Starting a key hole garden

catchthewind wrote:


Also, I'm going to need to put a deer fence up, but eventually I'd love some sort of living fence that won't shade the gardens.

Jan Sebastian Dunkelheit wrote:Put the carrot seeds in a glass of handwarm water for 6 hours OR in a glass of wet sand for 5 days and directly seed them. I like the method with sand best, the seeds are easier to sprinkle when they are mixed with sand. It is very important to keep them moist till they germinate otherwise they burst. You can use a sieve to cover the seeds with fine soil or: Just put some fine sand on top of them. Fine seedbed is a must for small seeds.

They take awfully long to germinate so don't forget to mark the place where you put them and reduce competetion by weeding.

ediblecities idea to cover them with board is good to keep the seeds moist but it is a really bad idead when you have a problem with slugs. Slugs gather under board and wooden planks. In fact: I always leave some wooden planks lying around and check under them frequently. I pick the slugs gathering there put them in a plastic bag and throw them in a trash can. Heartless, I know.

Heartfully, I would put them in a net or clothbag together with a stone, big enough that the bag will drown in water. Then put the bag/net in a buket/drum full water, stirr regularly for oxigenation and use after completely decomposition as fertilizer for plants which have a big nutrion consumption like Squash, Watermelon, Tomatoes, Peppers, Grapes. Dillute 1:10. This is the same process than the "Road-Kill-Brew" of the bio-dynamic farming. Can be with compostpreparations 502 - 507 (Dandelion, Yarrow, Camomile, Stinging Nettle, Oak Bark, Equisetum). It can be done with all kinds of Insects, Rats, Mice, dead Lifestock, any dead animals, you come across with. Important is to make sure, that the dead animals stay under water so that you are still able to stir. The more oxigen inthe Water the faster the breake down and the bigger the surface to volume ratio, the faster is the breake down. For example slugs have a relative big surface to volume ratio, Ants would have an even bigger surface to volume ratio while a pig would have a small surface to volume ratio.