The big garden is almost done! Looking back, it has been only three weeks since we started dealing with the huge brush pile, and now we have a garden that is of a size that we should actually be able to get a decent amount of produce out of it for ourselves and our two veggie-loving guinea pigs.You may notice that this garden is right in the ground - no raised beds at all, which was my original plan. It seems like the raised beds weren't meant to be.
It started off when Gord accidentally told the lumber yard to cut six boards in half, instead of three. Then yesterday when our farmer friend came by with his small tractor, he told us that our boards were clearly treated lumber, not untreated lumber and that this wouldn't be good to contain dirt for food-growing purposes. I thought the lumber looked greenish when we got it, but I figured since we had asked for untreated lumber, it was indeed untreated. But I thought wrong. Then, when our farmer friend used his tractor with
the rototiller attachment, he found really good soil under there. "Sandy loam" he called it, which, when amended with some well rotted manure that we also got from the farmer, the garden patch looked terrific!Changes that cause me to deviate from my plan will often really throw me off for a while. But I've been trying to be less attached to certain outcomes, and this time it took me just a few minutes to adapt to the new situation instead of the hour or two it usually takes, while I sit and stew and wish things could be the way I wanted them to be. This time I managed to realize that that time would be much better spent planting than fretting and moping.
And by the end of the day, we had a garden!
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3 comments:
Wow your new patch looks great.
I can imagine soon what that patch will look like!
We have a ground level garden and because we have 2 golden retriever dogs who love veggies, we have a small dog wire fence around it. I have found this is also great to keep possums out.
It also provides sides to drape old sheets or shade cloth over some plants on really hot days or really frosty nights.
And extra small pieces of chicken wire protect small seedlings from birds.
I am finding like you I can let go of attachments much quicker than previously.
I like the way we all can encourage each other whether it be gardening, reading, decluttering or
just chilling out.
Herbs, you must grow lots of herbs, the flowers attract bees, they are heaps good in every thing we eat or drink and they help protect plants from bad bugs and attract good bugs. Have fun in that garden.
Thanks Maggie! I think part of what helped me let go of my idea that raised beds were necessary was my day at the CSA farm earlier this month. I saw there that all you needed to grow food was some seeds, dirt and water. That and that I've been really trying to get better at dealing with change.
I will need some fencing at some point I think, since we do have deer around here, and birds! I had planned to put most of my herbs over in a smaller patch near the house, where I can just dash out and snip some here and there, while cooking. But hey, that could change too! I am planning on putting some marigolds and garlic around the perimeter of the garden, since that's supposed to deter...something, I forget what.
I managed to get the corn, peas, squash and beans in last night before it started to rain. The cucumbers, cantaloupe, carrots, turnips and leeks were in there already. Only potatoes, radish and lettuce left to go! Oh, and a pumpkin or two....
Fantastic! It looks wonderful. And I love how you wrote on the rocks, using them as markers...I'll have to remember that.
As for the raised beds, I was speaking with a friend today who is doing the Square Foot thing (mostly because she is very short on outdoor space) and I was saying that reading SFG made me sort of afraid of "old fashioned" gardening, but that maybe it wasn't so complicated as I thought.
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