trashy garden

TRASHY GARDEN

this is a square foot garden that is made from concrete blocks
its is 31/2 blocks wide and 8 blocks long

when i was in practice i was always talking to patients about
gardening never politics or religion since my patient population
was such a diverse one from all over the world
but
one common interest was gardening

then when i retired many of my former patients began reading
this blog to keep up with what i was doing
of course
besides alzheimers disease i blog about gardening a lot

one of my patients reads my blog and was especially intrigued
by the keyhole gardens square foot gardens and my gardening
here at the country n

she and other parents wanted to put in a garden at their kids school
near here
she wanted it to be organic and to use some of the principles of
keyhole gardening and square foot gardening and of course
organic gardening

of course
as a reader of my blog she contacted me via facebook and email
about ideas on the garden

sorry
but when it comes to gardening its like alzheimers disease
ill talk your ear off and tell you a lot more than you want to know
so thats what i did

this mother even went to a
deb tolman presentation on keyhole gardening
that was done recently in this area
and she wanted to incorporate a lot of this into the garden

all of these techniques ive used to redo my garden here at the
country n and in the other school gardens like my wife shes garden
and the habitat gardens ive helped put in and the alzheimers auction
4 ft square foot garden ive done

these parents and school and kids accumulated funds and collected
recyclable stuff to be used in the garden
cardboard lots of it newspapers garbage grass clipping lots of leaves
egg cartons shredded paper etc
then they got a load of lady bug brand hill country soil
to use in the beds
you either have to make your own soil or buy a good quality soil to start
with

first the beds five of them were laid out all parallel to each other
and all level

laying these and getting them level and just right was the hardest
part of the project

the first two or three beds were done in the lasagna method of
gardening which involves layering of materials they obtained as
mentioned above
the features of the lasagna and keyhole and square foot gardening
are all interwoven
the difference with the lasagna method is that all the soil is made
from this recyclable stuff
which is how a pure keyhole garden is made

i use in my gardens a mixture of these
i layer with the cardboard newspapers leaves grass compost soil
and usually on the top part i use just plain hill country soil
the end result is fantastic soil and an unbelievable garden

ta da then they covered the top with the good soil
now all it has to do is cook and in a few weeks all this
will turn into soil
homemade soil which will be rich with nutrition
there are a lot of worms in the ground there so they will come
up and devour all that paper leaves etc and poop everywhere
making the soil better

then the mom got this acrylic plastic glass
removed some of the blocks in the end
so the kids could watch the soil breakdown
and watch the worms moving around eating the stuff
and watch the plants roots grow in the soil
what a great idea

i personally cant wait to see this garden develop
especially through this glass
what a great idea for the kids and the adult kids to see

they will now be planting these beds with plants
of course the lasagna garden part will have to breakdown
some before it can be planted

but the other beds which will be mostly the rich hill country soil
will be planted now

it was fun to see the kids enjoying themselves
especially making the lasagna garden
think playing in a big mud puddle
as they had to soak the cardboard in wheelbarrows of water
standing on the cardboard to hold it down
then as they layered all that stuff in the garden bed
they had to spray it down
and stomp it down like someone stomping grapes

they were soaked and muddy but quite happy
putting in this garden
now
they will get to plant it and watch it grow
and probably will eat plants theyve never eaten before
and
probably never would have

things like swiss chard broccoli kale cilantro spinach lettuce snap peas
carrots beets yes beets onions potatoes radishes etc this winter

they will always remember this experience
and hopefully they will incorporate this into their lives as they get older

i hope that i had some influence in all this
since after all thats one of my missions in life it to promote
organic gardening

thanks to mom mc for allowing me to  participate and be part
of all this

the organicgreen doctor