I've been increasing the size of the field garden a bit every year. The best soil is on the north and west sides, where the lawn has been over-sown with clover and mown regularly. Usually I dig a foot wide strip down the side or across the end, removing the sod and shaking it out. This year I've expanded the garden by a 5' X 12' chunk across the north end, and am trying a different method.
With a good sharp spade, I cut the sod and removed it, a spade's width strip at a time, then loosened the soil down another spade's depth, trying not to disturb the soil strata too much, but just loosen it up. Each sod clump was turned upside down, and placed back in the row. I didn't want to lose the good, clover enriched soil in the sods.
Once completed, the whole area was covered with several layers of cardboard to block out the light, and rocks were placed around the perimeter to keep it all in place. The last bit of last year's manure is on top, and we'll add more when we get a new load later this summer. I plan to also add grass clippings. The cardboard will rot away.
Next spring, it should be ready for a shallow tilling with the
rototiller and be ready to plant. I have made almost all of the raised
beds this way, except I didn't dig up and turn over the sods in them. They
have worked out very well, giving me nice, relatively weed free beds. Several layers of cardboard do an amazing job of killing out the sod.
We had a wonderful rainy day yesterday, culminating with a fairly lengthy, vigorous thunderstorm late in the afternoon. The rain gauge read a good inch this morning. Today the sun is out, and you can practically watch the plants grow.
Its time to harvest the garlic scapes.
We have a turtle in the pond this summer. We have no idea where it came from, but we floated a nice cedar log out and it seems to enjoy sitting on it to bask in the sun. It is very skittish, so I'm still trying to determine what variety it is, trying to take it's picture from a distance. I'm leaning toward it being a Northern Map turtle.
That sure sounds like a lot of hard work! That was a great idea to turn the sod clumps upside down. I just love how great plants do after a good rain, like you said, you can almost watch them grow. Enjoy your new little turtle friend. Hopefully he will get less skittish over time. Have a great weekend. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Martha. Creating the gardens requires a bit of labour, but maintaining them is the fun part. There is always something new I want to plant!
DeleteWasn't that a wonderful rainy day? Hopefully more to come this week. I harvested the last of my scapes today. I think they are going into a honey garlic sauce tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIt sure was a wonderful rain! So much better than last spring, when I was watering from the get-go. Honey garlic sauce? That sounds like a good one. Recipe?
DeleteYour soil is so dark; lovely! You have a great method of garden bed making. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Leigh. Our soil is fairly sandy, and in places quite gravely. It is what the glaciers dumped when they retreated. They pushed all the good stuff on down your way! Just have to keep adding organics. It does grow good spuds.
DeleteOne of the reasons I love gardening is the exercise it gives me. You're certainly getting yours by working up new garden areas the way you do, but I'm learning from your description (and pictures) of how you do it.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why I can't find a way of using our garlic scapes that we enjoy. Mine are always too tough for our tastes. I've even tried fermenting them, but we couldn't eat them. :o( I suppose if I pureed them into some kind of a sauce as Karen in the above comment does . . . ???
Yes Mama Pea, and there is always something that needs tending to! I go out first thing every AM, and do the rounds of all the beds, (the favourite part of my day), checking how things made it through the night. I then have a mental list of what needs to be done that day.
DeleteI just baked some chopped scapes into a chicken rice dish and they infused the rice with lovely flavour. I freeze TB sized mounds of scape pesto, then wrap them separately. We thaw a couple and spread it on our pizzas before the sauce and toppings on pizza nights.