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

[lazy gardener]

awesome!

 

[lazy gardener]

I got a good start to the sheet compost garden today: Have yanked all of the raspberry/blackberry brambles from the area, and a few seedling/sapling trees. Laid a base of cardboard, about 4" of leaves, grass clippings, more leaves. An area about 8' x 10' has been covered to a depth of 8 - 10". As supplies become available, the area will be extended forward to join up with the mowable lawn, which is about 25' forward of the area, and about 15" higher in elevation. The soil is actually pretty good there, and the area does not hold water. I am hoping to put up a bean Tee-Pee, or some other support for pole beans, and perhaps grow some squash. Plan is to claim that area so it doesn't grow up to brambles, and also provide flock sanctuary from summer heat and hawk predation. Behind this area, I have 2 Siberian Pea Tree/shrubs planted. They are small yet, but with a few more year's growth, they will also provide some cover and food as well. I have 3 more seedlings started, and plan to keep them potted, hit them heavily with fertilizer so they will put on a lot of growth by late summer. A hedge at the north end of this area would be great!

 

[lazy gardener]

 

[chickadoodles]

I am very excited about the garden. It's loaded with squash, cucumbers and tomatoes.

 

[lazy gardener]

Sweet!

 

[lazy gardener]

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.

The area at the front of the garden, where I expanded the garden foot print with a modified hay bale/lasagna garden 2 years ago has broken down into a fantastic soil. No tilling involved.

My biggest challenge with a lot of the garden is that the soil level of the garden is as much as 4" higher than the surrounding lawn. This is a sharp contrast to the many gardens I see where the garden exists as a square crater in the middle of a lawn. This is due to constantly taking away instead of giving back to the soil. Feed the soil, and it will feed you.

 

[lazy gardener]

My hay bales are nicely conditioned. I have them in a 3 x 2 configuration. If I'd been using my noodle, I'd have put them the other way, so that short ends were exposed front and back of the long bed, 6 bales wide. That would have yielded less seams and been easier to hold together. Today, I decided to plant them. I'm a bit concerned that I've not seen much in the way of weeds sprouting in them. Wondering it it's treated hay. Or perhaps I've burned all of the seeds out by using too much N. If that's the case, my plants will wither up and die as well. Paul, the farmer I buy from assures me it's not treated, and there are plenty of weeds evident in the hay. So, in the back 3 bales, I've planted 3 purple skin/white flesh sweet potatoes on one end, and 3 standard orange fleshed SP on the other end, with a potato in the middle. In the front row, I've planted some geraniums on each end, with marigolds between, and 4 dahlias in the middle. Hoping to be able to tuck some large leaf basil, and some cilantro into the beds as well. Also have some New Zealand spinach seeds. They are supposed to be a 2 - 3 week germination period. May tuck a few of those in as well.

 

[ShrekDawg]

We just got these. They got delivered Saturday but we haven't set them up yet.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008TVEVGG/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I wanted to try the alternative methods mentioned here, especially the lasagna thing and the straw bale one, but my dad's client recommended these and he ordered one without asking aha but that's okay, they seem great. We ordered a second one cause I figured it's better to have two matching so yeah. He says his tomatoes are like 6 feet tall and he grows beans and all kinds of stuff too so they seem like they work.

I figure we can use these this year and then try the other methods another time, like maybe in the fall for next year.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Just found this thread this morning and just finished reading/skimming through every post. Thanks to @lazy gardener for starting it. Really enjoying reading everyone's experiences.

 

[Leahs Mom]

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/