We have used rectangular raised beds in a little kitchen garden patch over the past 3 years. We have been dragging a hose from the spigot several feet away to water (and wasting water since our house connection is leaking) and under utilizing our water catchment system/rain barrels. We have decided to change the location of our kitchen garden and will be putting in a new patch near the side of the house. This is nearer to the spigot so I don’t have to attach multiple hoses to get to my veggies and will also allow us to put a couple (or more) linked rain barrels at the corner of our house to catch the rain pouring from the gutter outside my laundry room door and help us use much less city water for gardening purposes. This patch of yard just outside my door always stays muddy so this will also help with that problem because we will now catch the water in barrels for the garden instead of letting the water fall to the ground splattering my house, packing down the soil which means nothing will grow there and watering the dreadful privet hedge that insists on coming up along my fence line (thank you songbirds for your ever so effective seed delivery system. Argh!) despite our efforts to clear it each year.
This is also a good garden location because we have been talking about setting up a gray water irrigation system using the water from the washing machine for the garden. I am thinking berries should be planted along the fence line and the wash water directed toward them to keep them watered and happy. Our central A/C unit also drained in this spot when we used the A/C so if we ever decide to go back to using a central unit, there is a place to direct that water as well! As it is, I am contemplating putting a bucket under the window units we use in our bedrooms to catch that water. Every little bit counts, right?
I have plans to put in a clothesline near the garden too so I can cut down on our use of electricity by cutting down our use of the clothes dryer–a huge power sucking machine! I can’t wait to build my new laundry/kitchen garden.
The biggest change, besides the big relocation, is that I am trying my best to learn how to build a proper Permaculture garden. I am reading everything I can about Permaculture design principles so I can figure out what is best for us. I am looking at a no-dig design, which means leaving the soil intact so as not to destroy all of the living things that make the soil stronger and healthier. We are planning to use sheet composting–a method we already started using this year by leaving the soil and ground cover intact and then laying sheets of cardboard onto the ground and covering with compost and straw to make beds for our new plants. We are working on that compost heap! Yes, we are. I hope to have enough prepared to start a small patch this fall and then enough to put in more in the spring. Fingers crossed! My rabbits and chickens are great contributors to that project, thankfully. Most of the kitchen scraps go to them and then they contribute the straw and um–that other wonderful byproduct that makes for a rich black soil after a few weeks.
I still have a lot to learn about plant stacking and plant succession but I am trying to sort that out and see if I can start working toward a small food forest plan. I am planning to focus on the edges of the garden–or what is often called the “Edge Effect Principle”. What this means is that I will probably make curved edged gardens and maybe even some circular beds (I love a nice mandala!) so the edges of my garden will be more productive. The theory is that the edge of an ecosystem, where one environment transitions to another is the strongest and patterns that are found in nature (curved and not strait lines) are better. We’ll see if I can do this. I am going to run with that idea and rethink the old rectangular bed plans we have always used and make mounds with curved edges! I think it will be pretty and productive. That’s the vision, anyway.
I started trying some vertical gardening design this year and liked how that worked so I hope to try that again in the new garden. It has worked well to plant in guilds (sunflowers, corn, beans, pumpkins for example) and allow the sunflowers and corn to support the climbing beans but also share the grown with pumpkin. I noticed that the cucumber has started to climb up the chicken wire cages I have placed around the tomatillos too. I will definitely give them some trellises of some sort to grow on next year instead of allowing them to trail all around my garden like I have in the past.
Okay, I am rambling. You get the idea. I won’t go on. I will tell you that I am trying to figure out how to use the old empty pool for some sort of water garden in the future and I want to learn more about companion planting–so I still have a long way to go to best use this wonderful space for food production but I am learning lots–slowly but surely! This month O and I have decided to take some backyard sustainability workshops being put on by our local extension office. I know this isn’t a permaculture class but I figure I need all the help I can get. I am looking forward to meeting other people working on building urban gardens and homesteads too. Now if this crazy weather would just give me a break so I can grow something, huh? Sheesh!
Wish me luck!I am out of here. I am out to the apiary to bring in a failed hive and weed a little before the nasty high temps take the wind out of my sails. So, are you planting a fall garden? What are you planting? Wanna give me some tips or ideas!?
