This past Saturday, we had the goal of cleaning up the garage so Karl could get his car back in before the snow came. My accumulation of straw and compost had been sitting in his spot as a staging area till we had the chance to make some temporary beds for spring planting. With snow in the forecast for the afternoon, we had to get moving.
The children and I headed to the south side of the house to mark out the temporary vegetable garden beds. We decided to use this space because it will eventually become the soft fruit area for blueberries and other things I can come up with that will live harmoniously with the acidic needs of the blueberries. We need to have a temporary space because we are no where near ready to create the final vegetable garden plots in the main area of the lower land. We have a very wet spot in the lower land we have marked out as the duck pond and intend to run drainage to the pond. The digging of the pond is most likely going to require a backhoe and then we need to have a place to put all the excavated soil. We have plans for these but they all mean waiting to put anything in the lower land at this time.
Once the narrow beds, 30 inches wide and varying lengths to accommodate current difficulties, were laid out with stakes and twine, we began the no till method of preparation. This method for prepping the soil is simply a modified compost pile. I say modified because no current kitchen waste in the stage of breaking down is used. First one must lay a thin layer of straw on the grass, then composted manure (the post smelly kind found in bags at Lowes), a layer of crushed leaves, more composted manure, followed by a very thick layer of straw. The idea is the materials will break down over winter due to the constant freeze/thaw cycle into wonderful top soil. In the spring, if I want, I can till down a few inches to loosen the original ground, but the heat action of composting should have already killed off the grass and weeds beneath the pile.
It took the better part of the day to lay out and cover four 30 inch by 15 feet beds and one 30 inch by 35 feet bed. The 30 inch span is a comfortable straddle across the beds to facilitate early weeding and thinning of the beds. It also allows enough space for two rows of most crops and room to construct a climbing structure for vining plants. I did not invent this myself, it comes directly from one of John Seymour's Self Sustaining books I read last year. We will see how well it works, but any organic material added to the soil left by the builder will help anything that wants to grow there.
A few weeks prior I was able to plant some garlic for summer harvest. Again, I was lacking a great space for this, so I caved and planted the cloves in the flower beds near the soon to be erected orchard fence. The ground has been staked and marked with florescent twine so nearly everyone can see to not walk there. It has been mulched over with 4-6 inches of crushed leaves I was able to retrieve from local friends with established oak and maple trees, and a thin layer of straw to hold the leaves down until a good soaking rain or snow can matte them into place. I had read somewhere planting garlic with roses helpes to make the roses stronger. I wonder what it will do with the transplanted daisies located near them.
Between the new vegetable plots, and flower beds, I began running down the bales of straw and bags of crushed leaves. In no time, Karl was sweeping out the garage and straightening the tools. We kept the children busy by paying them $2 per full bucket of rocks they found in the orchard area. Since Isabella as she puts it "is coming up a little short on the money for Anton's Christmas gift" she was eager to make some money. I thought Karl was very generous to offer $2 but then again it was a 4 quart garden bucket. The rocks are being used to line the ditch I dug to facilitate a poor drainage spot during heavy rains. Since the beginning of the new rock ditch, we have not had any standing water on this spot of the driveway and it looks pretty too with all the shapes and colors of the found rocks.
Eventually our bodies gave out to the work load of the day. Our tummies were arguing with our drive and we had to call it a day. We had managed to reach the goal of the day to pull Karl's car into the garage. I walked slowly upstairs for my much needed hot shower then drove to Papa Johns to pick up the pizza we would eat by the fire while watching a children's choice movie. As I was driving and reflecting upon our accomplishments of the day, the snow began to fall. It was as if it had held off just long enough for us to reach our goal. The drainage ditch will be one of the long range projects to be chipped at as time allows but the evidence of our work is beginning to show. For now, I will rest and admire the beauty of the soft falling snow.
