After the bulldozers scraped a somewhat level spot near the lane for this year’s building project, we had a lot of exposed subsoil.  I messed around with the tractor in the area for a few weeks in between other projects, moving dirt here and there to adjust things a bit.  I didn’t want the soil to erode, so I pulled some three year old seed from a bin in the garage and enlisted Harry’s help broadcast sowing it.  Broadcast sowing seems like a good task for someone who is six, but getting him to understand the concept of even distribution was challenging.  So we got some very dense stands and some bare spots.  It wasn’t a critical project, and I’m surprised at how high a rate of germination we saw with old seed.  The mix was mostly Dwarf Essex Rape and Daikon Radish, with a little red clover.

I’m impressed by how much growth this mix has produced since sowing in September.  Radishes are two inches in diameter and over a foot long.  Both the rape and the radishes are quite succulent and they are popular with both the cattle and the pigs.  Even with frosts, the leaves perk right up after the sun burns through.  I need to keep this in mind next year for reseeding the late summer pig pastures.  This would provide high quality winter cattle forage.