Advice for getting started

Hi all

I'm about to move to 6.5 acres in middle Georgia (Hogansville) and am going to start a personal veggie garden, a cut-flower garden, and an herbal apothecary garden. We are starting small and learning as we grow. The land is flat, and I think it has been used to cultivate hay, but it's basically a large field without crops. I want to get started right away and try to get a fall garden in. We will be moving in mid-August. I have some basic questions and would love any and all advice!

1. I was thinking that immediately after moving, laying cardboard, landscape cloth, etc to get the grass and weeds down before planting. How long do I need to have these down before planting?

2. Once I remove these layers, I want to be sure my soil is good. We've had it tested, and our soil is 6.5 pH, Phosphorus: 8 lbs/Acre; Potassium: 103
lbs/Acre; Calcium: 1043 lbs/Acre; Magnesium: 329 lbs/Acre; Zinc: 2 lbs/Acre. I will have compost ready to go. What else should I do to get our small plots ready?

3. Greenhouses! Do I need one? What kind? Recommendations on building or kits to buy?

Thank you!!

Jen

I can relate to wanting to get going asap. However, I would recommend that you force yourself to observe the land for as long as possible before making any permanent changes. You'll be able to identify microclimates and shade/sun patterns. What happens with water is a big one even on relatively flat land. Where does it drain/runoff and where does it pool and keep the ground saturated. You can also observe animal and insect activity which will help determine the location of these things.

I've had to invest a significant amount of time in making changes to what I thought were the right locations/processes. A lot of that has been related to water and the erratic seasonal weather patterns that observing for a year was not long enough. There is a lot of trial and error. Second to water ponding/runoff, the moles have caused the biggest changes. Initially, I had everything in the ground. The mole activity has forced me to grow most food stuffs in raised beds so building them has been ongoing. Supposedly, they are not supposed to cause damage to plant and tree root systems but they do here. They will eat my walking onions right up to the ground surface and damage most plants if they find them. I have a 2 year old plum that started to have some leaf discoloration. I went to check on it and it pulled right out of the ground with no effort. Just below the surface was a series of tunnels and the roots were all gone all the way back to the trunk.

So some things will be trial and error and others will be done out of necessity. Time gained or loss in those processes will be directly related to time spent observing. Whether observation only or experimenting and then observing.

Lastly, out of sight out of mind is very true in my case. The area immediately around the house is very important for me.

I second everything Jackson said.

As to the turning pasture to garden, it depends!  The type of grass really makes a difference in timing and method, but don’t expect your first try to work—you might kill some of the weaker species but your soil seed bank is probably so full you will need multiple cycles to get to a manageable level for weeds in a veggie garden.  The YouTube channels no till grower and advancing eco agriculture are the top two I can think of for details.  

Are you going to have any machines? Tiller, tractor, riding mower, etc?  Are you solo, have a partner, going all in 24/7, still have a job, etc. ? A homestead will suck 120% of all available time and money, so plan in small steps so you don’t have a thousand half finished projects (learning the hard way).

Observation is one of the first permaculture principles.

Watching what happens after a rainstorm could save you thousands of dollars and a lot of heartache.

Start small with room to expand.

Greenhouses are a personal choice.  With the Georgia weather they might be more of a luxury rather than something needed.

Row cover might be more suited to Georgia.

Welcome to Permies!

1. I was thinking that immediately after moving, laying cardboard, landscape cloth, etc to get the grass and weeds down before planting. How long do I need to have these down before planting?

There are many different styles/forms of gardening, so specific advise may differentiate depending on your approach. For me, I'm big into minimal tillage so I would recommend putting down a natural smothering layer and leaving it. For example, I started a few of my in-ground gardens by laying down wide sheets of kraft paper and covered it with a thick layer of compost. Time decomposes the kraft paper and minimal weeds manage to persist. Those weeds that persist end up being easily removed by hand. I have found, however, that this style of prep does best when you let the ground mellow for about a year. It will not give you instant gratification to garden but will prepare the soil for a successful future garden.

2. Once I remove these layers, I want to be sure my soil is good. We've had it tested, and our soil is 6.5 pH, Phosphorus: 8 lbs/Acre; Potassium: 103
lbs/Acre; Calcium: 1043 lbs/Acre; Magnesium: 329 lbs/Acre; Zinc: 2 lbs/Acre. I will have compost ready to go. What else should I do to get our small plots ready?

Soil tests can give you an idea of where you are, at a very particular moment in a very particular spot BUT I have found them to be easy to over-focus on. Part of my gardening style involves learning how to identify when my plants are telling me something. Are they thirsty? Are they having a deficiency? With time and experience, you can start telling what is happening simply through observation. Soil testing, for a while. had my focus and I was ignoring what the plants were telling me. A test that helped me get started in understanding the potential challenges/benefits of my gardens is a simple, at home, mason jar soil test.. Clay can hold a bunch of nutrients but can be a bear to turn into good soil. Sand has great drainage but that means keeping nutrients in the root zone can be a challenge. Knowing what you may expect can help you correct issues faster. A lot of the soil texture issues can be solved with compost.

3. Greenhouses! Do I need one? What kind? Recommendations on building or kits to buy?

I wish I had a recommendation for you, I wish I had a greenhouse! For now, the window sills of my house function as my greenhouse for plant starts in the early spring.