My darling hubby got a kick out of this next job and in the midst of it yelled sternly "you better blog this one, I am recycling dirt!". Our large backhoe makes the job of creating a new garden bed a cinch, within minutes we are left with huge piles of dirt beside the hole. The cost of filing such a hole with potting soil would prove too costly so we mainly use well aged manure, compost (which I make myself) and soil that we removed from the raised bed. In order to reuse the stuff that remains we have to take out the stones and rocks. Enter my dearest hubby. We (ok! he) uses a large metal screen that sits atop our wheelbarrow and proceeds to dump small amounts on top to sift as many rocks out as possible. Once full we can add to the waiting bed and alternate between loads of compost and manure. I know this sounds like a great deal of work (actually it is and my hubby can attest to that) but it is dirt that we already have and would have to dispose of before ordering a tandem load of plain topsoil at nearly $300/load. We are all about recycling when possible.
I thought I would share some updated pictures of my garden. Now for all you Americans reading and others in zone 4 or higher I am going to warn you how small my garden will seem to you. Remember, we are quite far North and have seen frost in the middle of June (no that is not a typo!) We have two distinct seasons here, 9 months of winter and 3 months of summer/construction. I am hoping by the middle of September the produce should be ready for harvest and if not I will be stripping off all of the bed sheets to protect them from the frost. With any luck we may end up with an extended summer to prolong the growing period a little.
Remember the pumpkin plants I started? I placed the seedlings in my large pile of poo at the edge of my garden and they took off. Actually the one side with the biggest plant was pure manure and the other side that had more dirt than compost is producing smaller plants. I can see the tiny pumpkins growing every morning and I anticipate canning them for my favourite waffles and cookies. I was having a problem with slugs and had been using slug bait up until now, wanting to be as organic as possible I am going to give the beer trick a try. A good friend who is an avid gardener told me to bury small containers and fill them up with ale and watch them die...albeit happy I might add.
Here is a picture of my peas starting to climb up my trellis made out of bailer twine (more recycling).
My healthiest tomato plant and thank goodness I was able to crop out the sickly one next to him.
My pumpkin plant on steroids AKA horse poop
My entrance to the garden with two potted tomato plants.
Hopefully my next update will include actual produce hanging from them. I am learning every year and love the process as much as the payoff, don't get me wrong a couple of beans would be a nice bonus for all of this hard work....here's hoping.