In my last post, I updated some of our projects to let you know how things are going. Here are the rest of those updates –
The two small terraced beds just above the rock wall have been successful. The first one was planted in early spring with Kennebec potatoes. That was not where I wanted potatoes to go but I ran out of room in the main netted garden. The plants produced huge, beautiful potatoes that we are busily eating every day. A fall beet crop has been planted there now and protected with straw mulch. Rattlesnake beans climb the trellis in back and vegetable squash, with seed saved from a squash my brother gave me, grow on either side. Here’s the photo update:
The other small terraced bed was planted with carrots in the spring and we’re now enjoying carrots as they reach four to six inches. This bed was also planted with several Boston pickling cucumbers and one canteloupe in the middle (which isn’t getting enough sun because the carrots are shading it out). We’ve harvested a few cucumbers and the plants are loaded with flowers so we’re looking forward to many more.
These two small beds (approximately 4′ x 30″) that looked like this last fall when they were being built,
will become the second tree trunk terraced bed this fall. I’ll push them back up the hill about two feet so the strawberry bed in front of them can be widened to accommodate the runners they’re putting out. The small straw bale garden growing next to them
will become part of the compost that forms soil for the new terraced bed.
So — at the end of this whole two-step project — we will have the main netted garden at the top of the hill. Coming down the slope we’ll have two 16 to 18 foot terraced beds on contour – sort of. They won’t exactly follow the very small curve of the hill, but the terracing will still help hold water and allow it to soak into the beds rather than running down the hill. To the right of the last terrace is where the new blackberry patch is growing. At the very bottom of the slope where the rock wall is we’ll widen the existing strawberry bed and then, under the rock wall near the back of the house, we’ll have the two wood raised beds of 16 feet and 12 feet.
Last, but not least, is the main netted garden bed. The performance here was so-so. Because we had four separate loads of compost hauled in at different times, there was no way to do a soil test unless we pulled a soil sample every two feet. The compost from each load was very different, from the look and smell of it all the way down to the texture. So, basically, I just planted whatever, wherever, and hoped for the best.
And, because I was always running behind on projects, I lost some things. It was a very sad day when I had to pull up all the broccoli plants – complete with nice heads of broccoli on them – and pitch them onto the compost pile. The cabbage moths had beaten me to the broccoli when they were just small buds. The sad part is, I have perfectly good bug mesh in the garden shed that would have kept the cabbage moths off the plants. Cabbage moths. You know, those cute little white butterflies that flit from plant to plant? Every time they “flit” they lay an egg. G-r-r-r-r-r. So, in the end, I just couldn’t stand the thought of hand picking off all the worms crawling through the broccoli heads. That’s okay – I love putting broccoli out in a fall garden and I’ve already started some seed. And this time, I’LL COVER THE PLANTS WITH BUG MESH!!!
So, anyway, some things grew very well, some did okay and some were a mistake. I knew the corn was a mistake because we don’t have enough space for much of a crop. On top of that, I was trying to leave the peas in place (where the corn was seeded in) for as long as possible so some of the corn didn’t come up. What I replanted is now three weeks behind the original plants so I may only get three ears of corn out of the whole mess. But, know what? That’s okay. I just wanted to grow my own one time, even if it means we only get a few ears.
That’s the one thing I will always regret about having this little half acre. I will never be able to grow much corn here – at least not the kind I want (heirloom dent corn with low sugar content). I suppose I could check out the new patio hybrids and, as long as they aren’t GMO (genetically modified organisms — freak science, I ask you!) I may eventually get desperate enough to try growing some of that. My promise was that I would ONLY grow organic, heirloom varieties but . . . no corn???? That just may be too much. Here’s the netted garden as it looked then and now:
There are other smaller updates that I’ll post occasionally – mostly of the mistakes I’ve made. Trust me, I’ve made LOTS of mistakes in this first year that I’ll confess to at a later time. There were several things that I started but didn’t finish because we didn’t get step “a” done in time for step “b” to work. Most of that had to do with getting more trees cut down or needing a temporary place to put something to keep from losing it over the winter. In addition to that, we still need a greenhouse, a chicken coop, chickens, more growing space, more microgreens space, a rocket mass heater to cut our wood consumption, solar panels, a gray water treatment system and fresh water storage. Whew! But that’s okay, there’s still plenty of time – I’ve got the rest of my life to get this little half acre where it needs to be!
