This year we have permission to extend the garden we've been keeping at my dads! I have had my eye on a very sunny patch roughly 12X20 next to the driveway. I want to up the ante on my canning this year and keep track of how many pounds of produce we can take out of the dirt! My father wants to set up a garden more toward the back of the property, which to me, is very shady. I think the new driveway patch with raised beds and large planters will be more prolific due to the many hours of sun - he thinks not....OK...It is on senor...IT. IS. ON!
The old original patch has dappled light which seems to be very good for the cukes and some beans - the tomatoes did somewhat well last year, but I could see them reaching toward the sunniest corner - plus they whispered to me...
So this year the Sun Patch will have raised beds (easier because I refuse to pitchfork that packed earth.) The tomatoes will have their way in the sun and I will hopefully be gifting mucho salsa @ the holidays along with more bread and butter pickles! I will also be trying some new experiments MUHAHAHA! They shall include, but not be limited to:
3 Sisters Planting!
I read a book a while ago called, The Shoestring Girl by Annie Brewer, it was chock full of wonderful $ saving tips. This is one of them! This is the ultimate in companion planting! The method calls for planting corn (starch) and waiting until it gets a bit tall, then plant beans (protein and nitrogen for the soil) that will climb up the corn stalk, then plant squash (flesh and seeds) which will act as a natural mulch! Some enthusiasts call for putting a little chunk of fish in the soil to aid with the nutrients...but I live in bear country and I had scary visions of those lumbering giants pawing at the entire crop to get the fish as I look on in horror...no I will forgo the fish! The next experiment shall be:
Potato Tower!
I have seen this in several places - a blog called one hundred dollars a month and again in the book Shoe string Girl. There are many variations if you search images but the one that I am going to employ is simple chicken wire (or the rectangular kind) 4' high and round - edges attached to make a huge cylinder. You can save potatoes that you have 'sprouted' in your fridge - or order seed potatoes and you plant them then cover over with hay...when the leaves start to grow you repeat and repeat and repeat until the cylinder is full. when the leaves die off you clip the tower apart and taters will come tumbling down!!! Sounds like so much fun and I can't wait to try this with the boys!
Bean TeePee!
I did a version of this at my old house and boy do beans grow - I could eat them every day! Unfortunately the teepee had collapsed under the weight of the grabbing vines, but it was very enchanted when It reached it's peak! I'm going to do a smaller version and see how it goes. If you have kids Beans are an instant gratification plant - you can watch it grow almost daily and the more you pick it seems like the more you have!
Asparagus Patch
If beans are instant gratification Asparagus is a slow growth stock...It takes a year to establish and you may be able to harvest the following year. I don't know how true it is but I have heard that Anthropology types have been able to map out rural towns the the earth has reclaimed by the kitchen plots of asparagus - for once it takes hold it never stops. I love mine roasted with fresh black pepper and olive oil! This will be worth the trial if it takes :)
Container Carrots
If you have ever had fresh carrots with butter and dill you know what I am talking about! Carrots have been a love/hate in the garden for me. I plant. I pray. I see the delicate foliage of the carrot like a green apparition. I grow excited. Then impatient. Then I dig one up to find the only thing that has grown is an orange oblong marble. SIGH. I then read an article which suggest carrots need soft dirt so a large container with softer soil is the answer - we shall see!
I am going to incorporate Heirloom seeds in the hope of saving our seeds for future planting and finally having a 'closed' system without necessary future purchases. This would be the ultimate as far as I am concerned! Gardening and Saving seeds is and exercise in science and hope...Never been much for science...but hope - well I dwell there daily!
Good Energy to your plot or pot of dirt! Exercise yourself in Hope!
