Week 11 - More Progress in the Garden

Time in: 10:15
Time out: 12:30

It was a beautiful day to get some work done in the garden. So beautiful, in fact, that my step father, Steve, and even my mom came outside to tend to her plots around the back of the house.

Here are some of the tasks we were able to get done:

Turn the Braco Mustard into Green Manure

• It was time for the Braco Mustard to become green manure. Here's a video of me cutting the greens into pieces. After this, I dug it into the soil (see top photo) and will let it compost itself for natural fertilization.

Building a step

• Meanwhile, Steve and Jared devised a plan to build one long step in front of the lathe house. They used square-foot bricks from Steve's old walkway and had to do a lot of digging and filling of dirt to make it level out. Steve then screwed in an 8 foot 2x4 for the top surface of the step. The next step of the process is to paint the step.
  

Moving the Clematis

• I had purchased two clematis plants last season and thoughtfully (yet naively) planted them on the east end of the lath house in a narrow 2x8 foot plot. Summer then kicked into full gear and the clematis suffered from the high temperatures and the eastern side's full sun exposure. I attempted to create more shade around it and still, they were much too exposed. Finally, I decided to move them over to the other side. The same side where the passion flower is growing (very slowly) and in fact, one in the same pot. There's still some life in them yet, so hopefully this will be a better home for them!

Water installation and plastic wall

• Moving the clematis over to the other side provided another free space I can use to plant. Since I haven't yet planted the Dundale Peas, I believe this will be the perfect location and opportunity to do so. In order for them to grow successfully, I had to reconnect the water source to this end of the lath house. I found a sprinkler head from my last season's irrigation stock and decided to try it on this side. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. This sprinkler head creates streams of water that only focuses itself on particular spots. I need a half-circle sprinkler that sprays, just like the one I purchased for the green-manure plot, which covers the entire area. For now, I had to build a plastic wall in front of the sprinker in order for the streams of water to stay inside the plot.
  

Here are the next tasks I would like to get done:

• Plant Dundale Peas, Nasturtiums, more Crimson Clover...
  
• Purchase a half-circle sprinkler
  
• Paint the step infront of the lath house
• Build benches/tables for lath house
• Clean, organize shed

Week 1 - Getting Everything Started

Part 1 - Looking into Green Manuring

Time in: 8:30am

Time out: 10:30am

It seems to me that green manuring is the easiest and most economical way to go if you don't feel like using chemically treated composts and other products that would synthetically enhance your soil's nutrient value and productivity. That is because these cover crops are particularly nitrogen fixed, a key building block to plant life.

There are so many green manure cover crops to choose from! The Sustainable Seed Co. website helped guide me to my final choices. And of course I had to choose the right cover crops for the right season. After some research, I decided to stick with the basics. Here they are:

• Aquadulce Fava Beans
• Cereal Rye
• Braco Mustard
• Crimson Clover
• Dundale Peas

I will get into more detail about each cover crop once I start to plant. First thing's first though , I will order the seeds from the Sustainable Seed Co. website and hopefully they'll be here by the end of the week!

Oh, and here's a well written article that Times Online came out with August of last year, an overview about green manuring. Take a look:

The goodness of green manure by Alice Bowe