We are having beautiful Fall weather....high 70s to low 80s. perfect for outdoor projects. With the garden reduced to a few tomatoes and peppers still ripening, there is time for other things.
I am really happy with the progress of the strawberries in the hugelkultur tires.
The plants are getting established quickly with large healthy leaves. Just 3 plants in each tire and these were small rooted runners from previous older beds of berries. I have kept all the runners clipped off these new ones. I'm really anxious to see how they yield next year.
I decided to build a large cold frame/raised bed and use the same hugelkultur method as the strawberry tires. I demolished the old compost bins I had built 3 years ago. They didn't work well....I had moved the compost pile out by the corral and these bins were just a catch all and hard to keep neat. So down they came.
I had used primarily salvaged materials to build these and was able to salvage about 90% of the material again.The soil is from a 2 x 12 foot raised bed that was on the back side of the compost bins. I'll use it in the new bed.
I started by marking out a 3.5 x 16 foot space for the new bed. I stripped the sod off it in squares.
I used it and some of the dirt to make dams that will shunt rain runoff toward the pasture. I have had too much water on the garden in heavy rains.Still work to be done on that project before winter.
This is the bed after "excavation".
Now comes the fun part! Adding the hugel mass. I have a pretty good sized woodpile and some of it has turned "punky"...soft and rotting...perfect for the hugel mass.
You can google "hugelkultur" and read some interesting things about the concept. I'll post later with the final steps in completing this bed. After building the frame around it, I'll water in a mix of soil, compost and aged manure around the hugel mass and then fill the bed with topsoil and compost. I'm going to divide it into four 4' beds and make removable lids with corrugated panels (recycled from an old greenhouse at Steve and Wendy's place). So I can use it for a cold frame for early starts or late fall crops, but remove the lids in the summer.
I have enough room here to make 2 more beds this size.........that's a project for another year!
What a project! I would think those lab reports should be excellent with all the work you've done this summer. Should yield a great garden next year.
ReplyDeleteYou know, Dewena, I'm just having the time of my life. I'm very blessed to be able to live here and do this.
DeleteYour gardens always look so very neat and tidy. How do you keep it that way? I know...lots of hard work...only in my dreams would my gardens look like this! I'm glad you're having nice weather, to get all these things done before winter. It's drying off here now, and today was just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your area is drying out a little, Alica. Hope you have some more nice Fall weather.
DeleteIt takes lots of mowing, hoeing and edging to keep the grass out of the garden beds, but sure makes for a nicer way to access them. By the way, your place looks super neat and tidy. If I ever get to Lancaster County, I'd like to have a look!
Hello Ray,
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great project--its east to see that you keep your garden area in top form.
I've been checking out your blog here for a while--you do a good job with it.
We live up here in the far PNW, and have considered moving to TN also... We get higher low temps than TN in the winter up here--the ground has rarely frozen at all at my place in the last 20 years. But we can barely ripen peaches... Its beautiful here, we do love our rhododendrons, and the very long mild dry days of summer are almost worth waiting 10 months for, but I've been debating TN for a while... I've checked out, via the internet, all the way from Pleasant Shade, to Fayetteville, to Pikeville, to Turtletown.
Do you find the heat to be a challenge? I wonder if you'd be willing from time to time to field some questions about your view of the climate differences and such?
Hello Kyle,
DeleteGreat to hear from you! I would be more than happy to answer anything I can for you. We spent the years 1986 to 2005 in Salem, OR. and Vancouver, WA. And I traveled all over the PNW in agri-business. We do miss the rhodies and azaleas and Hood River or Wenatchee apples among other things, but we love it here. The climate is a plus...50" of rain a year tends to come in larger doses and not so much drizzle and gray days as the NW coastal area. Feel free to contact me through the blog or at r.tanner174@gmail.com anytime. Maybe we can be neighbors someday!