I’ve often talked (complained!) about the “challenging” growing conditions here on our little homestead. And I usually end up with saying something like, “You can learn from my successes and mistakes,” or some other heartfelt encouragement such as, “If I can do it, you can too!”
Well, this post is a perfect example of “all of the above!”
The small size of our property, and being surrounded by dense woodland causes a critical problem for gardening: available sunlight. Our property is south facing, but there are some sizeable trees on either side that limit the hours of direct sunshine. Of course that determines which vegetables I can grow. For example, as you probably know, tomatoes like heat and direct sunshine. Other veggies such as sweet potatoes need extended hours of sunshine.
Another huge problem is all the big rocks and boulders that also limit available growing space. I have to get creative. Nearly everything has to be in raised beds or hugel mounds and then built in the places where I’ve carefully mapped out areas of available sunshine.
But then sometimes I have to dream up a really weird solution.
There’s one section of our homestead that gets a lot of sun each day– but it’s on top of an enormous boulder and surrounded by half-buried rocks the size of suitcases. Pull them out? Those monsters aren’t going anywhere.
But I just couldn’t let all that sunshine go to waste!
So we built a two-level deck that provided some level space over the treacherous, steep incline of the slope. Then I used some of my non-woven grow bags full of compost to grow Yukon Gold potatoes and Centennial sweet potatoes.
The framing was local poplar, sawn at a neighbor’s portable saw mill. The planking was salvaged wood from old raised beds and other scrounged wood around the homestead. My husband has the pack rat gene: never throw away anything when you live this far away from the hardware store. I cut him some slack on this one, LOL.
I planted the potatoes from my own seed potatoes and sweet potato slips and in some of my own rich compost and in my handy 5-gallon grow bags. The bags have been a real blessing for use in exactly the situations I’ve described here– gardening in otherwise impossible growing conditions.
The trick to using the bags is to carefully monitor the water, as the bags will wick away moisture and, as you’d expect, gravity helps water go out the bottom too. Getting the grow bags off the ground also prevented them from being penetrated by voles. I had a couple bags get eaten into by some enterprising voles that burrowed underground and up through the bottom of the bags. They are evil little critters.
Now, I know some of you are thinking, all this could be pretty labor-intensive and materials expensive for a few potatoes! Why, yes it was. My husband built it on the spot with a skilsaw and a bunch of screws. It wasn’t fun, either, building it on that steep slope. He sure knows a lot of cuss words…
However, lesson learned: we successfully converted an otherwise barren, useless portion of our homestead to a vegetable-producing garden plot!
Hope this gives you some ideas of your own!
Here’s an earlier post of mine that talks in more detail about the non-woven grow bags. I’ve gotten heavy use from mine for years now. I love them!
Disclosure: if you decide to buy some grow bags by clicking on the ads in the right hand column I may get a small commission from Amazon.
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