There are several new projects underway but, because I’m a “techno-idiot,” most of the photos of these projects have to be taken again (sigh) and downloaded off the camera again (sigh) and then uploaded back onto the computer again (sigh). Oh well. A few pictures did come out okay so here’s one project I can tell you about —
Remember my mention in an earlier post that I would reveal some of the “newbie” mistakes I’ve made during my first year as a homesteader? Well, this would probably be one of the biggest mistakes, and now I’m faced with a huge fall and winter project. In fact, this project is kind of like that children’s story; you know the one . . . “this is the dog that worried the cat, this is the cat that killed the rat, this is the rat that ate the malt, etc, etc, etc, that lay in the house that Jack built.” Yeah, funny how one project becomes four when someone (wonder who???) doesn’t do a very good job in the planning department!
It all started in late spring with some blasted strawberry plants that needed to be planted NOW or left to die. That sense of urgency ended up causing more grief (and now, more work) than I can express! Why didn’t I just let the darned things die and buy more plants??? Hhmmm. . . maybe for the same reason that I planted a tomato plant in the compost pile rather than let it die and now I can’t use the compost pile until the tomato is through producing.
Anyway, the strawberries were slated to grow in a newly bermed up soil bed next to the rock wall near the back door but, at the time, I didn’t have enough of the compost that we had hauled in left to make the bed wide enough. So I planted the berries in as wide a bed as I could make with what compost I had at the time. Remember how lovely I said the strawberry bed would be with the runners trailing over the face of the rock wall? Remember how charming I said it was going to be having berries so close to hand? Well, it is pretty, and it is fun to go pick a handful of strawberries right out the back door to add to the breakfast menu. But — because I didn’t have enough compost to make the original strawberry bed wide enough, I couldn’t visualize how much room I would need for the terraces going up the slope from the rock wall. Of course there isn’t enough room now for the strawberry bed to double itself with new runners on the back side. So now, the small terraces that were just behind the strawberries have to be moved uphill a bit. Which means the ‘straw-bales-turned-into-a-new-terraced-bed’ just above them have to either be moved uphill a bit as well or moved downhill a bit so there’s room for a new bed at the top. Which means there’s a lot of work that needs doing that wouldn’t have needed doing if only I had thought it through at the very beginning! Geez! “This is the dog that worried the cat, this is the cat that killed the rat, this is the rat that ate the malt . . . “
The original plan was that several straw bale gardens would be used a temporary growing method because there was little to no soil on our little half acre homestead. After the spring/summer straw bales were through producing, the decomposing bales would become the soil for new terraces that were built and ready to hold the old straw. All that would be required would be to push the decomposing straw bales forward against the log terrace wall. Easy, right?
So now, I’ve torn down the original log wall near the top of the slope. I’ve built a new wall about two feet further down from the top of the slope so I can put a third growing area, maybe in the form of a raised bed, at the top of the hill before the netted main garden bed. Now, I’m moving the dirt from the two smaller terraces at the bottom of the hill into other beds so I can move those logs further up the hill which will create a very narrow middle terrace so I can widen the blasted strawberry bed. Whew. Didja get all that??? “This is the dog that worried the cat, this is the cat that killed the rat, (yada yada yada) all in the house that Jack built. Or, in this case, that Jackie built. Sigh. Just talking about it tires me out so here’s the story in pictures:
