We have always wanted to garden because we have a good-sized backyard with lots of mature trees and we hate eating non-organic food, not to mention most produce you get in the grocery stores is wholly lacking in...everything. Unfortunately, through neglect and time, our once-lush backyard has now been devoured by all the gout weed you can dream of. Not optimal for gardening, not by a long shot. When we first moved here nine years ago, we had a lush landscape back there with plump healthy rhubarb stalks and even strawberries. But alas, the gout weed took over, proving to be a Leviathan in our own backyard. The only way to overcome this beast would be to bulldoze our entire yard and truck in new soil. Sorry, it just ain't gonna happen. But now we have Seeds of Change! So let's see if we can grow some veggies and herbage in this sucker.
First, they arrived in our driveway and brought out the cedar wood box-like enclosure. Chloe, maker of said box, laid some black landscape fabric on top of our weeds and we tucked it in to all the sides and corners. Then we dumped loads of three different, er, nutrient-dense plant foods: peat moss, sheep manure, and vermiculite. We were told to stir it all up like a nice big cake batter and then water it all until it became the consistency of dressing. Not the kind of dressing that comes with those fish n' chips, but the salad dressing kind. So that's what we did, and here is a picture of us planting some of the cuttings they gave us.
We divided the area into 16 squares, and planted different varieties in each square. We have now planted something in every square: beets, kale, arugula, Swiss chard, carrots, rosemary, broccoli, nasturtium (edible flowers), lettuce and a tomato plant. So now it looks like this:
You can see all the little sprouts on the left side, those are kale, and the bright green sprouts on the lower right are beets. I was amazed at how fast they sprouted as they only took like a week. There are way too many beet sprouts there so we're going to thin out many of the weaker seedlings. Our main fear is of course the Leviathan Gout Weed creeping up all over this succulent sanctuary, but what can we do? We'll try to keep on top of it as much as we can. And so far, knock knock, we have not had to deal with any bugs as of yet. But I'm sure they are lurking somewhere close by in the darkness, just waiting to attack when we aren't looking, which happens to be most of the time!
Eat B(right),
Veggie Daddy
