Last Winter's Work

From October 2006 through March 2007, we made of number of important changes.

1. John Jeavons' book, How to Grow More Vegetables, absolutely rocked our gardening world. Following his advice, we've replaced our six 30' rows with twelve beds, each to be double-dug and heavily composted. "Double-digging" means removing the first twelve inches of top-soil, and then turning over the next twelve inches (yes, you're digging 24 inches down, if possible) while also working in a healthy serving of compost. The first time through, this is slow and challenging work, especially if, in your rampant enthusiaism, your beds end up nearly twice as long as Jeavons recommends (5 X 10 vs. 5 X 4). So, thus far we've only double-dug five of our twelve beds. I'll be digging the remainning seven beds this month.

2. For six weeks in October and November we raked and composted fallen leaves. Some we spread out on fallow garden beds; most were soaked and bagged with a shovel of composted manure. We've been adding them to our compost bin and digging them into our beds.

3. From old, abandoned wooden pallets we built a three-bin composting storage area. This keeps our composting material together nicely, while also allowing movement of air and water. The three bin structure makes it easy to turn the compost every 90 days; we use a fork and shovel to transfer the compost from one bin to another, and then begin a new pile in the first bin. Our composting ratio? An approximation of Jeavons' teachings: two inches of kitchen scraps; an inch of manure and/or top soil; an inch of hay straw; two inches of leaves. Repeat. We've been watering the compost piles about once a week to keep them moist, and like our garden giving the bins and piles loving attention; after all, this is the magical healing stuff that will greatly fortify our beds!!!

4. For the first time, we experimented with a Winter garden. Some things worked well, others less so. Our results thus far?

Garlic : )
Lettuce : )
Parsnips : (
Broccoli : (
Mustard Greens : )
Collards : )

5. Lastly, we've begun to build some of our own things, with absolutely no carpentry skill or training whatsoever, from discarded and scrap wood. Sound like a prescription for disaster? Well, it's turned out better than that, mostly. We began with an outdoor garden table - shellacked with dark green floor sealant to protect it from the rain (so it actually looks pretty good). Then a "hot house" or "cold frame" (I've heard it described both ways) for keeping plants warm in the Winter. Then an "A Frame" or three-tiered shelving unit with hanging grow-lights, for starting seeds and nurturing seedlings indoors. Then a rustic garden fence and arbor. So far, we're 3 for 4. The table, cold-frame and A-Frame are highly functional, and thus by our standards a success. The rustic-fence-and-arbor thing kicked my ass. It was so bad that I took it down after an entire afternoon's work. I've decided that some instruction may be necessary.