j souther

I filled a raised bed cheap and in a hurry 2 years ago. The first thing I threw in was old half-rotted wood branches I had laying around, plus any nonseedy weeds and stalks of whatever. Then the soil that I purchased, mixed with homemade compost. We didn't have a lot of rain that year; at least 2 long dry spells when the rain barrels and the skies were empty. But that bed showed the least stress and wilting compared to others. I think the old wood acted like a sponge and held water for the roots.

However, this year I was desperate for space and planted sweet potatoes in this bed. I suspect that the potatoes are going to be difficult to extract from the wood in a few places. I might be tearing the soil all to heck come harvest time.

Someone mentioned filling with 100% compost; is this a good idea or not? I have been asking myself if there needs to be more clay mixed in, or at least native soil. Seems to me I read somewhere that clay has more minerals, while compost has plenty of nitrogen.

I have 4 forsythia that I brought home from a friend's yard and planted, but I didn't want them spreading the way they tend to. So I trained them as a single trunk. They were quite small when I got them, but 10 years later, they have decided to obey and almost never put out ground-level suckers. I don't top trim them much;  I only trim off branches that are bending toward the ground and likely to touch.

Yes, it was troublesome for a few years, but it was worth it as I truly love the look of small trees.

Bronze fennel, like other flowering plants in my garden, began to reseed once the soil was healthier, after a few years of mulching. Because of the taproot, it doesn't transplant well unless I choose very small ones. In my area it attracts all kinds of pollinators, but not so much regular honey bees. I can't be sure, but I believe it is a biennial. Currently it is growing in close quarters alongside echinacea, spiderwort, purple sage, lamb's ear, and Siberian iris. No evidence of allelopathy.

Sweet potato, onion, carrots, celery if I have it, sauteed. Homemade veggie broth and coconut milk, plenty of yellow curry powder. Big handful of chopped greens for last few minutes.

I have strawberries under the high bush blueberries. Now that the strawberries are starting to ripen, we went ahead and put up the bird net which protects both of the berries. I have been letting my ducks through that area of the garden for most of the winter and spring, and I can see a definite impact on slug and roly poly populations. The ladies often go there first, and seem very busy eating whatever they are finding. They don't seem interested in the fruit at all, not sure why. And the plants are now well-established enough to withstand a bit of flat-footed tromping.

My biggest problem this year has been too much rain. The berries are rotting before they ripen. They're everbearing, so maybe the next round of blossoms will have a better chance of ripening. Right now, though, it's not looking good, and we have more rain forecasted today and most of next week.

I started my garden with 2 or 3 raised beds because it was in a section of badly degraded soil and my neighbor had some 2x10 planks she was getting rid of. A trailer full of mushroom compost and a little topsoil and I was ready to go the first season living on the property.

However, the wood was old to begin with and in a few years I had to make a decision. New raised beds? Or in-ground? I chose beds that are corrugated tin or some kind of metal, with  braces that go across the short way, for stability. I have been able to expand with more beds, some with scrap lumber and some with black locust logs. As they degrade, I have replaced with more of the metal beds. And my soil, after 10 years and countless barrows of compost and leaf mold, is now as valuable as my house. Well....I mean...you know what I mean.

Anyway, the latest garden expansion is on a slight slope and I decided to create berms and swales, not really deep or high because the slope isn't steep. I have started planting more perennials in the berms; maybe some annual veggies will be tucked in here and there. As the soil gets better, I will put in more berries and flowers and not sure what all.

So, it does depend on what you are planting, what your climate is, what you have to begin with. If you don't know, do a bit of dumpster diving/scavenging and get some free or cheap lumber and just get started with 1 or 2. Then you can decide from there how they work and  if you want to make changes.

I like this recipe because it's so easy. Immersion blender right in the jar you serve from and store in? How brilliant is that? It's also very flexible. Once you master it, you can change it up based on what you have. The nutritional yeast is totally the star player.
Last time I made this, I dropped in some roasted red peppers I found in the fridge.

I have been composting in various ways, similar to what people have already mentioned, for about 30 years now. Just in the last two months I decided to try and create a hot pile according to Elaine Ingham's technique. I bought a compost thermometer and coincidentally found a curbside bonanza in the form of 3 paper lawn bags full of small high-carbon material like old bits of wood chip and pine cones, etc. I built my pile, stuck in the thermometer and waited. It went up to 150 in less than 24 hours. I have turned it twice since then and it hasn't gone that high again, but it has gone up enough.

I think there are a few things that have finally made the difference for me:
1. everything chopped small with a shovel and mixed together.
2. heavy  on the carbon
3.  spray it with a hose.
4. build the whole pile in one go.

Footnote: my kids are grown and I don't work full time. I never had the time or energy to do this method when I was much younger. I just always said, "Ain't gonna happen. Cold pile will have to do."
If you don't think you can do something, just do what you can. You never know what the future has waiting for you.

How many ducks does it take to thoroughly mess up a pond? If you ever watched the movie "The Biggest Little Farm" you might know that they dealt with this very question. If I remember correctly, their solution was to have the ducks in the orchard first thing in the morning, to eat all the snails. Then herd them off to the pond a bit later in the day, rather than letting them have access all day.

Also, maybe do some research about trying to establish duckweed as a source of food. Any plantings should be given lots of time to get thoroughly established before introducing ducks.

Ducks like water so much that they can stay in it all day, as experienced by my daughter when she converted a yucky, not-cleaned-in-years swimming pool to a duck pond. And they nibbled, picked and pulled apart whatever plants she tried to grow in the pond.

Funny story: she adopted a big one-eyed goofdog who decided to chase the ducks upon his first day home. They ran and flapped straight into the pool and, much to his surprise, so did he. So humiliated, he never even looked at them again.

Our small flock has continuous access to a very small pond, maybe 30-40 gallons. They don't spend all day in it, but when the water is changed, they definitely throw a pool party. And jumping in the water activates the eject button every time. So...clean for 10 minutes.

After building a poly tunnel in the garden and covering with UV resistant plastic sheeting, we were disappointed to find that it only lasted 2 years. We completely redesigned the frame to accommodate polycarbonate roof panels. So our curved tunnel became an A- frame. The panels are corrugated, 2' wide, and 10' or 12' long, also clear rather than opaque so lots of sun in the winter.

They attach to the wood frame with screws and my husband removes them for summer gardening. The ones at the orange big box store have a pretty good warranty and claim to be unbreakable. Three years (or 4?) in and so far we are very pleased.

I know this won't work for all applications but it can be great for a lot of things. It doesn't curve like a tarp, so you really have to rethink the frame. As for firewood covering, we used a mash-up of old tin roofing and new metal roof leftovers, screwed to a frame of scrounged 2x4s stuck on the back of the garage.

I wonder how easy it is to get your hands on discarded highway signs from the DOT. Never tried, myself. But I just saw a smoking shed (fish, not cigarettes) roofed with them.

It seems like if you have a structure that you intend to use for years, best to think of something besides a tarp. Costly up front, yes. But way less headache and waste in the long run.