Big Day

Today turned into a tiring but very productive day in the East of Eden garden.   Checked the forecast last night and they were predicting rain showers in the morning, but we rose to sun, mild temps, and very little wind.  This held up throughout the day, and between 8 am and 3 pm we got the rest of the planting and transplanting done.  June  1 is a little later than most years, but 2013 hasn't been most years.  

Far right-Asian radish; center-conventional radish; left-bibb lettuce

We are getting close to our first harvestable item--radishes planted April 27.    I didn't get very good germination on the lettuces due to old  seed, so I had to replant (areas that appear empty).  Hard to see, but I also have an onion or two mixed in there.

As I mentioned in the last post, we are using a new method this year involving wood chips over news paper to eliminate most weeding and retain moisture.   There is a bit of up front work, but we should more than make up for it by having less maintenance through out the season.   It also allows me to plant "no till", I don't turn the soil or rototill except for the little area where I plant; the rest of the garden is covered with a few layers of wet newspaper and topped with 3-4 inches of woodchip mulch we get for free a the city composting facility.

Peppers, kohlrabi, and cabbage transplanted today

Tomatoes transplanted last Saturday

So far we are  very pleased with the system.  The plan is to  extend this to the most of the garden, but we are only about half done.   We like it because it uses mostly free stuff--newspaper and mulch.  The proof is in the pudding, so if we save hours and hours weeding and watering--should be a good deal.   Next year should be a test too, as we see how we like planting into it.  In theory the wood chips should decay providing fertile soil, and over time we expect to keep adding more chips to the top.  It is also a nice surface to walk on--no mud, etc.

Back to East of Eden

I'm back after a long hiatus to attend to....life.  I had the best of intentions to follow through to harvest and even commissioned Mrs. Gardener to take photos of the harvest, but I never tracked the photos down on the old hard drive.  But now it is a new year, and suffice it to say we had a bountiful harvest of many of our veggies, and are back at it again.  April has been very snowy, and the first fit day was yesterday, so I planted   romaine, loose leaf lettuce, bibb lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and two kinds of radish (regular and Asian).

We watched a gardening video last night that promoted a philosophy of gardening that has wood mulch at its center piece.  The website, interestingly is "Back to Eden" and features the gardening advice of a fellow by the name of Paul Gautschi who  developed the methods after observing how lush and drought resistant forests were.  Motivated by his observations of nature and principles derived from thoughtful contemplation of (and sometimes creative applications from)  Scripture.   Mr. Gautschi described how he grows all his veggies in soil that is covered by a layer of wood mulch.  The mulch decays and provides nutrients, retains water, controls weeds, and keeps the soil loose and free from compaction.    Wood mulch (the kind made from ground up leaves and branches, not shredded bark) is cheap, plentiful, and readily available.   We have used it with some success in our perennial garden ("the berm") and around bushes but have been afraid to use it in the garden because I thought it would tie up nitrogen or make it hard to hoe.   As long as you don't incorporate it but let it break down from the top, it should be ok, according to the video.  Another advantage is less tillage required; I don't think the Back to Eden method turns the soil at all,   I wonder if the soil warms up and is ready for planting at the same time as traditional methods.

In any event, I think I would like to try it this year.  There are several options for obtaining wood mulch--the free stuff available from the city compost site; from a local tree service (advantage--delivered); or grinding my own from downed branches and tree trimmings (disadvantage--purchasing and maintaining a loud mulcher).