Today I was a busy gardener. Really, I was more of an amateur farmer. My family and I built two raised beds for vegetables. Yesterday, I dug two new flower beds.
With us, there is always a twist. Today it was racing against the impending rain. Twice it started to come down on our backs and we thought it would pour any second. Luckily, the rain held off until we were done.
Since obstacles come in threes, we also found that we had way more plants than we originally thought. We bought 1 market pack of beets and 2 market packs of carrots. Now, I come from a long line of farmers ancestrally speaking, but I haven't planted this many veggies since I was a child helping my grandparents. For those of you who don't know this already, a market pack of anything contains many, many plants...a fact which came screaming back to me when I began to break apart the tiny carrots. Endless carrots...but very cute!
The third obstacle for us today was before the building began, when I tried to dig up all the grass with a pitckfork, shovel, and hand tiller. Here are some things that I learned from that experience, along with some advice from my neighbor who saw me struggling with the hand tiller and came over.
-If you don't have access to an automatic tiller and the soil is dry, don't dig up the grass. Lay a weed barrier and build on top.
-Carbdboard makes a great weed barrier. It is easy to cut to fit the space, will kill the grass and weeds when you build the bed, and it degrades over time so earthworms can go up into the soil.
-Newspaper can also be used as a weed barrier, but it needs to be laid down very thick.
-With cardboard or newspaper, wet it down before pouring soil on top so it doesn't move!
-There is a companion planting guide at: http://onecreativemommy.com/?s=Companion+planting
-Companion planting puts plants that benefit one another together. Sometimes this planting method provides natural pest controls, other times it attracts pollinators.
-Tomatoes like acidic soil, so plant them with other things that like acidic soil. This way, you can save your coffee grounds and use them to fertilize the plot without making the soil too acidic for other plants. Azaleas like acidic soil too and can also be fertilized with coffee grounds, but are probably not in your vegetable garden.
Right now, I am looking forward to feeding my family from my gardens. If things grow and produce, we will be able to get more than half of our food from our own yard. Gardening gives us more independence, the joy of being outside together, and exercise that is actually fun! I go to bed sore every night from working so hard and unlike if I were at the gym, I love every minute of it.
I began by growing herbs in a window box. So even if you don't have a yard or much of one, you can still enjoy the satisfaction of growing some of your own food. You don't need to do tons of research online before starting, either. You will learn with practice.
In planting our own food, we have a wonderful opportunity to get in touch with the environment that is around us. We take care of our food from seed or tiny plant until it ends up on our plate. We get our hands dirty and learn to pay attention to the seasonal cycles. We learn what to plant and when things are harvested. We also learn what foods nature gives us locally in each season, which are the foods that will help to keep us healthy and balanced. This is the simple way of Ayurveda, the science of life.
With us, there is always a twist. Today it was racing against the impending rain. Twice it started to come down on our backs and we thought it would pour any second. Luckily, the rain held off until we were done.
Since obstacles come in threes, we also found that we had way more plants than we originally thought. We bought 1 market pack of beets and 2 market packs of carrots. Now, I come from a long line of farmers ancestrally speaking, but I haven't planted this many veggies since I was a child helping my grandparents. For those of you who don't know this already, a market pack of anything contains many, many plants...a fact which came screaming back to me when I began to break apart the tiny carrots. Endless carrots...but very cute!
The third obstacle for us today was before the building began, when I tried to dig up all the grass with a pitckfork, shovel, and hand tiller. Here are some things that I learned from that experience, along with some advice from my neighbor who saw me struggling with the hand tiller and came over.
-If you don't have access to an automatic tiller and the soil is dry, don't dig up the grass. Lay a weed barrier and build on top.
-Carbdboard makes a great weed barrier. It is easy to cut to fit the space, will kill the grass and weeds when you build the bed, and it degrades over time so earthworms can go up into the soil.
-Newspaper can also be used as a weed barrier, but it needs to be laid down very thick.
-With cardboard or newspaper, wet it down before pouring soil on top so it doesn't move!
-There is a companion planting guide at: http://onecreativemommy.com/?s=Companion+planting
-Companion planting puts plants that benefit one another together. Sometimes this planting method provides natural pest controls, other times it attracts pollinators.
-Tomatoes like acidic soil, so plant them with other things that like acidic soil. This way, you can save your coffee grounds and use them to fertilize the plot without making the soil too acidic for other plants. Azaleas like acidic soil too and can also be fertilized with coffee grounds, but are probably not in your vegetable garden.
Right now, I am looking forward to feeding my family from my gardens. If things grow and produce, we will be able to get more than half of our food from our own yard. Gardening gives us more independence, the joy of being outside together, and exercise that is actually fun! I go to bed sore every night from working so hard and unlike if I were at the gym, I love every minute of it.
I began by growing herbs in a window box. So even if you don't have a yard or much of one, you can still enjoy the satisfaction of growing some of your own food. You don't need to do tons of research online before starting, either. You will learn with practice.
In planting our own food, we have a wonderful opportunity to get in touch with the environment that is around us. We take care of our food from seed or tiny plant until it ends up on our plate. We get our hands dirty and learn to pay attention to the seasonal cycles. We learn what to plant and when things are harvested. We also learn what foods nature gives us locally in each season, which are the foods that will help to keep us healthy and balanced. This is the simple way of Ayurveda, the science of life.