Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Vegetable Garden
Or as Jack would say, "begetable garden." I took a gardening class this past weekend which finally pushed me over the edge to create a garden. The kids are old enough now so I have at least a few minutes a day to go outside. Jack is REALLY into learning about new things and is very hands on. He constantly asks me all day if we could go outside and work on our begetable garden. It's really adorable.
I made a raised bed veggie garden in which you don't actually plant the seeds in the ground... its a raised bed. Duh! Good thing too because if you dig just a few inches below the ground it's all sand and water. Not very conducive to growing edible plants. We used the "lasagna method" to create our bed. This method uses different layers of green material and brown material built on top of each other to create a nutrient dense soil. It was also very easy to prepare once you have all the supplies at hand. Here's how we did it:
I made a raised bed veggie garden in which you don't actually plant the seeds in the ground... its a raised bed. Duh! Good thing too because if you dig just a few inches below the ground it's all sand and water. Not very conducive to growing edible plants. We used the "lasagna method" to create our bed. This method uses different layers of green material and brown material built on top of each other to create a nutrient dense soil. It was also very easy to prepare once you have all the supplies at hand. Here's how we did it:
Find some big strong guys to forage some free materials
make a manageable sized garden
gather your materials: green material like fresh cuttings from plants, grass clippings, etc, brown material like dead leaves, bark, paper, hay and cardboard/paper
He's getting tired of me mentally composing my blog posts as I'm taking pictures
Let's get started: lay down cardboard, paper, newspapers, junk mail, magazines, whatever you have. This will keep the weeds down and your soil separate from the actual dirt under the bed
I forgot a few of my materials: top soil and SUPER POO! which is composted horse manure. Apparently poop is really good for gardens
Find some cute kids to help
Take some time out to play with the love bugs
This is part of my "green" layer - fresh food material. No diary or meat
Throw down a layer of top soil
Another part of our "green" layer
Now a "brown layer" of super poo
Hay is part of the "brown" layer
Water it down to smush the layers - yes, that's a technical term. Barley is obsessed with the hose
More soil
My precious
Gotta play a little bit while working
He thinks he's a dog
Add a couple inches of top soil to the top and water it all down. It looks like a lot but it will compress to make a very healthy soil.
We planted lettuce, fennel, parcel, kohlrabi, mini carrots, cucumber, summer squash, green onions, basil, and broccoli. Everything is doing great and I can't wait to show you pictures of all my glorious sprouts!
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