My little garden

[eric charles]

So i am done my little garden , you can check out the pictures i posted to my google account , they were too large to upload on the forum .

My first row on the left are Fantasy tomatoes ,
2nd row Fantasy Tomatoes ,
3rd Spanish sweet onions , large size
4th &5th row , Romane Lettuce ,
6th and 7th Row are Pickling Cucumbers
8th&9th row are Green Peppers

Note: there is place for one more Vegetable on the far right, Me and the wife are arguing over weather to have Corrots or Radishes LOL . I want carrots , she wants radishes .

I had beautiful nice rich soil , mixed in with homemade Compost , some top soil and sheep manure .

Here are the photos

https://plus.google.com/u/0/104834884204684943738/posts

[vilcabamba]

Very nice garden.

My question - when you dug out the former dirt, did you use just a shovel, or did you need some type of equipment to dig out the hard dirt before putting in the good stuff.

I will be in pheonix trying to grow a garden and i'm wondering if i need someone to dig out the hard dirt for me of if i could just use a shovel.

[eric charles]

I just used a shovel , no tiller , I dug about 2ft deep , turned the entire garden over manually quite a few times , when i made my mounds and rows , i mixed it all with compost and top soil to get good nutrients and drainage . But I didnt have dirt , we have here in the St-Lawrence seaway valley here in Quebec, a very rish black soil with clay in it , very nutritious for plants , not sure what you have in AZ

I double dug it , meaning you use the dirt you dug up from the row beside to make the row you are working on , I will not lie to you , it was not easy , but the work will pay itself off .


Now I am wondering myself , becasue I want to do this 100% organically , how would i go about feeding this garden , other then compost tea I make once a week , what other things organic could I use ?

[Zelig]

Here is a link to a slideshow featuring my weird garden. Allegedly, a 'hugelkultur' bed, if built properly, will never need watering, weeding or any real work. The logs in the core of the bed act as sponges, storing excess water and releasing it during dry spells. I've never grown anything before but my seeds have already begun sprouting after one week. I am in northern Ontario (zone 1) so I'll be quite happy if this produces some food for me. I apologize for the untidy yard. My dogs are slobs.

http://s1274.photobucket.com/user/whiskeychikaho/slideshow/Hugelkultur?sort=9

[Gardener]

Hi Eric, I can recommend growing comfrey as a fertiliser, its tough and wild and puts down very deep roots which contact minerals which have often been leached out of the top layers of soil. It can be composted or made into a liquid feed by stuffing the harvested plants into a tub and covering with water.

It can yield 3 crops in a season and bees love the flowers.

PS Runner Beans are a good cropper from a small amount of space and provide green beans which can last all winter, when frozen. :)

[jbins]

Off to great start Eric, gonna have some tasty greens there real soon! Earthworm castings are great organic plant food, you can make a tea with them the same as compost tea(i add some unsulphered blackstrap molasses and bubble my teas for about a day). There are also some botanicals you can add to your teas if you have them around. I've used stinging nettle, alfalfa(only by the handful per 5g it can be strong) and sometimes aloe. I also obtained some "comfrey bocking 14" that i'm growing a bunch of to start using in teas and under my mulch and such after reading up on it.

Last year i got a late start on the garden(gonna be the even mo later this year lol) and didn't want to rent a tiller or shovel our hard clay soil here. I just bought a couple truckloads of compost dumped it on the ground in rows and added some mineral mix(azomite is a good one) and mulched(great for holding moisture and protecting microbial life). To my surprise it was quite successful, i had tons of tomatoes and squash(still some from last year layin around, yeah organics!) and a bunch of other stuff. i was previously under the impression you had to till but after some research and trying it myself i don't think i will anymore.

Any way you do it organic gardening is great, especially with how much organics cost at the store and in my experience it always seems to taste better(maybe it's the individual attention and love they get). Good on ya, mate!

[Lifebringer]

Why not do both? They are both root veggies.

[Lifebringer]

Thanks that just gave me a good idea with the pile of tree limbs I cut last winter, and just as the seeds started dropping from the maple trees.

I am gonna use some of it to make charcoal in a steal small trash can for controlled burn. The wood charcoal will absorb toxins in water along with the pebble and sand in the two liter plastic bottles. You know, rain water and stored water before drinking or after boiling. Rain runoff and capture barrels.

[Lifebringer]

I build garden boxes and place them in a well sunlighted area of about 5-8 hrs. A lot of trees and roots from neighbors trees, and some have gotten cut because of rot, so there's more sunshine in the garden. I think I'll try your method. Looks great for fertilization of the seeds and roots.

[Lifebringer]

That's easy. If your a coffee drinker, use the used grounds, egg shells, banana peels, tree leaves without seeds, and any veggie scraps after dinner. Save all the seeds, dry them on paper towel in the sun for a day, and then throw them in the compost heap. If you have that clay tobacco ruined or cotton stripped soil, this mixture works great in the southern heat. The grounds help the roots stay aerated, the banana decomposition feeds the dead soil and leaves work into the coffee grounds and sandy dirt to give you healthy soil after one winter if you turn it a month before planting. Box the area, dig the soil or add from the store. Staple a plastic tarp for mulching during the cold months, and turn your bad soil over in the compost to ready it for planting.

This is my secret soil rejuvenator bought here among friends, that has yielded me 24 feet sunflowers with quadruple heads/flowers, juicy loaded with vitamin tomatoes, and cucumbers that will make you bite your tongue they are that good when chewing.

Enjoy the mix. One packing tub you store clothes in, when filled, can do a 100 ft. garden and the juice from the bananas, coffee grounds and veggies while composting in a container with drainage, is great to store in a bottle as it is concentrated and you can use a cap per gallon to add when you water or just pour 1/2 cup on the rooted soil with watering.

Bon a patite.:wizard:

[Lifebringer]

Boxes are cooler on the roots in AZ sun. you can always add water and it will stay on the roots if the box is mulch, clay and then soil layered.

[sandy]

And.........................................watch out for the hail!!!!!! Just had 37 minutes of non stop hail (no hot weather or signs of hail other than thunder with no lightning) and in 65 years in western Canada I have never experienced it hailing any longer than 8-10 minutes.

Garden and flower beds are pretty well shot..................................so we will see what may recouperate but don't have much hope.....tomatoes were flowering, squash, cucumbers, onions, radish, etc were just coming up but now they are down :( big time.....so disheartening. Hopefully the Universe will revive some of the marigolds, porchelacka, petunia's, etc so will wait and see what the final outcome will be in a few days.....................rain in the forecast for the next few days so hopefully next week some things will show how strong they were and surivived the beating :)

Thanks for the pics......happy gardening everyone

[eric charles]

That's easy. If your a coffee drinker, use the used grounds, egg shells, banana peels, tree leaves without seeds, and any veggie scraps after dinner. Save all the seeds, dry them on paper towel in the sun for a day, and then throw them in the compost heap. If you have that clay tobacco ruined or cotton stripped soil, this mixture works great in the southern heat. The grounds help the roots stay aerated, the banana decomposition feeds the dead soil and leaves work into the coffee grounds and sandy dirt to give you healthy soil after one winter if you turn it a month before planting. Box the area, dig the soil or add from the store. Staple a plastic tarp for mulching during the cold months, and turn your bad soil over in the compost to ready it for planting.

This is my secret soil rejuvenator bought here among friends, that has yielded me 24 feet sunflowers with quadruple heads/flowers, juicy loaded with vitamin tomatoes, and cucumbers that will make you bite your tongue they are that good when chewing.

Enjoy the mix. One packing tub you store clothes in, when filled, can do a 100 ft. garden and the juice from the bananas, coffee grounds and veggies while composting in a container with drainage, is great to store in a bottle as it is concentrated and you can use a cap per gallon to add when you water or just pour 1/2 cup on the rooted soil with watering.

Bon a patite.:wizard:


Yes i use all of these kitchen wastes , and make a tea with them . I was just wondering if there was something else , as someone else pointed out , worm castings work well also .

[eric charles]

Ive just read , that putting wood , rotten wood , in compost or directly in a garden is not good at all , it creates a fungus that feeds on nitrogen, and will eventually ruin your soil .

[transiten]

Hi! Nice break from the interesting but depressing cabal/financial tyranny/hoaxes etc posts. On my way to my allotment i wonder about mold in vegetable "garbage" will that also ruin the compost?

[heyokah]

Well, this is just lazy me ;-)

http://i39.tinypic.com/2s7vs61.jpg

[Zelig]

Ive just read , that putting wood , rotten wood , in compost or directly in a garden is not good at all , it creates a fungus that feeds on nitrogen, and will eventually ruin your soil .

Yes, if you use a lot of fresh-cut or barely-rotted wood, the logs will use up a lot of nitrogen in the first year. Adding lots of manure, compost and food scraps offsets that, apparently. Everything I say is based on research, not experience though.

[eric charles]

Ive just read , that putting wood , rotten wood , in compost or directly in a garden is not good at all , it creates a fungus that feeds on nitrogen, and will eventually ruin your soil .

Yes, if you use a lot of fresh-cut or barely-rotted wood, the logs will use up a lot of nitrogen in the first year. Adding lots of manure, compost and food scraps offsets that, apparently. Everything I say is based on research, not experience though.

Yeah me also , I bought a book , tailored for the Canadian gardener(beginner to expert) , its called , Guide to Canadian Vegetable gardening by Douglas Green , I would recommend it for every Canadian wanting to garden , very informative .

[Rosieposie]

Can you buy bags of animal manure where you are? (cows, horse, sheep, chicken) they are some of the more powerful feeders, or if you know someone with those animals you can go gather yourself. Seaweed if you are near the beach is awesome although it can be better to compost it first or make a tea as its strong also can be smelly but it is gold on the garden! Mulch mulch mulch, just keep adding organic material, think like a forest! You can put grass clippings on if all else is lacking just be aware that too much grass over years can make it acidic but the theory is is to always be adding, give give give to that dirt! Over here we often do Autumn crops of things like clover, barley, peas etc that you dig in once they are grown to improve the soil. Remember legumes add nitrogen to the soil so you can rotate crops like beans and peas, lentils, even chickpeas depending on climate to help keep nitrogen up. Just keep in mind too much nitrogen isn't good for all plants as nitrogen encourages green growth primarily so too much and you end up with small carrots but huge leaves lol.

And here is a little known secret that big corporations won't like you knowing and it may sound a little gross to some but you can check out some of the research on it if interested. Human urine is actually the best fertiliser for plants available lol. Unless you are sick (UTI I mean) your pee is sterile (i can hear the ewwwwws people!) and it has been shown to produce bigger crops than any commercial fertilizer. It has nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium I think I read somewhere that our pee has some type of chemical component that actively encourages plant growth aswell and studies have shown it to be better than many other animals, just dilute 1/5 with water and use fresh and don't tell non green neighbours lol! here if interested: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/studies-conclude-urine-good.htm

[eric charles]

Well, this is just lazy me ;-)

http://i39.tinypic.com/2s7vs61.jpg

Well thats nice man , you can still grow some good veggies in there . Just need to water more often thats all . It's not lazy , just a different method . You might even get better yeild in boxes like that if your soil in your yard isnt good .

[eric charles]

Hi! Nice break from the interesting but depressing cabal/financial tyranny/hoaxes etc posts. On my way to my allotment i wonder about mold in vegetable "garbage" will that also ruin the compost?

From what I understand transiten , all organic matter creates the "good bacteria " that is necessary for your plants . Stay away from putting meats , and greasy foods such as fries though .

[eric charles]

And if you want to have a wicked time while making your garden and doing outsied work , Throw in a little music like this and have a good time doing it

g02WR0OZ0MA

A little bit of Lynyrd Skynyrd will put some life to your day .I always find myself playing guitar on my shovel when stuff like this is playing hahaha

[heyokah]

Well, this is just lazy me ;-)

http://i39.tinypic.com/2s7vs61.jpg

Well thats nice man , you can still grow some good veggies in there . Just need to water more often thats all . It's not lazy , just a different method . You might even get better yeild in boxes like that if your soil in your yard isnt good .

Hi Eric,

I, heyokah am a 66 year-old woman who lives at the foothills of the Massif Central in France where it rains quite a lot. 
So I think it's OK :)
Originally I'm a city girl from Amsterdam and it has been my wish, for so many years,  to grow my own organic food.
And.... This is my first try ! LOL

[eric charles]

Well, this is just lazy me ;-)

http://i39.tinypic.com/2s7vs61.jpg

Well thats nice man , you can still grow some good veggies in there . Just need to water more often thats all . It's not lazy , just a different method . You might even get better yeild in boxes like that if your soil in your yard isnt good .

Hi Eric,

Me, heyokah is a 66 year-old woman who lives at the foothills of the Massif Central in France where it rains quite a lot. 
So I think it's OK :)
Originally I'm a city girl from Amsterdam and it has been my wish, for so many years,  to grow my own organic food.
And.... This is my first try ! LOL


Ahhh cool Parlez-vous Francais ? Vous venez D'Amsterdam , vous devriez plantez quelques plants exotique si vous saviez quoi je veut dire hahahaha

[heyokah]

Eric, my English is much better than my French, but I very well understand what you mean. LOL
I'm definitely thinking about growing some of these 'Tulips from Amsterdam'. ;-)

[eric charles]

I have one started hehehe , gonna have to put it in the garden while the wife aint looking and going to have to conceal it somehow , maybe put it beside a tomatoe plant hahahaha

[heyokah]

I have one started hehehe , gonna have to put it in the garden while the wife aint looking and going to have to conceal it somehow , maybe put it beside a tomatoe plant hahahaha

You could show her this: http://www.trueactivist.com/still-believe-nature-got-it-wrong-top-10-health-benefits-of-marijuana/

[eric charles]

Ohhh she dont mind it really , She's just afraid of cops, and the new mandatory sentences here in Canada now , just crazy .

[AriG]

Now I am wondering myself , becasue I want to do this 100% organically , how would i go about feeding this garden , other then compost tea I make once a week , what other things organic could I use ?

Make sure you use epsom salts around your tomato plants to as they come into bloom.

Pulvarize your kitchen waste, add a touch of lime and enough water to make a liquid, and feed that directly to the roots of your plants.

[eric charles]

Now I am wondering myself , becasue I want to do this 100% organically , how would i go about feeding this garden , other then compost tea I make once a week , what other things organic could I use ?

Make sure you use epsom salts around your tomato plants to as they come into bloom.

Pulvarize your kitchen waste, add a touch of lime and enough water to make a liquid, and feed that directly to the roots of your plants.

Alrighty , thanks for the advice

[Deemah]

Beautiful garden my friend!! What is a better way to get in touch with Nature then be directly involved in it's processes!
It's a such a great and healthy hobbie! If only more people saw the real fun and value in involvement and nourishing the plant life first hand!
It wakes up beautiful emotions and positive lifestyle!

We can learn so much from plants..and they give us gifts of food or beauty for our labor, that will taste or look so much more vibrant because we gave it an imprint of us as it was growing and looking for nourishment~

Much L&L!

[northstar]

I'm a "new" gardener - this is just my second summer growing things and I am loving it! I'm growing all organic herbs a few small veggies in containers on my apartment balcony!

Last year I didn't fertilize because I barely knew what I was doing! But this summer I'd like to add a bit of organic fertilizer to my containers.

Can someone please explain how to make a fertilizer tea using veggie scraps??

Thanks!!

[eric charles]

Beautiful garden my friend!! What is a better way to get in touch with Nature then be directly involved in it's processes!
It's a such a great and healthy hobbie! If only more people saw the real fun and value in involvement and nourishing the plant life first hand!
It wakes up beautiful emotions and positive lifestyle!

We can learn so much from plants..and they give us gifts of food or beauty for our labor, that will taste or look so much more vibrant because we gave it an imprint of us as it was growing and looking for nourishment~

Much L&L!


Yes it fun , keeps us active and the learning is the funnest of all , actually no , eating the fresh veggies right from the garden is the funnest . The kids loved getting dirty helping out , they each have a row to take care of , and whoever had the nicest Veggies would get 20$ at the end of summer time

[heyokah]

http://i41.tinypic.com/w70ye.jpg

So this is what it could be. (Oh God give me 'green hands' LOL)

Up till now it has just cost me .....
But the fun is impossible to be expressed in money :becky:

[mischief]

The problem with putting 'fresh' wood or sawdust in the soil is that as it breaks down slowly, it locks up/steals nutrients from the soil in order to help it break down, so then the plants that are growing in that area are not able to utilise those nutrients....at least until the wood has thoroughly broken down.

Fungus that grows on carbon type things that are breaking down doesnt do any harm to your soil.I have never heard of any fungus ruining the soil.
You will be able to pick up some interesting info from organic/permaculture forums on the net.
Check out how to make compost.

Some gardeners simply spread the remains of organic matter over the bed and use that as a mulch, others think it better to compost everything and to spread it over your garden when it has completed the composting process-nice rich dark almost like soil and you cant tell what the bits were orginally-thats real compost.(My preferred method).

I love it when I see people getting into their gardens and learning to grow their own food.
Its an amazing learning curve and you get to eat afterwards!

[Nenuphar]

Great thread, thank you! I love looking at people's vegetable gardens. :hug: Please keep us updated as the season progesses.

[heyokah]

Here's an "old" video (2008) that will give you a lot of inspiration :)

From my thread "Genetically Modified and Engineered food"
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?59799-Genetically-Modified-and-Engineered-food.&p=685330#post685330


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeaYqU2SSJE

[eric charles]

Great thread, thank you! I love looking at people's vegetable gardens. :hug: Please keep us updated as the season progesses.

yes I will .

SO its nice and sunny out this morning , I hope it keeps up , I will be planting a half row of carrots and half radishes .


Somethng strange happened last night as i was turning up the compost pile , When i opened the compost lid , I started getting Dizzy , and I mean nautious to the point of vomiting , I felt wobbly and like I had been drinking in the sun all day .
Ive read that compost will create mathane gases , but in such a small pile ?? Has this even happened to any of you ?
I still feel a little wobbly this morning , the nautiousness has passed thank god !

[mischief]

How ya feeling now?
Better I hope.

I havent heard of this happening before, but I am curious s to how your compost is covered.
Is it in a sealed container that would trap the methane that is produced?
If so, you might want to look at having a loose cover instead.