butt to take it home, but it's even worse of a pain in the butt to find it. I gotta help Mr. Brown for a second. That's the problem sometimes with putting things away. You gotta go back inside and then you're needed. Are you gonna go with me or are you gonna stay in here?

I'm gonna go with you.

Okay.

I'm ready.

Okay.

But I was hiding in there.

So you're gonna go with me this morning, huh?

It's done.

What is done? Well, it's still going. Okay, you ready to go? Let's find your boots. Oh good, they're here. There you go. Let's go, Mr. Brown. Open the door for me. I think the winter hardy cover crop seed will sit dormant until— and it may take a long time, it's winter— until it's 45 degrees, enough for it to germinate. Then it will sprout. And if it sprouts and it goes cold again, it will be then protected by the hardiness of the seed, or the— and/or the mulch, and/or the Agribond. Mr. Brown said he wanted to check the eggs. Always encourage their participation in chores. Maybe put this here. Maybe the dog will stay out of it. Maybe not. Okay, let it down. Are you going inside? You want me to show you how to do it from the outside? No, suit yourself. Pet peeve of mine to go into the chicken coop. That's why I've made it totally manageable from the outside. Good boy. How many you got?

A lot.

Thank you, Icelandics.

Is there more in that one?

Wow. How many did you get, Mr. Brown?

5.

My crazy friends Curtis Stone, Cindy and Michael from Part-Time Permis, Casey Oswitch from Honey Tree Farm all think this is possible. Here we go.

I made my hood on.

No, you want it on?

Yeah.

Okay, keep that hood on.

He'll ride you.

Don't go in there. Uh-uh. All right, Mr. Brown, I got your back. Hey, we're gonna get your food.

Relax.

No eggs?

Yeah, they were all ours.

Okay. Whoa, what a beautiful egg! Good job. Continuing our multi-day Tam laps. It's gonna be really cool to see a time-lapse video of them working this garden over a 14-day period. Think that'll hold? As long as you don't bump it. Curtis doesn't even think I need mulch or Agribon. Wouldn't that be nice? I'm a little nervous about that. So let's do an experiment. One row, nothing. Nothing but this amazing hardy seed. Another row, just mulch. And we can easily get that mulch going ahead of time. The pigs are in here. We want to bed their shelter with our relatively seed-free hay, moving the shelter around, adding new hay every day. It's automatically getting mulched and ready to plant next time we come around. A third experiment, third trial is mulch and Agribond, which is the one I like because I guess I'm very conservative and nervous about this. I really want this to work. Let's real quick get any like bigger roots up and out before we do this experiment. Like this one, we'll use the potato fork. We got the major roots out. I interrupt this program to bring the cows in and continue training Crazy Head Cow to the stanchion. Jonah, be careful, she could come back. Jonah, Jonah, Jonah, hey, go there. Thank you. Really?

Oh, is it first from the dairy?

Yeah, we'll have to do her first. I don't want them to get squished. Inside of there or Flossie horn her. Yeah, we'll just go with it. Do her first night. Should have really learned my lesson yesterday. While Jonah milks teamwork this morning, I'm gonna finish doing the seed project. Let's mix our seeds and then let's throw them. Now let's rough it in a little bit, get a little bit of soil coverage. I just did an okay job at that. How's it going?

Can you finish it?

It's so hard. Are you already— you got most of it? No. Okay, well, you load this wheelbarrow up full of this loose hay. Where's my audiobook? Okay, Jonah did one load of wheelbarrow, and I think you'd rather do this job, honey. Warmer for the hands. Oh, so close, so close. We're gonna have to break up in a bale to get the rest of it. I want to come to about right here. Oh, Jonah milked her for all she's worth. Hey, I think just the rest of the loose hay— oh yeah, there's a bit left. Rest of the loose hay, jam that wheelbarrow full. I think that'll do it. Come on, Miss Stank, today's the day. Hey, Aunt Flossie, I thought today was the day, honey. No, uh, come on, come on. Come on, good girl. Come on, come on, come on. There we go, there we go, there we go. Ho ho ho! Come on, come on. All right, in a second, get her. Come on, you can't go that way. All right, there, get her feet, get her feet.

Come on, come on, get the camera out.

All right, get this loose hay up, buddy. All that, it's in the way anyway. All right, we got it down now, Jonah. It's looking good. Left this side bare. I mean, it had some hay on it from the operation, but hey, Jonah, let's get an Agribond, weigh it down, and be done. Let's do a dual experiment. We'll get one of these Agribonds see how that does now that it started without Agribond compared to the stuff under Agribond, and then use this over there. There we have it— mulched, mulched and Agribonded— nothing. Time will tell.