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Grow Happy Hill (rice made by Masanobu Fukuoka), starting with making a seed bed

Happy Hill (rice breed made by Masanobu Fukuoka)

I've been growing Happy Hill ―a rice breed made by Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese farmer and philosopher famous for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands― for three years.

Happy Hill is said to be strong against illness and damages from insects. They grew healthily for three consecutive years without pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, or any other chemical substances. And even without irrigation. As for water, they could grow only with rain water (and some little water which seeped from a neighboring rice paddy).

My rice growing starts at the end of April.


I had soaked rice seeds and waited until they their tiny roots started to appear.




The above picture is a seed bed I started to make at the center of the paddy.



Roots of perennial plants should be removed.

お米（ハッピーヒル）の種まき

Sowed seeds on the ground and covered with soil.


I made arches from bamboos for covering with nets in order to keep off birds such as sparrows. In the first year of rice growing, they ate almost all of the rice seeds I sowed and I had to tried several times with different ways of covers, ending up with using the artificial net (2 x 2 centimeters).



Bamboo grasses (shino-dake) could be utilized to set up the netting and prevent birds from entering in the nursery.


お米（ハッピーヒル）の苗代

It's done! It will take a few weeks before they sprout.



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