Thursday, April 30, 2015

10 Boxes To Start


Well here we go. My new raised beds for a garden are finished and placed. Each one is 2 foot wide and 8 foot long. They are constructed by O Wise One with local lumber purchased from the sawmill down the road and cut from this mountain. They are two foot wide because  I wanted  beds that I could reach easily across. Most are 10 inches tall. They will be left natural wood with no paints or preservatives. In the bottom are our cardboard moving boxes and packing paper from the move. Next are layers  of stick from the yard that fell with that February ice storm. Next are layers of leaves from the yard, grass clippings, peat moss, sheet rock torn from the house during a bathroom update with the paper removed and soaked in water(gypsum), and rabbit manure. Eventually the beds will be filled on top with mushroom compost from a local supplier. Kind of a Hugelkultur meets lasagna gardening approach.  I have no idea how this will work but should be a great start to a small garden as well as a useful way to dispose of yard waste and moving materials. Eventually we may actually prepare a small garden spot but for now this will give us someplace to plant a few veggies for summer eating and I will can any extras. We have so many other things to do that it is nice to get this one thing out of the way and move on to building a clothes line and a chicken coop.We also want to repair and upgrade the perimeter fence this summer so as you can see this first season will be a busy one. No major construction just lots of little repairs and updates.


The boxes are in the northeast corner of my yard away from all trees. I can plainly see them from my deck. Eventually we may put a small fence around that corner of the yard to keep the dogs and chickens out. For now we will just observe how things unfold.


We have lots of compost in rings that will eventually go into these beds as time goes on and they need it. We compost newspapers, food scraps from the kitchen and yard waste on a regular basis. 


As we trim trees from the recent ice storm  we are burning the wood and the ashes are also going into the beds in small amounts and the compost piles as well. 

Everything added so far is even local except the mushroom compost and the sheet rock. O Wise One is hoping to try his hand at vermiculture (worm farming) in the future which should also contribute to some nice worm castings for the gardens as well as fishing bait : ) We are making progress. Most importantly we are observing right now. Observing the weather patterns for our new home, where the sun is the brightest and little things that can so affect a garden but go unnoticed. Frost pockets and wind directions and where water stands on the property. Where the topsoil is the rockiest and where the top soil is the thickest. And most of all what our neighbors are growing is a great way to figure out what grows well here, when to plant and what to expect from this new climate. 

We still have to decide on where to put a small asparagus bed and maybe a little rhubarb patch. Maybe some fruit trees but dwarf so that we don't  have to climb ladders to prune and maintain. Blackberries and grapes as well. Not as many as on the farm but a few would be nice. We constantly have to reminds ourselves to keep everything small. The object is to scale back to allow time for other stuff as well.

So life goes on and we settle in to make our little acre as productive as possible, supplement our diet, provide us with exercise and activity into our golden years. We should be able to have the same things we did on the much larger farm but just on a smaller scale with much less upkeep. Fortunately our full freezers and jars of produce that we moved from the  farm will tide us over while we plan, lay out and prepare our new gardens and get started.

For those of you my neighbors please feel free to help us out and share what grows well in our area and on your own farms and back yards. Recommendations for flowers and shrubs as well as vegetables and fruits that do well in this area are greatly appreciated and we never get too many suggestions for anyone in the area that would like to contribute.  


Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

15 comments:

  1. That's a great update, CQ. I have the feeling that you will have many things growing in short order. It is a learning curve to see how a new location affects the growing season. Pointing out how you are observing and asking questions is important to anyone new to homesteading or in a new location. It's easy to jump the gun. I planted apricot trees shortly after we moved here seven years ago, but have yet to see any fruit. It appears the blooms come too early for our last average frosts, and that's too bad. I was very hopeful, but I don't think this dream will come to fruition. Thank you for showing me how you are learning your new environment.

    Fern

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    1. I don't think that we will plant any trees this year until we know the property a little better and do lots more research.

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  2. This looks great! We to are moving to a new location and have planted our garden ~ hopefully we will get the "fruits" of our labor and not just feed the local deer population. Have fun!

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  3. We have 50 acres and I find my ambitions are so varied, they also force me to think small with each individual endeavor! Have you looked into espalier for the fruit trees? We have decided to try it with ours, and are lining them up along (what will be) the chickens' pasture fence, along the driveway, essentially taking up no space, and becoming a "living fence" in time. Like you, I don't want to fuss with ladders, and I want to be able to easily net the trees to protect the fruit from birds. I've pruned some of the trees already, and the peach at least really responded (we're just over the AL line), with lots of fruit appearing! I fear I may need to cull fruit to reduce weight.

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    1. Magpi I know with my full size fruit trees that thinning and culling fruit was an extremely important step in getting a good harvest and preventing damage to your trees.

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    2. That is good to know! They get new guide wires tomorrow, so I'll look up what sort of spacing I should leave.

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  4. Now I know what I want my husband to make me for my birthday - some raised beds! Now for the dumb question... are those boxes sitting directly on the ground, or is it necessary to add a bottom to them? I'm so glad you're back to blogging. I missed learning from you on a nearly daily basis.

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    1. Mine are sitting directly on the ground If you have a mole problem in your area you could add a layer of chicken wire or rat wire under to prevent moles from coming up in your beds.

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  5. I'm glad to see things are coming right along! Have fun learning your new area!

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  8. Any chance O Wise One would share his knowledge on building clothes lines? Thanks, Georgia

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  9. I have read your blog for a long time and was really surprised and excited to see you are only about 45 minutes from me! I have gardened for a long time and find that all the things you grew before I could grow exceptionally well here too! I do amend my soil as much as our budget allows (we are a homeschooling family and live on one income). I actually grow a lot of the exact same varieties as you did. We also have blueberries, strawberries and blackberries wild and tame! I do find some varieties I like better than others for several reasons, mainly diseases on account of we have had some really wet summers and spring the past couple of years. I can email you if you would like so my comments are so long! We actually buy some plants and flowers from a mennonite greenhouse not too far from you! They have been exceptionally good plants and so reasonably prices. They are located in deer lodge. Now I'm not on the mountain, I am closer to the Cookeville area. I have heard from many fellow gardeners that they had a really hard time growing beets on the mountain or they just wouldn't grow at all. Everything else seems to do just fine. The only factor maybe would be you getting used to the wetness we have seemed to have for the past couple of years, last summer wasn't too bad! I did some new things and my tomatoes fares exceptionally well!!
    I love that your near me! I can't wait to see what all you do! We have chickens as well!
    Joy

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    1. Well hello neighbor. I know where Deer Lodge is and we shall definitely have to email each other and share some garden knowledge! So far the only thing that has been hard to get used to is the rainfall. We have decided that the people of Tennessee should have webbed feet. would love for you to share the name of the greenhouse in Deer Lodge and I will go there and check out their tomato plants. Hugs CQ

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  10. Sorry if this is a duplicate. Am reading your blog for the first time, like it. Seeing your raised beds and the pile of wood for ashes brought this topic to mind. It can be done several ways, long short rows or one tall Hill for a raised bed in our elder years, ect. Read somewhere they do not need to be watered once established, area excellent for drought and last a long time:

    http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

    http://permaculturenews.org/2010/08/03/the-art-and-science-of-making-a-hugelkultur-bed-transforming-woody-debris-into-a-garden-resource/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHEioJeeWxA

    You may already have blogged on this, but in case you are not aware of it... hope this is Good News.


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