This garden contains mostly storage crops like potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and winter cabbage. An ATV was driven back and forth over freshly cultivated soil to mark out approximately 3 foot wide beds. The wheel tracks from the quad make excellent garden paths. As can be seen in the picture below. Who will be doing the work? Will the garden be a group project with family members or friends who will work willingly through the season to a fall harvest, or will you be handling the hoe alone, in between camping and swimming? What do you and your family like to eat? Although the vegetables pictured in the garden catalogue look delicious, there is no value in taking up gardening space with vegetables that no one eats. Make a list of your family's favourite vegetables, ranked in order of preference. This will make a useful guide in deciding how much to plant of each. Successive plantings of certain crops, such as beans, will give you a long harvest period and increase your yield while saving space. List recommended varieties and planting dates. How do you plan to use the produce from your garden? If you plan to can, freeze, dry, or store part of the produce, this will be a factor not only in planning the size of the garden but also in plant selection since some varieties have much better keeping quality than others. Make sure the varieties you select are adapted to your area and intended use. How much space is available? That is, how much area can be converted into usable garden space, not simply how much empty ground is available. Helpful Suggestions
1 Comment
So let's talk no till gardening. Now I've never owned a Rototiller or been able to get my hands on one so I can't compare methods but I can tell you what I know about no till/no dig gardening. In particular I'm talking lasagna gardening also known as sheet mulching, sheet composting or sheet gardening. Seeing as I've never had access to a tiller no till gardening was a no-brainer who wants to hand turn a 20x40 foot plot? Now I love to dig, you should see the duckpond I dug by hand, but I do not want to dig that much garden up. So when I wanted to expand my veggie gardens, and I mean a serious expansion, I went with a lasagna garden, actually three, then another two and then just one more (insert a crazy smile). The term lasagna garden comes from the layers that the garden is made of. First a layer of cardboard, followed by layers of the manure, soil, mulch, straw or hay (straw is preferable because it lacks seeds), bedding from my chicken coop and whatever else I could get my hands on for free or cheap. If you had lots of grass clippings those could be added. If you had lots of leaves litter that could be added, get creative. I even add partially composted yard waste (pulled weeds), and kitchen scraps. The order of the layers isn't really that important save for the first and the last. Always start with the cardboard, it's what prevents the grass and weeds from growing up into your garden. Over time it will actually kill the grass and your garden will be connected to the soils below. Your final layer should be something that you can work seeds or seedlings into easily, my preferences are aged wood mulch and aged manure or of course soil. I cover the soil with mulch after I plant. If you add partially composted materials to these layers it's not going to smell too pretty until it's covered up with that final layer. In my experience building a number of lasagna style beds once it's covered it won't stink. I've also built lasagna style mounds on top of already established beds for heavy feeding crops like pumpkin and squash which really enjoy the nutrient rich ingredients of the mound. |
Gardening info
here you will find how to info from us and around the web Archives
March 2017
Categories |