garden news-fall garden prep

GARDEN NEWS-FALL GARDEN PREP

this week while removing a long row of tomatoes planted along a trellis made of cattle panels last spring in early april we noticed this chrysalis that according to a knowledgeable college student helping us said it was a butterfly about to escape from inside the chrysalis
she said it was a monarch chrysalis

i sent the picture to ms b to review
her reply was
its definitely a monarch


we used the cattle panels which are 5 ft x 16 ft
we used two panels to the 30 ft row for our tomatoes
we either weaved them through the panels or tied them up with string
we had a fair tomato season here compared to last years abundant tomato crop
why
more morning fog and a cooler summer

so today we said thats it 
you be gone
out came the old tomatoes

in its place we wanted to use a veggie that could use the support that was used for the tomatoes
so
we chose vining sweet peas and bush sweet peas
we will run vining sweet peas on one side and the bush peas on the other side
we try to choose veggies that people want to have donated to them to eat
like food kitchens soup kitchens womens shelters food pantries etc

we removed the old drip irrigation first


then
we add a layer of compost that we make ourselves
i usually try to make it as thick as i can based on how  much compost we have
then
i add a layer of good organic fertilizer based on the bags recommendation
then
i use a broadfork that is about 3 ft wide with about 7 12 inch long tines to fork all of this into the soil
then
we rake it all out into a bed thats about 3 ft wide
in this case 1/2 is on one side of the panels and 1/2 is on the other side
then
we add three rows of new drip tape which has drippers every 6 inches 
then
this is covered with a layer of mulch to keep the soil from drying out too much
then
as soon as our sweet peas are ready in about 2-3 weeks we will pull back the mulch and plant the plants 
then
we plant between the sweet pea plants sweet pea seeds so we will have another crop that is about a month behind the planted pea plants

the sweet pea plants were started about two weeks ago in our greenhouse and should  be ready in two weeks to go into the ground


so
here is what the finished bed with trellis looks like

so 
thats how we do our garden prep here in our community garden
we have being doing it this way for almost 4 years now and have noticed the soil is getting easier to work and grow in and that it tends to have more earthworms in the soil
earthworms are a good measure of how good the soil is 

next is prepping and planting cabbage onions celery carrots beets parsley lettuce swiss chard broccoli garlic leeks kale and cauliflower
we will do serial plantings of cabbage broccoli sweet peas lettuce kale also
so
the garden will be growing fresh produce and donating it all fall and winter long
im sure we will add more veggies later as the season goes on
all of this produce is donated to those in need

its all worth it 

the organicgreen doctor