Vegetable Garden Progress

Ever wonder what 29 TONS of compost looks like? The first picture shows 29 tons, delivered last week by Tom Hertzler. When I told my sister we had a tractor trailor truckload delivered she just couldn't picture it. And I think she wondered why we need it! Now that you can see the progress on the production garden you'll know why. The soil here is clay - hard, red, nasty clay, with some lumps of undefinable gray rock thrown in and beautiful glistening crystal quartz gems. The quartz is astonishing in its color, clarity and splendor. We have one six sided crystal on the mantle in the library. But the soil...after 20 years of loblolly pine, construction on the house, and probably pasture and tobacco growing before the loblolly, the soil is devoid of life. I had it tested and the test results were the worst I've ever seen! The pH was something like 3, soil fertility less than 1 percent, and so few nutrients. Poor soil!

If you also have lousy soil, build raised beds. Raised beds enable you to fill them with black gold goodness and grow wonderful vegetables. Each of the raised beds in the pictures above are destined for either herbs, root crops, or above ground crops. We are filling them with a mixture of 50% compost, 40% top soil from the garden center, and 10% peat moss. The untreated beds in the front are made with standard pine lumber and will be used to grow root crops and medicinal herbs. The remaining pressure treated lumber beds are destined for green goodies like spinach and Swiss Chard, my two favorite green vegetables; broccoli rabe, which you can't find anywhere in Virginia; beans, including some heirlooms I've been dying to try; watermelon and cantelope; corn; tomatoes; peppers; eggplant; and if I'm brave enough, onion sets, summer and winter squash.

I transplanted one poor potbound oregano into the new herb bed. That's the green shrubby-thing. Next year, I hope the pictures show it overflowing!

Note the 'garden gate' John made. It has the cross piece. Once we get the beds filled with compost, the deer netting goes up on the 8 foot tall posts, the gate is put in place, and hopefully I won't be feeding the critters.

Day 2 of the Production Bed Construction

Day 2 of the vegetable garden - now known as the production garden - construction. John got four beds done yesterday! I helped hold the lumber. Three of the raised beds look different because they are made from non-pressure treated lumber. We opted to go with only a few non-pressure treated. The rest will use the new pressure-treated lumber that supposedly won't kill us with arsenic and nasty chemicals. All of my research points to the fact that if any chemicals leach from the lumber, they'll go straight down. And while I hate the thought of putting chemicals anywhere near my vegetables, many experiments point to the fact that the vegetables do not take up much, if any, of the chemicals. So we will put the root crops like carrots, beets, parsnips and radishes in the untreated beds as well as the medicinal herb and herbal tea garden. The treated beds will be planted with swiss chard, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, corn and various fruits. The string around the beds indicates where the deer-proof fencing will go, and the shed is going between the fence and the woods. I have a great view from my usual seat at the kitchen table of my garden, as well as a bird's eye view from the upstairs bedrooms.

Shadow 'helped' so I've included a picture of the two of us here. Notice her spiffy pink bandana. It's not just a fashion statement. Hunting season starts soon and our land borders 800 acres of forest owned by the local hunt club. Every night during dinner, we're serenaded by riffle shots as the hunters target practice. Shadow likes to chase deer, so we've chosen the bright, hot pink bandana, hoping that if she gets anywhere near a hunter they'll pull up and not shoot at her. We always wear our bright orange at this time of year when working outside. You never know what folks think they see when they look through the woods and when their blood is up from hunting.

Garden Construction Begins

Today is the day! Almost exactly on year since we moved to the farm, John began construction today of the garden shed/small barn and the vegetable garden. We worked for three hours yesterday measuring and marking the area. You can see in the photos the very tall posts we used to mark the edges of where the deer fence will go. Within that big rectangle, we will have 8 beds about 4' x 12' for vegetables and two huge 10' x 12' beds for corn, melons and the like. One bed will be devoted to my passion, medicinal herbs and herb teas. My goal next year is to grow and preserve nearly all our own vegetables. When we add the chicken house, it will be next to the shed, with a fenced area - now the spot where you can see very tall grass - for the chickens to free range safely, away from predators such as the buzzards and hawks that live on the farm.

Photos show the shed kit in pieces; John and his dad Jack starting construction of the vegetable beds; and the area marked out for the shed (small posts, by the edge of the woods) and the garden (big posts that look kind of like goal posts).