The Way To A Man's Heart IS Through His Stomach
As part of The Improvisation Center, our homestead must support us in our quest to become self sufficient. This of course includes food production, and what better way to accomodate that than to have our own gardens?
Since the ground here is piss poor for growing anything but crabgrass and weeds, we had to resort to raised beds filled with top soil and manure, among other things, to set the stage for our outdoor supermarket. The raised beds are made of 2x10 boards, with seven of the eight gardens being 12' x 4' in size, with the eighth one being 10' x 4' in size, to provide an opening for the gate that goes around the gardens.
Right now the gardens are in a little bit of an unorganized state, with some exceptions. We have one bed dedicated to growing onions; another for strawberries; another for a number of greens, which include broccoli, collards, and leaf lettuce; one for potatoes; and another for lima beans and green peas. The other remaining gardens have a mixture of tomatoes, peppers, kale, cauliflower, squash, and carrots.
We are trying to do this whole thing in the organic state, trying to stay away from any artificial fertilizers or sprays. For fertilizer, we've used manure, as already stated, grass clippings as mulch, and fish guts as another filler for the soil, along with fish gut tea and fish emulsion as spray on fertilizers.
Since the ground here is piss poor for growing anything but crabgrass and weeds, we had to resort to raised beds filled with top soil and manure, among other things, to set the stage for our outdoor supermarket. The raised beds are made of 2x10 boards, with seven of the eight gardens being 12' x 4' in size, with the eighth one being 10' x 4' in size, to provide an opening for the gate that goes around the gardens.
Right now the gardens are in a little bit of an unorganized state, with some exceptions. We have one bed dedicated to growing onions; another for strawberries; another for a number of greens, which include broccoli, collards, and leaf lettuce; one for potatoes; and another for lima beans and green peas. The other remaining gardens have a mixture of tomatoes, peppers, kale, cauliflower, squash, and carrots.
We are trying to do this whole thing in the organic state, trying to stay away from any artificial fertilizers or sprays. For fertilizer, we've used manure, as already stated, grass clippings as mulch, and fish guts as another filler for the soil, along with fish gut tea and fish emulsion as spray on fertilizers.
Shot of raised beds among tire gardens
The next thing I did was transplant all of the berry plants to positions among the fruit trees. The theory behind this idea was that in the orchard, since the fruit trees were spread out anywhere from 10-15 feet apart, there is a lot of open ground that was doing nothing but growing grass & weeds.
Instead of planting the plants directly into the ground I planted them into tires as well, so as to allow for drainage on the plants. After getting this done, I added a few more plants that we picked up some which were figs. At this point the entire east half of the orchard has berry plants among the fruit trees. All of the ground is effectively utilized with walkways big enough to move a wheelbarrow through.
Among the grapes and berries, I also had to transplant a few trees that were also planted in tires close to the grapes. These were planted on the west end of the orchard in the middle of the squares of four other fruit trees. Some of the transplants also replaced other trees that were dead or filled other spots.
Instead of planting the plants directly into the ground I planted them into tires as well, so as to allow for drainage on the plants. After getting this done, I added a few more plants that we picked up some which were figs. At this point the entire east half of the orchard has berry plants among the fruit trees. All of the ground is effectively utilized with walkways big enough to move a wheelbarrow through.
Among the grapes and berries, I also had to transplant a few trees that were also planted in tires close to the grapes. These were planted on the west end of the orchard in the middle of the squares of four other fruit trees. Some of the transplants also replaced other trees that were dead or filled other spots.
Left: Shot of tire garden orchard with raised beds to the right
Right: Shot of tire garden orchard
The next thing that we did was move all the fences that were originally set up when we were just starting to establish the gardens. We had to pull up many T posts and round fence posts along wiht the fence material, then re-anchor the posts around the perimeter of the full garden, encompassing the ground level garden, raised beds and the orchard. Luckily we had plenty of material to accomplish this, it was just a matter of using some time, which surprisingly wasn't much, to accomplish this.
We put up an access gate on the side facing the house, on the opposite side of the driveway, allowing for easy access to the garden right from the house. One thing that we did have to do recently was build up the fence higher than the original fence due to the fact that our chickens were constantly jumping over the old fence and getting into the garden and eatng everything. The original fence was 3 ft tall, we bought some chicken wire that is 2 ft wide, then attached some outdoor PVC conduit to the tops of the T posts or inserted them in the round fence tubing in order to build the posts higher than they were. With that we were able to attach the 2ft wide chicken wire to the posts with UV resistant wire ties to complete the higher fence, which worked for keeping the birds out. The ones that were persistent enough to still make it over got their wings clipped to prevent their flying over even the higher fence.
We put up an access gate on the side facing the house, on the opposite side of the driveway, allowing for easy access to the garden right from the house. One thing that we did have to do recently was build up the fence higher than the original fence due to the fact that our chickens were constantly jumping over the old fence and getting into the garden and eatng everything. The original fence was 3 ft tall, we bought some chicken wire that is 2 ft wide, then attached some outdoor PVC conduit to the tops of the T posts or inserted them in the round fence tubing in order to build the posts higher than they were. With that we were able to attach the 2ft wide chicken wire to the posts with UV resistant wire ties to complete the higher fence, which worked for keeping the birds out. The ones that were persistent enough to still make it over got their wings clipped to prevent their flying over even the higher fence.
Left: Shot of garden gate and fence
Right: Another shot of fence, gate and posts
With the general layout established in the garden, we've been able to plant many crops over the years, adopting the practice of crop rotation in the raised beds for reasons of not depleting the nutrients in the soil plus having the upper hand on possible diseases that may take root. We try to grow what grows best and what we will eat the most, such as tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, okra, rutabagas, lettuce, eggplant, squash, onions, greens, green beans, cucumbers and some melons.
The melon plants, squash, cukes and a fair number of tomatoes and peppers are all grown in the grond garden due to the room available for the vines to spread. Some tomatoes and peppers and a few others are grown in the raised beds, but we're practicing some redundancy here to guarantee we get a good amount of those given veggies. We do plan on some changes in the garden, like utilizing trellaces and other supporting structures to utilize vertical space for many of the plants like the melons and beans and cukes, the ones who's vines use a lot of real estate.
The melon plants, squash, cukes and a fair number of tomatoes and peppers are all grown in the grond garden due to the room available for the vines to spread. Some tomatoes and peppers and a few others are grown in the raised beds, but we're practicing some redundancy here to guarantee we get a good amount of those given veggies. We do plan on some changes in the garden, like utilizing trellaces and other supporting structures to utilize vertical space for many of the plants like the melons and beans and cukes, the ones who's vines use a lot of real estate.
LEft: Shot of rutabaga plants in raised bed
Right: Shot of garden, note tall okra plants in raised bed in foreground