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May's GAMCOD garden

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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This area in my front yard has poor and compacted soil with little vegetation. Over the last few years I slowly started a few tree guilds with berry bushes and flowers. I mapped a 200 sq ft area in between these tree guilds for the GAMCOD project.

I am facing several challenges:

1. The soil is not fertile enough for food crops that have a higher requirement for nutrients than tree and perennial ornamental plants.

2. I don't have enough time or resources to build up soil fertility. Many organic gardens starting from scratch take the advantage of the dormant winter season and bring in large amount of organic matters.

3. Being visible in the front yard, my family members prefer it to be more pleasant looking. I don't want fencing but I also have free-ranging chickens.

4. Paul wants it cheap, productive and not taking lots of time. Although it's said you can only pick two out of the fast/good/cheap triangle, I will take the challenge.

ETA. I later change the location to meet the requirements but the above mentioned challenges are the same.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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I save this for some basic information.

Location: Full sun
Dimension: 20' by 10'
Historical forst free days: late April to Mid October 175 days
Last frost date 2024: April 22

Plants:
Jerusalem Artichoke (March)
Garlic (March)
Mixed seeds( dill, bean, buckwheat, squash, wildflowers) (April)
Tomato (May)
Sunflower (May)
Sweet potato ( to be determined)

Input:
Chicken wire fence 50'
Bamboo stakes
Home made compost: 50 Gal
Fertilizer: 5 lbs plant material/ 32 gallon water per week

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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I'd like to make some quick compost for the plot before the season starts. Chicken manure is not allowed, since my chickens are not 100% free ranging (12 eating 50# scratch grains in a month). I scavenged available sources from ghost acre: leaves, charcoal, urine and squash peels. Covered with barks from dead ash tree since no cardboard. I built the 1/6 cubic yard pile yesterday and it's already at 90F after 17 hours. It should be done within 10 days due to the small volumn and I plan on digging in the to cure and improve soil texture ( only in the small circle part). Might plant a few potato tubers in but I couldn't find the packaging.

Time spent:
Making charcoal: 30 minutes (use only part of it)
Raking chopping and screening leaves (20 gallons): 1 hour
Prepping food scraps and building the pile: 15 + 30 minutes
Subsequent turning: 5 minutes each

Would take less time if I don't have to document.

For people interested in doing small scale hot composting, I put together some photos in my secret minion post here. I don't have time to write a detailed thread but the pictures should be sufficient.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

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Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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Paulvsaid no dog bone shape so I haven't figured out what to do next. I don't have materials to start a new plot( planted all the sunchokes). I rearranged the logs to mark a 25 x8 area between existing tree guilds but that eliminated paths between them. It's hard to put path in the plot since now sunchokes are right in the middle with some outside of the plot. I have one week to decide till garlic planting time.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11826

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 1 year ago

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A couple thoughts -
Do you need a path? The bed looks fairly narrow, so much of it you can reach from either side. I think I would just plant all over it and try not to step on the plants too much.
The artichoke were only planted just over a week ago, if you could stand the effort they would probably transplant and still grow away well in a new location.
Well done for not just giving up!

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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Good or bad, we are having an early spring. I managed to dig up some tubers and they are growing fast. Another patch planted 3 weeks ago already have shoots emerging.

Plants I choose are supposed to be easy to care and resilient so I probably just need a few spots for foot traffic.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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I started in a new site and left the original plots for perennials. I didn't choose the backyard at first because we had two years of severe drought and situation is really bad there since it's more exposed. The ground is barely covered with 1" residues even though we haven't mowed since last July. I parked the truck bed liner too long on one spot and killed the grass underneath, although I tried mulching and sowing lots of cover crop seeds it remains bare. Choosing this area will mean more work and I may not get any harvest, but building soil is my priority.

I have planted 7.5 lbs of Jerusalem artichokes and 1.5 lbs of garlic, now I am making compost for warm season crops. I also started a spreadsheet to record all the planting date/ amount/cost/time. Everything is going as planned.

Taking video is some new skill to learn for me. I have an over 10-year old DSLR that I only use lightly since I had kids. Participating in GAMCOD rekindles my enthusiasm in photography. Many clips won't be submitted but still are lovely records of MO wildlife for myself.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Ashley Cottonwood

gardener

Posts: 1958

Location: British Columbia

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posted 1 year ago

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That's awesome May! I bet there are people on Permies that can help if you need some camera support.

Oh wow your trees are blossoming! I'm so excited to start but it's currently snowing!

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Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11826

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

5941

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posted 1 year ago

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May Lotito wrote:Taking video is some new skill to learn for me. I have an over 10-year old DSLR that I only use lightly since I had kids. Participating in GAMCOD rekindles my enthusiasm in photography. Many clips won't be submitted but still are lovely records of MO wildlife for myself.

I actually bought myself a second hand DLSR partly for potential GAMCOD, and partly towards some photography to sell in my shop (calenders and jigsaws). I'm finding it a bit awkward - I wear glasses and the viewfinder diopter does not adjust enough to my poor vision, but I'm not happy with the autofocus. I also need to teach myself video editing - always something new to learn :)

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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A good phone would be very convenient to carry around for all kinds of shootings. My phone is a cheap one so the DSLR is irreplaceable when I need to take a full view of the garden area or footage of local flora and fauna. The latters are important phenology indicators and help me make decisions on planting schedules. We have a warm winter and spring and a early hot summer is likely to follow. I planted my cool season crops at least two weeks early. I skip leafy crops and potatoes in the GAMCOD garden and start rooting some sweet potato tubers based on this year's weather.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

1296

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posted 1 year ago

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We had one light frost on April 22nd, a few days before the historical last frost date. I planted 8 sunflower seeds and transplanted 3 cherry tomatoes before we had multi days of storms and recieved over 7 inches of rain over the weekend.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

1296

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posted 1 year ago

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Sneak peek.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11826

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

5941

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posted 1 year ago

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Oh I do like your garden helpers! Looks like they are getting right in there.

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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Mid season progress:
1.cover crop buckwheat and Daikon radish started to flower in late May so I pulled and dropped them as ground cover.
2. Butternut squash seedlings are left to grow while pumpkin seedlings are attacked by squash bugs and failed.
3. Sunchokes are over 3 feet tall and uniform.
4. Organic store bought sweet potatoes sprouted and slips are transplanted into the garden.
5. Garlic about one month away from harvesting
6. Drive bamboo poles in ground for tomato trellises

About 1.5 hours spent on chop and drop and trellis making. I have to hammer a concrete stake in ground to make each hole otherwise the bamboo can't go deeper than 5" due to dense soil.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

1296

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posted 1 year ago

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Summer solstice garden update

I have harvested some green beans
6.13 236g
6.18 442g

First squash setting
String trellis tmsquash vines and tomatoes to intercept more light
Have minor pest issues:
Grasshoppers eating sunchoke leaves
Some squash bugs from 1st and 2nd generation
Continue planting sweet potato slips

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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Thanks to the heat and moisture, plants are growing very well. Of course they are only 50% or less of the same variety growing in fertile soil in other part of the garden. I lost about half of the garlic to rot due to drainage issue. There are hornworms eating tomato leaves, grasshoppers eating sunchoke leaves. Aphids. Squash bugs. I leave one squash as trap and keep killing mating pairs coming to that plants. I pick hormworms off whenever I see one since it's too slow for wasps to take care of it. But otherwise I let the nature to keep the rest of the pests in check.

Some bug shots for fun.

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Lacewing eggs under leaf infested with aphids

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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Here is the diagram of the plot and things got planted. I am going to sow some daikon seeds in the understory of squashes next. Maybe some winter cover crop after the fall harvest so that I convert this patch back to grassland.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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So far I harvested 3.5 lbs of green beans and 1.75 lbs of tomato. The majority of harvest won't happen till the end of the season.
It's disappointing my garlic didn't make it. The crop looked good in late May and early June but slowly rotted away. Maybe I planted them too deep, maybe due to nutrient deficiency. I scavenged a few and it would've been 300.
Some signs of N and S deficiency are showing. I am going to plant daikon and nappa cabbage then top dress with compost.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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A storm in late August knocked the trellis sideways so I took down part of it and also let light in underneath. This type of butternut squash takes at least two months to mature so my first set of Fruits already have woody stem but the later ones still need 4 more weeks. Jerusalem artichokes are in full bloom. I am wondering if topping will get them to put energy in tubers faster.

So far my calorie is merely 1,500 from small harvests:

Green beans: 1,517g/ 3 lbs/ 470 kcal at 31 kcal/100g
Tomatoes: 1,261g/ 2 and 3/4 lbs/ 250 kcal at 20 kcal/100g
Sunflower seeds with hulls: 246g /0.5 lb/ 780 kcal at 317 kcal/100g

My estimation of future harvests:

Butternut squash: 40 lbs/ 8,000 kcal at 45 kcal/100g
Sorghum: 5 lbs/ 7,600 kcal at 339 kcal/100g
Jerusalem artichoke tuber: 30 lbs/ 10,000 kcal at 73 kcal/100g

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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We had the first freeze this morning so yesterday I pulled the vines and harvested all 17 squashes and they weigh 50 lbs. So that added up to about 10,000 calories! I will further check the maturity of each fruit because the last few are only 7-8 weeks old and have lower energy density.

Squashes grown in this patch were also part of my pruning experiment and one vine produced a huge butternut that is 2-3 times heavier than average. At 9 lb 10 Oz, it's much heavier than a new born baby!

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1324

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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posted 1 year ago

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Huzzah! It sounds like a lot went well for your plot!

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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It's forecasted to be warm for the next two weeks so I decided to do all the rest of harvesting to give cover crops time to grow. I got:

1 lb of sweet potatoes
3 lb 6 oz of sorghum after winnowing
32 lb of sunchokes but I planted 7.5 lbs of seeds so the yield is 24.5 lbs

I made several pounds of seed balls of winter rye, red clover and others and mulch the garden with plant residues.

Total time for all the tasks is about 4 hours.

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

paul wheaton

author and steward

Posts: 57495

Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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May,

Do you have a grand summary for the year?

Yes, of course, and I accept that blame. In fact, i covet that blame. As does this tiny ad:

Learn Permaculture through a little hard work

https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp