Starting the Garden from Scratch...Almost

Our garden this year has been a bust. Between my surgery and car accident, Mel's depression issues plus driving me hither and yon, and Mother Nature, it's all worked against us. I said before my break from posting, I wish I could blame Mel's garden plan, but I'm as much at fault as she. The garden I had almost weed free has been taken over by weeds. Where there is a bare spot Mother Nature will fill it. It's a huge change from last year where I met 100% of several vegetables. Now is the time to start planting our fall garden. I think we'll pass.

Mel's thought was to turn the whole garden area into greenhouses. She got tired of sitting on the ground to sort of deal with the weeds. "I'm not getting any younger, ya know!" I talked to her brick wall when I told her gardens take daily if not weekly tending to keep weeds down to a minimum.  Even weed-free systems need mulching and tending. No garden is no-labor intensive to get good produce.

The year before I'd spend hours each day in the garden. Some areas I let go wild for rabbit food, but where my plants were was almost weed free. I'm thinking of a different strategy. We've spent monies, time, and effort building up the soil two and a half feet above the hard clay and granite which was the original garden area. The fact that I produced so much in such a small area the year before proves that the soil is great even the not so good areas.

I'm thinking of starting from scratch again...almost. Especially since I know there is good soil in the garden area. I want to till the whole garden area under and lay a 3-6" layer of wood chips over the entire area again. To speed the decomposition process along, I'll pin landscape fabric over the top of it all for the fall and winter seasons. It will still benefit from the rain and snow, still be able to breathe, and compost while killing any weeds and rhizomes. I liked Mel's idea of a 18" border of coke boxes and straw for keeping outside the garden area weed-free. I'm thinking of expanding it to 2-3'.

Come spring, we should gave a totally weed free area to plant. We'll start all seeds and transplant them into the garden except for the beans. By using transplants, we'll be able to mulch around the plants tightly thus depriving weeds a foothold. I'm foregoing Mel's  standard, single group plantings back to my double raised beds with a mixture of beneficial flowers, herbs, and other companion plants. In other words, I'm going back to the system I know that works. She can have a 8'x26' greenhouse too. It amounts to 3 rows of crops I would have planted. It could work. I'll work around it. I'll be hanged if we have another busted garden year while she experiments with this or that method. We simply can't afford it and I want something to eat from our seeds planted.

While during the composting/weed eradication process, Mel will be building her greenhouse. She'll be placing the good soil into elevated planting beds inside. This is so she she won't have to kneel or sit on the ground to weed around the plants. Is there an echo in here or wasn't that my suggestion several years ago?

While I thought about burning the bunny greens patch between the garden and the workshop, I've changed my mind. It will also get several inches of wood chips and a cover. We'll see if that pesky spiny rushes and Spanish

Cockeyed Bunny Barn

bayonet can survive through six to seven months of dense mulch, wood chips, and landscape fabric. Although, for this area I could use tarps and cover the whole area. In the spring, I can sow some grass seed mixed with white clover seed for the rabbits. I can plant my black oil sunflower seeds along the side of the workshop for a complete bunny love area. I can even transplant some plantains from various areas of the yard into the space. None of it is deep rooted so it'll be perfect. The fact that we have fewer rabbits is besides the point. We love our critters and want the best for them!

By consolidating cages and rabbits, there will be more available space in the bunny barn. We can better store our feed and hay out of the weather. I can finally have a decent grooming area for the rabbits.  I can build a roosting area out of limbs for the three hens and rooster that actually roost in there at night. The rest roost in the coop. Our fifteen-hole rabbitry will now only ever house seven. But the space won't go to waste.

So that's the plan, sort of. How much we get done is another story. A tractor with a scoop would be helpful, but we are doing things with a garden cart, a wheel barrow, and manual labor, so our physical and mental well being comes into play. For two disabled ladies in their sixties that a major monkey wrench in getting everything done. At least we've got the wood chips courtesy of the tree service back in early spring. It's a start in starting from scratch with the garden...almost.

 Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo