Wow – where to begin?
We have been planning this garden for… years! And this weekend we started to bring our big garden dreams to life.
Enjoy the photos!
Tomatoes, Zucchinis, Onions – oh my!
The tomatoes, zucchinis, onions, and teeny-tiny broccoli and Brussels sprouts are ready to be planted. For the tomatoes, we have 30 plants of Amish Paste for canning and 5 Rutgers Tomato plants for eating.
We bought six yards of compost.
We knew it would be a pretty big investment for this first year.
We are “lasagna gardening” this year.
Both Gordon and I read about the success of lasagna gardeners in the past few years and have been tempted to give this a try. Many proponents discuss the benefits of NOT disturbing the soil year after year when it’s time to plant.
In a nutshell, lasagna gardening means no tilling and layering in the various materials we have. Gordon put down a first layer of decomposing grass clippings from last fall (I noted some chopped cardboard mixed in) and fresh grass clippings. We do have a compost bin next to the house – you can see it in the photo below – but the material inside is not ready to be put into the garden yet.
Next up, first layer of compost to mark out beds.
The garden will be 24 X 24 feet when the fence is up. Gordon spread out the clippings and we began to lay out the garden area.
And more compost…
And more compost…
Measuring out the beds, too. They are each 20 feet long.
We shoveled a lot of compost!
If I worked like this every day, I’d have toned arms for sure!
And finally…
Three layers of compost later… we have laid out three 4-foot wide beds and one 2-foot wide bed. As mentioned above, the beds are 20 feet in length.
Gordon putting in the fence posts.
This man worked long and hard today! He pounded and I measured and helped set the string to keep posts even with one another. (Er, some might be a little out of line… Oh well.)
Gordon pounded in 24 fence posts all total.
God bless that man!
It was afternoon by the time the last one went in – just look at that sunny sky in the photo above! – so we decided to stop for the day. The weather looks good for Memorial Day (tomorrow), and we will finish putting up the fence. Then I’ll put in my plants (that we started from seed) AND we will also direct sow some seeds like carrots and beets. I also picked up three kinds of seed potatoes and will be putting them in as well.
I will put up another post when it’s complete so that you can see the end result. (That post is now live – click here!)
And there you have it!
Life is good.
I hope you are enjoying this holiday weekend (if you are in the USA like us), or just enjoying a nice weekend wherever you are in the world.
Are you putting in plants and flowers? Taking it easy? Grilling out? Having a picnic?
Drop me a note in the comments and let me know what’s going on in your corner of the world. I’d love to hear from other no-till and “lasagna” gardeners as well!
Hi Tracy, Well we have our garden started. Brought in a lot of new dirt as we had used the same area for years and the ground needed reviving. So we have some tomato plants, a few zucchini, a few cucumbers and a few yellow squash. Also we pulled out our Italian beans we save from year to year and they are also planted. We will do some onions and lettuce yet as I love the sandwiches with fresh lettuce. Your garden looks wonderful and I hope and pray the animals don’t want to share it before you enjoy it. So far ours is doing well. Bye bye and good luck! Linda (Mom)