It was a gorgeous day out today, cloudy and breezy, yet sunny--absolutely perfect for working in the garden!
Yesterday Herb finished shoveling all of the soil out of our 18' bed, and today it had to be moved inside the garden fence. Luckily I had laid some 4" fence poles on the ground near it a few days ago, and as I stood gazing at the poles and that heavy, unwieldy thing, I had a brain-storm! Here is my idea, and it really worked! (Poor Herb, I made him stand there so I could get a picture!) Of course it still took a lot of effort, but what a difference some elementary school science makes!
Well, brains will only get you so far--you still need brawn for some things! Good thing Herb doesn't mind being a Stable Pilot! Anyway, I've been sick, so I need to conserve my energy! We have so much composted manure that we put several inches in the bottom of each bed before we put the "black gold" on top. The idea is that by the time the roots grow down that far, it will be even more composted and give the plants lots of good stuff!
Our mostly finished handiwork--and I already found a teeny tiny kale and a lettuce poking their heads up! The left-hand side has 3 beds: peas with spinach and lettuce on the edge; kale in the middle; and more peas, spinach and lettuce. I transplanted strawberries in the holes of the concrete blocks along the back of two of those beds. The deeper wooden bed across the back has a pink champagne currant in the far corner, 6 raspberries, 3 blackberries, and a black currant in the near corner. The bed on the right has 4 blueberries in the taller (farthest) bed; nothing in the middle yet; and 8 asparagus in the nearest bed. All the wooden beds are edged in strawberry transplants--over 60 in all, and all from 6 original plants that I bought last year! Near the pile of concrete blocks is the potato bed, also built of concrete blocks. It's got 6" of compost in the bottom; the potatoes will go on top of that, then be covered by successive layers of hay and compost as they grow. The extra concrete blocks will form a second row to make the bed deeper as needed. (Hey, Barbara, when life hands you concrete blocks, make garden beds!)The wooden bed that we moved out into the middle of the garden will be for tomatoes. I plan to grow a LOT this year--and I don't plan to share them with the chickens!
It was a gorgeous day out today, cloudy and breezy, yet sunny--absolutely perfect for working in the garden!
Yesterday Herb finished shoveling all of the soil out of our 18' bed, and today it had to be moved inside the garden fence. Luckily I had laid some 4" fence poles on the ground near it a few days ago, and as I stood gazing at the poles and that heavy, unwieldy thing, I had a brain-storm! Here is my idea, and it really worked! (Poor Herb, I made him stand there so I could get a picture!) Of course it still took a lot of effort, but what a difference some elementary school science makes!
Well, brains will only get you so far--you still need brawn for some things! Good thing Herb doesn't mind being a Stable Pilot! Anyway, I've been sick, so I need to conserve my energy! We have so much composted manure that we put several inches in the bottom of each bed before we put the "black gold" on top. The idea is that by the time the roots grow down that far, it will be even more composted and give the plants lots of good stuff!
Our mostly finished handiwork--and I already found a teeny tiny kale and a lettuce poking their heads up! The left-hand side has 3 beds: peas with spinach and lettuce on the edge; kale in the middle; and more peas, spinach and lettuce. I transplanted strawberries in the holes of the concrete blocks along the back of two of those beds. The deeper wooden bed across the back has a pink champagne currant in the far corner, 6 raspberries, 3 blackberries, and a black currant in the near corner. The bed on the right has 4 blueberries in the taller (farthest) bed; nothing in the middle yet; and 8 asparagus in the nearest bed. All the wooden beds are edged in strawberry transplants--over 60 in all, and all from 6 original plants that I bought last year! Near the pile of concrete blocks is the potato bed, also built of concrete blocks. It's got 6" of compost in the bottom; the potatoes will go on top of that, then be covered by successive layers of hay and compost as they grow. The extra concrete blocks will form a second row to make the bed deeper as needed. (Hey, Barbara, when life hands you concrete blocks, make garden beds!)The wooden bed that we moved out into the middle of the garden will be for tomatoes. I plan to grow a LOT this year--and I don't plan to share them with the chickens!
AWESOME...I REALLY, REALLY, hope I get to visit this summer!
ReplyDeleteIt should be safe to visit any time now--most of the digging and shoveling is done! You guys did your share--well, Jean-Marc did his share and you took all those great pictures! So you have earned the right to help eat the bounty!
ReplyDeleteWow, your garden is looking great!
ReplyDeleteBarbara
Thanks! It'll look a lot better when there's some red, green, and yellow!
ReplyDeleteMay I say, that garden looks full of "crap" lol
ReplyDeleteI can say that because I helped shovel the manure...!
ReplyDeleteJean-Marc, it is full of it--but oh my, what good food it grows! :)
ReplyDelete