Hugel - Spring update

 

Last fall, because our yard is "challenged", we put in a "hugel" bed.  Basically, what this is, is you begin with branches and brush, make a mound with what you have.  Add to that any leaves or yard waste, we were able to source some free chicken manure and some straw and we let this area sit all winter to compost down.

 

In the spring, we sources some free wood, not pressure treated, but heat treated, that was being thrown away and DH gave the hugel three sides with only the purchase of screws.

 

 

Then, the bucket brigade of free compost began until the hugel was "full".  Really, I ran out of steam from getting over 50 five gallon buckets full, just for the hugel.  Also added in were a few bags of mushroom compost, peat moss, and free bags of coffee grounds.

How baby seals sleep while in the water

 

While on vacation this year, we spent a lot of time at The Head of the Meadow National Park beach.

 

One of the things we love about this beach is how close the seals are and go cruising past all during the day.

 

On our last day there, we saw this nose pop out, grabbed the binoculars and could tell is was a young seal.

 

Well, we kept watching......

 

And watching..........

And watching, until it had floated like this past us.  I got this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that the seal was not alive.

I went down to the life guard stand to ask them to please look and see if the seal was okay with their binoculars.  It was the end of their day, and there weren't many people on the beach.  One did look, while another told me that this is how young seals sleep.

I was not sure if I wanted to believe her, thinking she was telling me this to appease me.

She also said if I were to go down to High Head, I would see plenty of young seals sleeping exactly as this one is.  It was high tide and they tire from fishing so hard when the tide is going out that they often see them sleep like this.

I tried really hard to believe her, but as soon as we got back to our hotel room, I had to google it and check.

And, it's TRUE.  It's called bottling.  Only their nose sticks out of the water while they sleep in the water like this.  Also, that only half of their brain is asleep, the other half is awake and on alert for predators.

We've moved the butterfly bushes

 

Well, it had to be done.

 

We moved the remaining three butterfly bushes.

 

I had heard that they could be invasive.  Wasn't exactly sure HOW invasive.

 

They are SEED invasive!

 

We have removed hundreds of small plants.  Many of them had grown very well where they fell and I know that I will now have seven years of pulling them out from where they fell last fall.  I can not let them to continue to grow where I had planted them as they were not in the appropriate place for being a seed invasive plant.

 

So, they were drastically cut back, dug up and replanted to the side yard and now it doesn't really matter how many seeds fall.  I just hope they will grow as well where we have planted them as the seeds grew where we didn't want them.

 

Another lesson learned.

Carrot trough continued

This is a picture of how the carrots look today.

I have thinned them twice and plan to do one more thinning this weekend to see how the carrots are growing.

This "trough" system was ideal.  I knew exactly where the carrots were planted and I was able to tweek it's location to get the best amount of sun.

The plan is to empty the trough once the carrots are harvested and to put fresh soil in next spring and do the carrots in here again.

Carrot troughs

 

In the fall, DH, made this "trough" planter for me our of things that were being thrown away at his work.  Since it is nearly 12 inches deep, I decided I would try growing carrots in it.

 

I planted one row of each type of carrot on May 7th.

 

Berlicum 2

Lunar White

Amarillo

Chantenay Red core

 

All the seeds were purchased from Baker Seed, rareseeds.com, and had a good germination rate.  They were up on May 15th and have been growing ever since.

 

 

New deckside garden

 

If you remember seeing this potato vine last year that took over this area of the deck side garden, you can see why I thought this would be a great place to add vegetable gardening here.  This was one plant that took over the entire area.

 

 

 

DH and I worked on removing the rock border we had and then he put in oak ties (or is it tides?) to the back nearest the deck and along the front.  Along the side opposite the deck, we replaced the rock border there. 

 

Then it was a matter of going to the free composting site to get bucket full after bucket full of compost to help amend the soil at low/no cost.  I also added in some of our nearly completed yard compost and a few bags of humus.

 

I direct planted on May 9th, Gold Marie Vining Beans, Beurre De Rocquencourt, and a Gourmet mix of beans. They all began to show on the 15th of May and have been growing ever since.

 

To the front, or right side of the picture, I direct seeded spinach, then under cover I have lettuce plants from inside.  I did many seeds under grow lights inside this year.

 

And to the back are the three tomato plants that I grew from seed that our son gave us.

 

 

 

 

Our fall project for this area, is that DH will build a cold frame that will be placed where the tomato plants currently are and it will be used to grow some veg during the winter months to help extend our season in the fall and spring of the year.

 

With a little thought and planning, I am sure you too can find new places to plant vegetables or flowers in your yard.  I'd love to hear what you've come up with.





The summer is coming to an end

Wow, I haven't been on here since spring. Can't believe how time goes by so quickly.

A lot has happened in the gardening department.

The gutter garden that DH built last fall has worked out splendidly.  I would recommend to anyone who has limited space to check into making one to grow salad greens.  I can not get over how much we harvested and replanted twice already this season.

 

 

I wish the pictures were a bit better, so you could really see how well the lettuces grew in the gutters.

In this next picture, you get just a small glimpse of how well the beans did growing up the netting on the other side of the gutter garden.  We are still harvesting beans from the original planting.  Sylvester has eaten most of the right off the vine/bush.  But I have managed to put away quite a few quart bags into the freezer.

 

 

Along the house, in the shade, you can see the tomato plants that I grew from the seeds our son gave us from the plant he was given last year from a friend who grows a heritage tomato, for which we have no name.  Pictures to follow of how and what the tomatoes look like.  They are super meaty.

 

Here is an early season picture of the hugel bed we made in the fall.  The five different kinds of blueberry bushes have been planted.  All the rest of the plants have been grown by me from seed.  The marigolds grew huge, too big really and I've cut them back a few times.  The picklers did wonderfully.  I am not entirely sure how many pint jars and spaghetti jars of refrigerator pickles I made and gave away.  Enjoyed by all.  I felt badly about having to pull out the plants just before vacation, but I knew too many would go to waste while we were gone.

 



 

 

These are just a few of the Daikon radishes I had planted from seed up in the hugel.  The leaves on them were a great addition to the compost pile and two friends really enjoyed the

 radishes.

 



 

 

I hope to post some more about my garden adventures in the coming weeks.

 

I hope that you will come back to visit and see how well I've done and what I've learned.

 

Leave a comment to let me know you were here.