Monday, June 16, 2014

~My Garden Attempts~
So I have previously attempted several vegetable gardens ranging from mild to disastrous results. My most recent attempt brought me to a small clearing near my home that had been "touched" with a rototiller. (I say touched because the rototiller managed to clear chunks of grass and roots, yet left them in tangled rock-root filled piles throughout my garden bed). As my skin turned into a lovely shade of dirty-sweaty swipe marks I pulled each root bundle out of the garden and shook the dirt free from it's safe haven, slowly creating a soft bed for my soon to be green children. Now I have heard garden tips from everyone and their brother so I decided to throw together a combination garden this year in order to try my hand at multiple styles. So first off I started off making rows upon rows of mounded up dirt. (Trust me, seeds will grow if the row is straight or not!) In my mounded rows I planted an array of green beans, broccoli, radishes, and cucumbers. The next section of my garden I incorporated a raised bed and scattered carrot seeds throughout. Although I do not eat carrots(or really all that many raw vegetables) my little bunny rabbit Charlie certainly does! Last year I also found that Charlie LOVES sweet corn so I also threw in 5-6 straight rows of that. In the lower part of the garden I found that I was having a lot of trouble with excess water so I decided to use tires to plant in. So far this has been my favorite method because it reduces my back ache ten-fold. I chose to only do one tire high(filling them with dirt is way more work than I thought!), but I have heard of many people going three or four high! In my tire garden I have planted green peppers and cantaloupe so far but I have been thinking of throwing in some pumpkins & onions. The last thing I did before throwing in the towel was to write the names of each veggie on a stick and mark the beginnings/ends of the rows. A few years ago I forgot to mark plants and I spent 4 months weeding and nourishing a lovely picker bush! I certainly had to spread this laborious activity out over a few days but I felt quite a feeling of accomplishment getting everything in the ground! My hands are now stained with dirt and my finger nails look as if I gnawed them to the tip but my sticks lined up through the garden are worth the price.
~Until Next Time

2 comments:

  1. For some reason a friend of mine tried to post and was unable. This is her comment: "Just in case you didn't get the comment, try planting some marigolds around the edges of the beds (one on each end should do the trick unless the beds are really long) They are naturally acidic and deter bugs pretty well. I've also been told that sprinkling some cayenne pepper around the edges also will deter slugs because they get burned when they slitter across. I hope some of this helps you win the war against the slugs!"-Kelly Gearwar

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  2. I had no idea that marigold would work as a deterrent that is a great tip!! I have several marigold plants lining my front door because of their mosquito deterrent ability but slugs are new. Thanks for the tip Kell!

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