Gardening! - Page 3 « Back to Group Discussions

[seraf]

Dirt blown in?

I still only have my survivor chard.  I keep thinking about sinking a trampoline in the yard and using the topsoil in the garden beds.  I don't think I can afford a trampoline before planting time, tho.

[Jaimee]

Hey, Sara, check out Craig's List for a trampoline.  There always seems to be someone trying to get rid of one!

[Paigekitten]

I had two chard magically appear a couple weeks ago, they are still there, but the leaves are all ragged from the chickens.  My kale and arugula went to seed while I was gone, so I imagine I'll have LOTS of volunteers for a while.

[Abraisme]

Yeah, it's basically a huge blower and a long hose.  A few men come and blow the dirt, wood chips, or mulch where ever you want it.   Since you can't drive a truck anywhere near my garden beds it makes it so much easier.   It was 1 hour of work vs. all weekend.

Originally Posted by seraf 

Dirt blown in?

I still only have my survivor chard.  I keep thinking about sinking a trampoline in the yard and using the topsoil in the garden beds.  I don't think I can afford a trampoline before planting time, tho.

[seraf]

Oooo, dirt through a hose sounds dreamy. I have never heard of that.

Jaimee, great idea. I might ask Sara to look at that. I get too frustrated on CL.

[Abraisme]

There are great Craigslist apps if you have a smart phone.  You can put in your 'wanted' item and the app will search Craigslist for you ever 15 minutes and notify you when something comes up.

Originally Posted by seraf 

Oooo, dirt through a hose sounds dreamy. I have never heard of that.
Jaimee, great idea. I might ask Sara to look at that. I get too frustrated on CL.

[LiLStar]

Oooohhhh hose dirt sounds AWESOME! if we move and have to start over from scratch, I'm totally doing it that way.

[Abraisme]

Here is a picture of the guy blowing it in in 2010.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abrahartley/4661583428/in/set-72157623621368970

[Jaimee]

Abra, I love the pics of your garden!  I saw that you have planted grains and dry beans in the past.  How did those work out... growing, harvesting, processing?  Is it worth it?

[Abraisme]

Thanks.  I've planted dry beans, quinoa and amaranth in the previous years..  No, they really aren't worth the hassle and I ended up feeding a lot of it to my chickens.  The only thing that I would plant again is amaranth and not for the grain.  The leaves are really tasty, super high in nutrition and it's a very hardy plant.  Fresh dry beans are also really yummy, but it took me over an hour just to prepare enough for one meal.  It's too much hassle imo.  It was a good experiment though. 

Originally Posted by Jaimee 

Abra, I love the pics of your garden!  I saw that you have planted grains and dry beans in the past.  How did those work out... growing, harvesting, processing?  Is it worth it?

[Jaimee]

Good to know!

[birdhappy85]

Has anybody here ever had an invasion of garlic mustard in your yard? How long did it take you to eradicate it? This is my third year pulling it. It takes me weeks... It's exhausting and puts me in a time crunch every spring because it drops seeds if I don't pull it quick enough. It grows in stages and lucky me(!) it's in it's seed-dropping stage this year. Seeds can lie dormant up to 5 years. Ugh. I suspect I have many more years of this, at least. I hate this stuff! 

What I think might help is if I can plant some easily spreading, dense covering perennial plants/flowers in the locations where the garlic mustard has been sprouting every year. Our neighbor has lilies covering the border of our yards and the weeds have never been able to populate into her yard even though they're right next to the lilies. It's such a dense covering, which gave me the idea. Any suggestions for plants that would work well other than lilies? I like the height of the lilies. Most of the areas are shady for much of the day. I can take pictures if it would help.

[Abraisme]

Yeah, post a pic.

Originally Posted by birdhappy85 

Has anybody here ever had an invasion of garlic mustard in your yard? How long did it take you to eradicate it? This is my third year pulling it. It takes me weeks... It's exhausting and puts me in a time crunch every spring because it drops seeds if I don't pull it quick enough. It grows in stages and lucky me(!) it's in it's seed-dropping stage this year. Seeds can lie dormant up to 5 years. Ugh. I suspect I have many more years of this, at least. I hate this stuff! 

What I think might help is if I can plant some easily spreading, dense covering perennial plants/flowers in the locations where the garlic mustard has been sprouting every year. Our neighbor has lilies covering the border of our yards and the weeds have never been able to populate into her yard even though they're right next to the lilies. It's such a dense covering, which gave me the idea. Any suggestions for plants that would work well other than lilies? I like the height of the lilies. Most of the areas are shady for much of the day. I can take pictures if it would help.

[wellforth]

Garlic mustard came up one year under a tree in my yard.  I couldn't identify it since I had never seen it before, and surprisingly, it wasn't in any of the plant id books I had.  After I found out what it was, I wondered if it would take over the rest of our 1/4 acre, but it never did.  It never spread beyond the location under the one tree. 

I never pulled it, but I used to just eat as much of it as I could.  I liked it in soups, and also made a pesto out of it.  Once it gets big or flowers, it's too strong, imo, but before then, I really like the taste. 

Good luck! I hear it's pretty hard to get rid of.

carey

[LiLStar]

garlic mustard.. I wonder if thats what those little flowers are that grow in a little spot in my brother's yard. My niece and nephew get a kick out of picking them and having guests eat them! 

Finally did some planting in 2 of our beds. carrots, peas, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, and arugula. still so much more. Eric went overboard on the seeds, and even bought a few varieties of melon despite me saying over and over that in our climate, no chance! 

[Jaimee]

Okay ladies (and especially you Abra!) here is the official map to my yard and my first edible landscape design idea.  I would love input of all kinds... anything that comes to mind to change to add, etc.  The trellis over the deck is for grapes.

[ZippyGirl]

Jaimee, did you put this schematic together?!  Awesome!

Do you want layout/design comments, or planting recommendations? Or both?

[Jaimee]

Both!  And yes, I created it in Publisher.  :)

[ZippyGirl]

I'm impressed!!!!

My suggestions are driven by what I like aesthetically.  At our home, we tried to create a "children's" edible garden with wandering paths and such -- all on a very, very small scale (but the idea is there...sort of).  So, that is where I come from when I looked at your schematic.  Here are my thoughts:

1.  I like serpentine walking paths among the raised garden beds, but that might mess with the placement of your arch.  I love meandering around our beds, but some people might prefer straightforward garden beds.

2.  I have attached a few photos of The Lost Gardens of Heligan from our trip to Cornwall/Devon last month.  How they integrate edible garden beds with traditional English garden design was so beautiful.  The apple tree arches were unbelievable.  Your arch in the raised beds section reminded me of this.  Would be stunning!

3.  Do you like to do container gardens?  I would do a few herb pots or some other containers on your deck. 

4.  As I noted above, we have a serpentine flow to our garden beds, but I like to mix edibles with flowering plants.  Our raised beds are surrounded by beds of perennial flowering herb plants, like lavender, coneflower, and witch hazel.  The flowers attract so many birds, butterflies, and bees, and we use the herbs to make tea and infusions.  We love it. 

5.  What about doing some bean teepees?  Do you like pears?  An espalier would be pretty along a fenceline if you have a privacy fence.

6.  Do you have a table on the deck?

7.  I like to get away from squares and rectangles.  For example, our front lawn is a circle with garden beds surrounding the circle.  It is really unique and lends itself nicely to walking around the beds.  If you like the idea of getting away from block design, think about triangles, squares that have an X walking path through them, circles, etc.  One of the pics from the Heligan gardens illustrates this.

8.  Think about focal points.  If you are sitting at the deck, where do you want your eye to go?

Apple tree arches:

I love gardens with paths for wandering:

[Jaimee]

Thank you Anthea!!  Your comments are so helpful and appreciated!  I also love the look of curves and paths in gardens.  Can you post a picture of your garden?  Do you have ideas for my particular landscape in your head?  I'd love to hear them!

Here's the thing, and maybe you have a creative solution for me... dh is all about a neat and tidy look, so he wants all the beds to have wooden borders.  My original design had curved beds, but they would be a ton of work to frame.  Rocks would work better of course (brick is way too expensive), but I don't have access to a bunch of large border rocks.  I could use logs, but I was planning on burying all my woody debris for my hugelkultur beds & I'm not sure I'd have enough anyway... those beds are 6x20 each.   Plus, there is the added element of animal pests.  Living in suburbia, a backyard garden equals squirrel and rabbit haven.  So I have to surround all my vegetables with mesh fence.... I know, so ugly!  But, raised, wooden frames are handy for attaching the fencing to.   Hence the rectangles.  I would love to hear alternative solutions if you've got 'em!  Cats have already been suggested, but we are allergic and I really don't want pets.

I had thought of espalier trees, but hardly any of our privacy fence is in sun.  But now that I'm looking there are a few stretches that might be large enough for a few trees...

Bean teepees... maybe, but I was planning on using the arch trellis for climbing veggies like peas, beans, cukes, etc.  We'll build additional supports as necessary.  I was going to try and plant trellis crops next to climbing crops, too, and see how that works like sunflowers next to peas, for example.

Container gardening is all I did this season and it sucked.  But herbs are easier than vegetables in containers, so I might do that.  I have a ton of pots from my container gardening adventure.  I could do some colorful peppers and herbs.  We do have a patio furniture set on the deck as well.

Edited by Jaimee - 7/15/12 at 7:41am