I just had a salad for dinner today. It was delicious and it had everything to do with the fresh greens from the garden. Lettuce and spinach are doing well and we are harvesting whenever possible. Here is a pic of our front raised bed garden, which was established last year.
This was our second raised bed garden as the first one was constructed with leftover treated wood and was on the site of what we are now calling the "back garden." We are reworking this area for next year. I built these boxes last spring with untreated wood and followed the methods of "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. We did make some "Mel's Mix," from amendments purchased from Will's Greenhouse in Vassar, MI. One-third compost, one-third vermiculite, one-third peat moss. We had a good year last year and "freshened up" the boxes this spring. The silver trellises are electrical conduit I bent and connected together. Diana tied on the nylon trellis netting and they stand with the help of half buried reinforcement bars (rebar) that fit perfectly in the conduit. Cinder blocks were used to make a usable boundary, but this has not been overly successful as we had hoped to grow onions and garlic in them. We are still trying and won't give up on it yet. Some flowers have done well in them. The boxes to the left are leftover treated boxes from the back garden. They have normal soil in them and will only be used for flowers.
Changes this year include a three foot polyfence as the rabbits ate our beets last year and had already started on some of our greens. Corners are secured on four foot medium grade fence posts and the yellow poles are fiberglass driveway markers that are woven through the fence for stability. I made the gates out of ripped 2x4s that were left over from the chicken tractor. No hinges, just attached with some wire that was repurposed from the old garden boxes. The gates sit on the cinder blocks and have polyfence hanging down to keep out the rascally rabbits. One problem: the entire garden sits on weed block. Not a problem last year and did work as it was a lush front lawn that we killed with vinegar and dish soap. However, if we were to do it again, we would use the "lasagna" method. I have seen people use soaked cardboard and newspaper, which I think would have worked and created a natural, organic solution to the weed block. Oh well, I'm not going to rip it out until those boxes rot out.
Below are more pics of the plants, most of which have been either direct sown right into the soil, or started briefly indoors and in our small greenhouse. This made a huge difference this year with our starters as they did not get leggy, as they have the past two years when starting them in front of a window.
Changes this year include a three foot polyfence as the rabbits ate our beets last year and had already started on some of our greens. Corners are secured on four foot medium grade fence posts and the yellow poles are fiberglass driveway markers that are woven through the fence for stability. I made the gates out of ripped 2x4s that were left over from the chicken tractor. No hinges, just attached with some wire that was repurposed from the old garden boxes. The gates sit on the cinder blocks and have polyfence hanging down to keep out the rascally rabbits. One problem: the entire garden sits on weed block. Not a problem last year and did work as it was a lush front lawn that we killed with vinegar and dish soap. However, if we were to do it again, we would use the "lasagna" method. I have seen people use soaked cardboard and newspaper, which I think would have worked and created a natural, organic solution to the weed block. Oh well, I'm not going to rip it out until those boxes rot out.
Below are more pics of the plants, most of which have been either direct sown right into the soil, or started briefly indoors and in our small greenhouse. This made a huge difference this year with our starters as they did not get leggy, as they have the past two years when starting them in front of a window.
In this picture you can see white flags in the middle of a lawn (well, it was a lawn and hopefully will morph into something more in the coming years). Each flag is a small fruit or nut tree. Peaches, nectarines, plums, plumcots, apricots, chestnuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts are there, just to name a few. Some currants and elderberries are in there as well. We will be continuing to add more to this "food forest" as we go and transition this from an annoying yard to mow, to a low upkeep production area. As the trees grow, we will guild other plants with them so they will grow in symbiosis. Until then, mowing this annoying lawn actually got a whole lot harder . . . for now.
As we ventured around and learned about the plants on the property, we found a number of rogue volunteer plants that ended up becoming surprises. After clearing the front overgrown area, we found wild raspberries growing in there. I guess this makes it a good place to plant berries, so that is what we did. We cleared the back property of all scrub brush/autumn olives so we could pasture chickens and almost pulled out a hidden apple tree. Thankfully we noticed and it got to live and was trimmed this spring to start growing in a beneficial manner.
Finally, we have this year's project--next year's garden. As noted in another post, we had hoped to plant this area for our market garden. Upon further investigation, we decided to wait and improve it. It was low in nitrogen and high in hardpan clay. So we sowed seeds to break up the soil and add nitrogen and also plants that chickens love. In a few weeks they will be on sections of this garden adding their "nitrogen" to the mix. Asparagus in the middle has been doing very well and the black color is actually organic hardwood mulch from Grice's Tree Farm and Nursery. Here is to next year and all the bounty this garden may produce. Our plan is to approach this garden in a format similar to Jean-Martin Fortier, who wrote "The Market Gardener."
There is a lot going on regarding gardens, not to mention the "hugel" mound. Perhaps we have bit off more than we can chew at times, but it's all getting done and for sure we are avoiding the moniker "analysis paralysis" as we are "doing" a lot and are willing to learn (make mistakes) along the way.
- Trevor
- Trevor