We are hoping that the recent weather pattern is behind us. The terrible hail and wind storms are behind us and we are giving thanks that we had not planted the vegetable garden. Those poor seedlings would have been destroyed by mother nature.
Although we are going to be using a design called “lasagna gardening”, I will probably be pulling out those feeder roots this entire season (since this is the first year of a garden back in this space in almost a decade). As Joe furrowed and hoed his way through last evening, I was on my hands and knees, up and down the rows filling my weeding bucket with feeder roots. We have raised the beds in the vege garden to provide more warmth to the soil for our short growing season. What a task it was to make 8 fifty foot rows in our space. He left a comfortable 2 foot path for us to begin our lasagna for next year.
For those of you unfamiliar with this type of gardening, let me fill you in. It is when you use your pathways as a composting site. Granted, it needs to be done in a specific manner in order to be effective. Apparently, this is the method one of the previous owners used. Thus our soil here is like black gold!
But here are some great links with lots of tips:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1999-04-01/Lasagna-Gardening.aspx
http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/lasagnagarden.htm
http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/lasagna-gardening.html
Through all of this work, we must take the time to enjoy what is growing wild around here. I know that many of the beds are still in dire need of attention after all of the years of neglect. But some beauty cannot be forgotten.
