Back to Eden Gardening and Hugelkulture and other non-conventional garden methods

[Leahs Mom]

@KDOGG331
I agree with the others. Start small so you don't burn out trying to do too much and give up.

One thing we've done is plant around the deck on the back of the house. We do have a garden area, but if we didn't, I can get quite a bit around the deck. It's not an overwhelming area to plant and it's right outside the back door where you can harvest when you go out to feed the chickens.

Zucchinis look amazing planted there. Makes a nice looking "landscape plant" One year we had spaghetti squash that vined up the deck and then laid on the deck floor. Awesomeness to go out and have spaghetti squashes laying on the deck ready to be harvested

Cantaloupes up there one year. Tomatoes other years. Always rotating around various things so not planting the same thing twice.

Even these little landscape areas are prepared and deep mulched like the larger garden.

 

[igorsMistress]

I'm working my way around the garden, trenching the sod from inside and outside the CP fence. At the back side, where the sod was never removed from the fencing on the inside, I am simply using a spade to turn the sod over so roots are exposed. I then plan to cover the upside down sod area with thick cardboard, cut some "planting holes", add some compost, and plant seedlings in the holes.

@lazy gardener I have a question about this...ok maybe a few lol.

Are you putting down multiple layers of cardboard or just one that's heavy duty?

Do your planting holes go all the way down to the sod underneath?

I have to tell you that I love reading about what you do in your garden! And thank you for sharing with us. In Cali I could grow just about anything, but in AZ it's a battle until my soil is improved. Your tidbits of info really help with accomplishments in this area.

 

[lazy gardener]

I will be laying the cardboard directly on top of the upturned sod. If it's light weight cardboard, I'll do multi layer. I overlap the pieces so the buried plants will not so easily be able to find their way to the light of day. Then, I will wet the cardboard down well, and cut my planting holes, loosen the underlying sod a bit, put the compost in the hole, and tuck in my seedling or seeds. Hoping to be able to get a good wood chip mulch over that cardboard. But, even if that doesn't happen, the cardboard will work it's magic. Worms LOVE cardboard, they will work the area heavily. Next spring, there may still be a bit of evidence of sod left. But by the end of next growing season, the area will be thoroughly enriched, the soil will be friable, And other than the initial flipping of the sod, and perhaps pulling some rocks, I'll be doing very little labor.

Thank you for the compliment. I love playing in the dirt. It's my psycho therapy and exercise all rolled into one fun package.

 

[lazy gardener]

We had an old collapsed swimming pool that was filled in last year in the back yard where we are. The guy the filled it was supposed to bring top soil but it is pitiful. Right now I'm just trying to get grass to grow so was trying to find somewhere to get a good top soil that isn't laden with chemicals.

We get out plant starts and milk from certified organic local farms so I just had the thought to contact them to see if they had any CLEAN composted manure (clean meaning no chemical). [I figured that they were using all their manure for their own fields so I never pursued it in the past.]

One of them has all the composted manure that we can use. I'm very excited. I think it will cost us about $40 for quite a bit. I don't remember the measurement type they stated. I'm so excited to get it and I have another almost 1 acre area that I've wanted to use manure on for quite some time as it's very sandy and in full sun. The area doesn't grow anything well so I'm hoping that manure will go a long way toward reclaiming that area.


Oh...and while I'm on the topic of "clean" manure, those that are using the straw bale gardens - please be careful of the same issues with chemical that can destroy your planting area. A quick link for consideration:

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/danger-of-straw-bale-gardening-no-one-is-mentioning/

LM, glad to have your input. Are you turning that pool area into a garden? Since it won't grow grass right now, and I bet it's an area that gets a lot of sun, it would make a perfect garden spot. You could enrich it with that manure, and also do some lasagna or sheet composting there. It's always a crap shoot when you have earth work done. I had a lot of land cleared a few years ago. Lots of trees cut, land leveled. The guy who did the work left a life time of clean up for us. He dug huge craters, buried the slash wood, then topped it off with all of the sub soil that came out of the holes. Essentially, I lost ALL of my top soil, and was left with stony, gravelly, clay. He promised that the area would be ready to seed for a lawn when he was done. Yeah... right... NOT! I spent all of that summer dragging, hauling rocks, leveling, and seeding a chunk of it at a time. Thus the HK mound.

Thanks for posting that article. I didn't take the time to read it, but have a good idea what it says. Even bringing manure in from outside sources is not exempt from the long term effects of those herbicides, as they have a very long effective life, and pass through the animal's system into the manure without significantly degrading. So the very manure that the unsuspecting person uses to grow vegetables ends up poisoning the soil and killing the plants for years to come. POWER TO THE CHICKEN, AND HER LOVELY POO!!!!!!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

Yet an other benefit I'm seeing from BTE gardening: Ants seem to hate it. While I have ants at the edges of my garden, and also where the wood chips are thin, there is little evidence of them in the heavily chipped areas. Also, very few signs of cut worms this year as well. I'm thinking that the moths can't reach the soil, so have no place to lay their eggs!!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

When we started our garden area we did like you - turned the sod removing some of it to the compost pile and some just stayed. Planted starts, then covered EVERYTHING ELSE with cardboard. That first year we only used the cardboard then at the end of the season brought over some soil from under the deep litter and let the chickens spread it on the garden area in the fall.

We continue to cover with cardboard every year after we plant and it does break down well. Haven't plowed since it was started and it's always ready for planting in the spring.

I have piles of wood chips curing. When I use the little chicken house I put that in the run area and they spread for me. Keeps their ground very healthy and full of worms. My daughters took pickup loads of the wonderful soil out of that run to start raised beds.

I haven't put the chips on top of the cardboard in the veg garden as the cardboard seems to do the job there and it's a large area. But I do put them in the smaller beds at the back of the deck and the herb area that's at the back of the garage.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@lazy gardener
On that pool area - we want that to just be grass. It has grown some, but the soil looks mostly like sand. The guy that did that also partially cleared a wooded area like you describe....we're still working on that area. Trying to get a cover of pasture grasses on that initially (with some clover) then will likely put some fruit trees out there.

I'm thinking we might experiment with the "clean" composted manure in the old pool area. My thought at this point is to spread some there and re-seed right on top to see what it will do. I'm not real excited about turning it in as there is already a bit of sparse grass growing. Hoping it will work just on top

 

[lazy gardener]

No doubt it will. Your biggest challenge will be to keep it moist. I have found that cardboard is my best friend when starting carrots. I prepare the bed, sow the seed, water it in well, and then cover with cardboard. The seeds seem to germinate very well under the cardboard. The last batch of carrot seeds I planted did not even get a covering of soil. (Always experimenting) Just sprinkled the seeds, soaked them in well, and tossed on the cardboard. I check every day for moisture and germination. Keep it moist, and remove the cardboard as soon as a good number of the seeds have sprouted. Any how, you might try the same with your grass seed. (I would rake it in a bit)

 

[igorsMistress]

No doubt it will. Your biggest challenge will be to keep it moist. I have found that cardboard is my best friend when starting carrots. I prepare the bed, sow the seed, water it in well, and then cover with cardboard. The seeds seem to germinate very well under the cardboard. The last batch of carrot seeds I planted did not even get a covering of soil. (Always experimenting) Just sprinkled the seeds, soaked them in well, and tossed on the cardboard. I check every day for moisture and germination. Keep it moist, and remove the cardboard as soon as a good number of the seeds have sprouted. Any how, you might try the same with your grass seed. (I would rake it in a bit)

I know this isn't a reply for me but I have another question...is the cardboard simply a mulch layer to keep everything moist until the carrots sprout? I would guess that you get better germination rates and water less too.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Part of the cardboard for me is that it eliminates weeds.