GARDEN NEWS-PREPARING A NEW GARDEN PLOT
this is mr hudson who like his sister ms b has developed a love for being in the garden
even mr n even though he is an infant loves it in the garden
mr n seems to like all the colors and plants and birds and of course the chickens
mr hudson will walk in the garden and go over to the sweet pea vines and grab a sweet pea and start munching on it
he prefers of course to hand them to me and have me shell them so he can eat the individual peas
this love for the garden can last a lifetime for all three of them
recently this plot in our community garden was given up by its previous renter
it had not been really used much for over 4 seasons
the area to the right of the plot has cardboard laid down then covered with a deep layer of mulch
this area is not part of the plot and will probably have large pots of maybe herbs or flowers
we cleaned off the plot to remove a lot of weeds that had accumulated over the winter
the plot was remeasured at 20 ft x 10 ft
and
the edges were formed so the new plot owner could began prepping the bed for their new garden
the soil here is a grey clay
this plot has not been worked for over 3 seasons so its mostly hard and packed down
you notice that fairly quickly if you try to dig in it
if this was my plot this is what i would do
i would protect the plot from gophers
if you dont live around gophers then you are lucky
at the country n we never had to deal with gophers
here you do
theres is a 4 ft chain link fence around the garden
a hardware cloth wire screen is buried in the ground around the garden and is attached to the chain link fence
this mostly keeps the gophers out
however
a few manage to get it
the choice is to just do nothing and lose a few crops to gophers
from my personal experience with gophers that is not acceptable
another choice is to put down hardware cloth or chicken wire buried deep under the ground bringing up the sides high enough so the gophers wont climb over the edges
that is an awful lot of hard work
you dig down a foot or two and lay down the wire then cover it up with soil
thats what the new plot holders will probably do
in my plot i didnt have gophers at all the first two years but they seemed to like my plot the last two years
so since i had done so much work doing my lasagna type or my togd type of garden
i opted for gopher cages
these are basically wire cages about a foot deep and wide buried in the ground where i plant my plants
then
soil is placed inside the cages and the veggies are planted there
this is commonly the way landscapers around here plant plants
this method seems to work ok for me
i also aggressively put out gopher traps if i find any evidence they are in my plot
if i was starting all over again like on this new plot above
i would bury the wire deep in the ground to cover all of the plot then bring up the sides of the wire above ground
the next thing i would do if this was my plot is i would add stuff to the plot
it needs plant material and nutrition to the plot
so
i would spread a 4-5 inch layer of a good organic compost to the entire plot
here is a pile of good organic compost we had delivered to the garden for the gardeners to use
its from a supplier who makes a good organic rich compost
we also have this rich compost that the garden makes itself
we use veggie material from the garden that is ground up with a shredder
we add veggies that are given to us from nearby food kitchens by the bagfuls
things like carrots shavings lettuce fruits all kinds of veggies that many folks cut off their veggies and just throw away
we compost it with our shredded material and keep it moist
it gets real hot
i once stuck an ungloved hand deep in the early compost bin and it almost burned my hand
it gets real hot smoking hot
this the compost you make yourself is the best compost to use
after spreading that 4 inch layer or more of compost i would add a good sprinkling of a good organic fertilizer at the recommended rate on the bag
then
i would take this broadfork which is about 3 ft wide with 12 inch industrial strength tines and run it as deep in the ground as it will go
ie 12 inches
then
you rock it back and forth
this opens up the ground in an arc of 180 degrees
i then would do this about every 4 inches
you stand on the broad fork to force the tines deep into the soil
all this broadforking forces the compost and the organic fertilize deep into the soil
adding the nutrients and microorganisms and plant fiber deep into the soil
then
i would rake the bed even
then
i would soak the area with a mixture of fish emulsion plus seaweed plus molasses
the fish emulsion has nitrogen in it and the seaweed has minerals and hormones in it and the molasses provides sugars for the soil microbes to grow
so
then i would let this sit for a couple of weeks or so to ripen
then
it would be ready to plant
i would repeat this every time i planted something new like later in the summer fall or winter
this will give the new plot owner a good start for their spring plantings
this garden should do well
the difference i would do if i had time would be to
do layers of compost mulch cardboard newspapers organic fertilizers fish emulsion seaweed molasses
and
let the area rest for a few weeks
this will give you a belter and richer soil
heres wishing the new plot holders a good spring garden
the organicgreen doctor
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