This is a large space that had a lot of work to do just to get it ready. The plan is to have perennial plants in here behind the awesome fencing. We haven’t seen any deer or other bigger animals, but we know there are ground squirrels and gophers on the property. The soil sample came back as good but needing organic matter added. We have now tarpped the entire space and will let it solarize for 2 months or so. With the wet weather we have had (4 atmospheric river storms in 2 months) the ground is quite wet. And we found it softened right up after the first set of storms. So hopefully all those weed seeds will try to sprout and then die off because there is no light for photosynthesis! Then we will put a thick layer of compost to block any that survive the solarization.
I have also planted Yukon Gold potatoes, garlic and yellow onions in containers since they take so long to mature and the seasonal garden won’t be ready soon enough. I actually just made a second potato bag because that sounds like a much easier way to harvest the spuds. Just upend the bag and pull them out of the dirt! There are also some Sequoia strawberries in the white planters that are still flowering so I kept them for now. I’m also thinking of starting some sweet potatoes in glass cups to plant asap when we can put the bins together. At least we are in permitting now!
The Tower Garden, aka Hank, is truly going to town! Matt has harvested Collard Greens twice, and the Swiss Chard is almost there. My Romaine is not doing all that well; I think the pH is not quite where it wants it. But I have eaten one salad worth of lettuce even though the leaves were a bit small. I was not liking all the note keeping that Matt likes me to do, but I am realizing that helps to look back at what was what when I see the Romaine is doing better! So food production on a minimal scale has begun!
There is plenty of work on the place still and we are starting to focus a bit more on the pasture for the eventual chickens. Matt bought four, edible, trees to provide some shade. He got 2 Magnolia trees and 2 Tulip trees. If we get goats or a donkey (or a combo of the two) the leaves have to be non toxic and those trees met the qualifications! Speaking of trees/leaves, there are so many oak leaves from these massive oaks that Dave also made me a compost bin to start doing some serious composting. Eric E did a great job helping Dave and Matt gather them up though that a second giant pile has been started. Dave will make a second compost bin for holding those too. It should work at least during the rest of the year but we will probably still need just to pile leaves up during the late fall.
This is a cool system of rotating the pile. From the Sacramento Master Gardeners.
So we are slowly transitioning to the gardens here and I will write about my home garden soon. It is coming along. But I am truly looking forward to gardening where my plants can get more sun and a deeper soil base. Dave and Cherie did a great job hacking my garden out of the rocks during the pandemic, but it probably isn’t the best placement. Bye for now!