We have certainly celebrated Earth Day here this week on our little garden plot. Right now I'm "watching" the Live Earth channel on dish network and am enjoying its mellow mix of oldies with a view of earth from their sat dish - kiddos think it's ultra cool.
We started off the week by planting okra, squash, herb and marigold transplants around the garden. I moved a lot of onions around - I guess I accidentally planted some near the peas and just read in my Carrots Love Tomatos book that they inhibit their growth. I am noticing a difference already in less than a week. Wonder if it's soil based? Anyway....
My neice Ally and her baby brother Aidan joined me for two hours on Earth Day, this past Wednesday. Luckily Aidan slept the entire time, so Ally and I were able to water in all the new transplants as well as plant a "boncho lotto seeds" (Ally-speak for a bunch of seeds). We added beans and sunflowers around the pea teepee. They don't typically grow well together, but we're hoping for the best. Our big endeavor was adding hills of watermelon and pumpkin.
Now we just need to add more hills for butternut squash and cucumber. We'll probably add or transplant some radishes and let them go to seed to deter pests. I've actually had a lot of luck so far avoiding pests by using marigolds, radishes, and onions scattered around the garden this season. The lettuce all looks beautiful and I usually see a lot of holes by this time in the season.
Ally spent most of her time filling and refilling her big pink watering can. She kept filling it too full for her to carry, so she watered the lawn as much as the plants. My dog laid down in the kiddie pool and splashed out most of the water, so that signalled time to stop. (I'm trying not to use more water than will fill my barrels, the kiddie pool, and watering cans, but it's a bit tough when the kids enjoy the water more than the dirt.)
Before we went inside, I had to let Ally snack a bit from the beds, so I taught her how to harvest the romaine lettuce. However, after she'd enjoyed a few freshly washed leaves she proclaimed "that's nothing without a bit-o ranch". Then she discovered radishes "hiding their pink heads underground" and had to try one. The look on her face after she took a big bite... priceless!
Thursday we returned again, but Aidan was wide awake and not so happy about the wind and Ally's splashing. She convinced me to "open pool season" and was running around at warp speed in her old pink Dora suit. We were only able to transplant a few tomatoes before I had to stop and feed the baby. There was no stopping her enthusiasm though, and she took turns splashing in the pool and watering the garden. Very fun morning!
After naps, we picked up my son Dylan and my nephew Preston from kindergarten and headed back into the garden for more tomato transplanting. After all, Preston grew them from seed and could not wait to put them in the garden. We covered all the tomato transplants with bottomless milk jugs to hothouse them since it's early in the season. Then we added living mulch to the okra bed. Well, it's not living yet, but we seeded more lettuce/spinach/carrot seed in the same method as before. I think it will get enough afternoon shade that it's okay to seed this late. Time will tell.
Preston came for a sleepover Friday - I think it took them two minutes to discover the clean kiddie pool, put on swimsuits and begin the cannonballing...
They ran around grazing on lettuce and radishes for a bit, but then decided to christen the new ice cream parlor area near the teepee. They both ate giant bowls of strawberry frozen yogurt and decided the parlor had officially opened for business :) We set up a mini basketball hoop, made a bunch of stools (upside down pails with towel cushions), and a little dunking booth after they busted holes in the kiddie pool. No surprise! I've never seen a kiddie pool survive an entire season.
Today I should go out and transplant the artichokes, but I want to research site and soil Ph first to insure success. I'm enthusiastically awaiting my Burpee shipment in the next few weeks - a new variety of strong tomatos, eggplants and peppers, hurrah!
Showing posts with label vegetable gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetable gardening. Show all posts
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
March 1, 2009 - Lasagna Garden basics
With a bit of help from my 6 year old, Dylan, I planted mesculin, spinach, carrots, radishes, mint and wild onions in the rear triangle of the veggie garden. We used compost to fill the top 8-12" of the 24" raised bed. The dirt had settled that much since we filled it last spring in the lasagna garden style. I didn't need to water because yesterday's snow made the dirt perfectly moist. This is a great project for Dylan since radishes, lettuce and the like sprout so quickly.
Last year we constructed the rear triangle bed that measures 26' x 26' and we're pushing back the rear fence 3' this year so we can access the back of the 4'x12' raised beds. We're also adding another triangle of similar size toward the front. In between the two triangles, along the fenceline, we'll have a pathway and three compost bins. We built the raised beds with scrap from our fencing. It had sat for years - much to my man's chagrin - so it had to be put to use, and quickly. We only purchased a few extras - otherwise totally free!
A few years ago I read Patricia Lanza's book Lasagna Gardening, and it totally transformed the way that I garden. When you garden this way, you don't dig - you layer up. I'm an avid recycler and being both a mom and nanny to four kids under six, we have lots and lots of cardboard to lay at the bottom of flowerbeds, so that's our first layer. My mom and grandma's newpapers are piled on top of that to make layer two. I usually add compost, dirt or peat moss for layer three - there always seems to be some spot I'm digging around with extra to spare. Layer four is leaves, small sticks, paper towels, kitchen scraps, vacuum refuse, pet hair, grass clippings, and anything else that will compost. My mom's horses supply a layer of barn litter next. I usually purchase a few bags of peat moss to top off the litter, maybe some wood ashes (lots are available this year after the January Ice Storm) and top it all off with at least 6" compost.
I do know that it will all fully disintigrate in one year because today my husband Brent and I moved one of the beds we constructed last year toward the front of the yard. Yesterday we dug it out completely (to top off the rear bed) and it was all composted (except the few plastic bits that had stuck on the cardboard toy boxes at the bottom of the pile.) I wish I had pictures of what happenned next. The two of us used a tiny little dolly to move this very heavy 12x4x2 bed about fifty feet uphill - not a big hill, but still, uphill. We filled it with boxes, newspaper, garden refuse, grass clippings, etc. It's now completely full. Of course, it will compress when we add peat, barn litter and more compost, but it felt like a huge accomplishment.
I had tons of garden refuse because over the past few days I've completely dug out the dogwood's front circle. That's what I call the area inside our circle driveway that holds the mailbox. It became completely overrun last year, much to my dismay, because I was still learning how to balance the life of a new mommy. Dylan came to live with us as a foster child last October and that was my first garden season juggling his needs, my needs, and the garden's needs. That front bed is a time-sucker because it demands constant weeding since it is by the road. Anyone who thinks they can swap perennials and some mulch for the grass patch between the sidewalk and road and walk away maintainance-free is sadly mistaken. Between the wind, heat and the runoff it's nearly impossible to keep that area clean.
I'm going to comprimise with Mother Nature this year and give her a few feet of grass and TRY to claim the rest for daffodills, iris and daylilies. They're all natives to the yard, along with the pink dogwood. It's my homage to the families who've shared our yard for the past half-century. They're the anchor plants in our garden, so the circle sets the tone for the rest of the yard.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish removing the grass in the circle so my three-year-old neice, Ally, can help me plant the daffodills we dug out of a dirt-pile in the backyard last week. She and her six-year-old brother Preston have been gardening with me for years since I get to "play" nanny to them for my youngest sister. Right now she's home with her three-week-old son Aidan, so I have a pretty cushy schedule until she goes back to work. Ally asked to buy Brussels Sprouts seeds (of all things), so we'll plant those tomorrow as well. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she tries those for the first time.
Last year we constructed the rear triangle bed that measures 26' x 26' and we're pushing back the rear fence 3' this year so we can access the back of the 4'x12' raised beds. We're also adding another triangle of similar size toward the front. In between the two triangles, along the fenceline, we'll have a pathway and three compost bins. We built the raised beds with scrap from our fencing. It had sat for years - much to my man's chagrin - so it had to be put to use, and quickly. We only purchased a few extras - otherwise totally free!
A few years ago I read Patricia Lanza's book Lasagna Gardening, and it totally transformed the way that I garden. When you garden this way, you don't dig - you layer up. I'm an avid recycler and being both a mom and nanny to four kids under six, we have lots and lots of cardboard to lay at the bottom of flowerbeds, so that's our first layer. My mom and grandma's newpapers are piled on top of that to make layer two. I usually add compost, dirt or peat moss for layer three - there always seems to be some spot I'm digging around with extra to spare. Layer four is leaves, small sticks, paper towels, kitchen scraps, vacuum refuse, pet hair, grass clippings, and anything else that will compost. My mom's horses supply a layer of barn litter next. I usually purchase a few bags of peat moss to top off the litter, maybe some wood ashes (lots are available this year after the January Ice Storm) and top it all off with at least 6" compost.
I do know that it will all fully disintigrate in one year because today my husband Brent and I moved one of the beds we constructed last year toward the front of the yard. Yesterday we dug it out completely (to top off the rear bed) and it was all composted (except the few plastic bits that had stuck on the cardboard toy boxes at the bottom of the pile.) I wish I had pictures of what happenned next. The two of us used a tiny little dolly to move this very heavy 12x4x2 bed about fifty feet uphill - not a big hill, but still, uphill. We filled it with boxes, newspaper, garden refuse, grass clippings, etc. It's now completely full. Of course, it will compress when we add peat, barn litter and more compost, but it felt like a huge accomplishment.
I had tons of garden refuse because over the past few days I've completely dug out the dogwood's front circle. That's what I call the area inside our circle driveway that holds the mailbox. It became completely overrun last year, much to my dismay, because I was still learning how to balance the life of a new mommy. Dylan came to live with us as a foster child last October and that was my first garden season juggling his needs, my needs, and the garden's needs. That front bed is a time-sucker because it demands constant weeding since it is by the road. Anyone who thinks they can swap perennials and some mulch for the grass patch between the sidewalk and road and walk away maintainance-free is sadly mistaken. Between the wind, heat and the runoff it's nearly impossible to keep that area clean.
I'm going to comprimise with Mother Nature this year and give her a few feet of grass and TRY to claim the rest for daffodills, iris and daylilies. They're all natives to the yard, along with the pink dogwood. It's my homage to the families who've shared our yard for the past half-century. They're the anchor plants in our garden, so the circle sets the tone for the rest of the yard.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish removing the grass in the circle so my three-year-old neice, Ally, can help me plant the daffodills we dug out of a dirt-pile in the backyard last week. She and her six-year-old brother Preston have been gardening with me for years since I get to "play" nanny to them for my youngest sister. Right now she's home with her three-week-old son Aidan, so I have a pretty cushy schedule until she goes back to work. Ally asked to buy Brussels Sprouts seeds (of all things), so we'll plant those tomorrow as well. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she tries those for the first time.
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