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| Main Garden Plot |
Sweet husband and I always take
our little trailer over to the city yard where free woodchips from local trees
are available. For fifteen years we have mulched our trees, shrubs and flowers.
I had been mulching the strawberries and they bore a ton of fruit. The apple
tree was loaded. I had inter-planted occasional vegetables into the landscape
with good results. Now it was time to dump the “free nutrients” on the veggies.
We hauled countless loads in the spring and fall of 2014 and then again in the
spring of 2015. The fall of last year was a very busy time for us, so we fell
down on the proverbial job and added nothing. I harvested broken down woodchips
from areas where we had been adding chips for years, moved that to the veggie
garden and then we applied fresh chips to those stripped areas. Yes, it was
labor intensive, a sacrifice we all tend to make when we’re planning for the
future. My old body got whipped into shape and I felt great.
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| Quince in Flower |
I planted in those broken down
woodchips in the garden proper and put new chips around plants to retain water
and suppress weeds. The results were surprising. Even in 2014 the yields were
amazing. I also did second and third plantings of carrots and beets and
potatoes. We covered with leaves the few carrots I had left in the ground and
harvested them until they ran out in December of 2014. I was determined to have
more in “storage” for 2015. I must have re-planted at exactly the right time,
as this last winter we harvested over 40 pounds of beautiful, sweet carrots
until March, when I dug the rest and put them in cold storage. It’s a wonderful
feeling when you remove the snow and leaves and discover orange gold. Some of
them weighed up to 10 ounces! They were so tasty and fresh. I experimented with
a few beets and next winter we will have fresh, organic beets until spring.
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| Beautiful and Medicinal Violets |
Other bonuses to gardening this way:
*NO watering: even
after a month last summer with no rain, the ground held rainwater.
*Few weeds: how nice
is it when, at the peak of your busy time, weeding takes five minutes?
*No cultivation: yes,
my second year of no backbreaking turning-over-of-the-rye. That was a bear,
getting ready to plant. This year, as every year, I mail ordered any seeds I
was unable to save from 2015. I also ordered onion plants instead of sets. They
sent my order and informed me that the onion plants would come when it was time
to plant. Yikes! There they were on March 16th. The weather was wet,
cold and dreary and the instructions said “Plant ASAP”. I took the box out to
the potting shed and grabbed the hoe. Surely it would be a bog out there. To my
surprise, the soil was not muddy but instead well drained. I made my trenches
and quickly planted three long rows of red, yellow and white onions. Way too
easy. No-till gardening means you are ready to plant whenever. The soil retains
its natural integrity; no cultivation means preserving the structure that
encourages natural biological activity and fertility.
*Heavy yields: close
plantings and successive plantings means food pouring in. Pull a beet, plant a
seed in its place. Of course, this doesn’t work for every vegetable at least I
haven’t found a way. Maybe, for example, starting cabbage seedlings in pots for
late transplant? The woodchips generate warmth as they break down, which
jumpstarts the season, but some things are harvested only once.
*Constant fertilization:
trees are our best source for fertilizer. Trees harvest the energy that can
later be transferred into food. Yes, I compost, but leaves and woodchips mixed
in with kitchen waste (banana, citrus, potato peels, coffee grounds etc.) heat
up and speed the breaking down process. Really, it’s just easier to find a bare
spot and dig a small hole and bury the kitchen waste right in the garden; the
same with leaves in the spring. If it goes on the pile, it has to be moved into
the garden at some point. I’m not getting any younger.
In December of 2013, I made a
commitment to grow vegetables in woodchips. I overcame the bare-soil belief
paradigm. I protected the tender skin of Mother Earth and she has rewarded me
beyond my expectations. I’m able to grow more than twice the amount of fruits,
vegetables and herbs on my little urban plot.
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| Sammie on Top |
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| Fig Tree Overwintered in Front Porch |
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| Tulips Pretending to be Roses |
