The Garden is In!
We finally finished getting garden and plants taken care of this past weekend. There is still one blueberry bush we want to plant, but we haven’t figured out where that is going yet. I’ll never know how we managed to fit watermelon, beans, peas, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and cucumber into a 10′ x 12′ garden so don’t ask.
We’ve also got a good size planter where we have the herbs. The cilantro is already taking over and blocking out the sun, so we will need to start using some of it soon.
Personally, I’m just hoping we get a few things out of the gardent his year. I’m not really looking for a bumper crop in any sense of the word. I figure that by planting a small amount of a lot of things we might just figure out what will grow well enough we want to plant more of it next year.
We did use a technique we heard described as “Black Gold Agriculture” when planting our garden. The technical term is Terra Preta. Basically we ground up a back bag of real hardwood, lump charcoal and tilled it in with the soil. It’s supposed to help hold the nutrients in for a very long time. That’s good, because we had a pretty good balance and very good looking soil where we planted (meaning almost no clay in there).
Now we just need to get that rain barrel ordered. Of course, after that arrives I’m sure we’ll start the drought season.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:12 am
sounds good! we’re working on an experiment with one of our neighbors–growing veggies clandestinely in the flower beds with minimal maintenance. we call them feral veggies.
and I don’t know if you do memes … but I tagged you anyway …
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I grow most seedlings from saved seed now and this year everything was started in potting soil with lots of added charcoal and transplants are put in compost and charcoal.
I am not sure difference the charcoal makes but if I add the right amount of aged urine it makes a huge difference. it is important not to get to strong with the urine on small plants aging the urine at least 28 days helps.
I am interested in hearing about others experiences with “terra preta” soil.
I crush my charcoal in a steel container with a post tamper. I would appreciate any time saving experiences for grinding charcoal.
Thanks.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Glad to see gardeners using charcoal in the garden.
Every bit you dig in saves a bit of the planet.
Keep an eye on the pH of your soil and char. Some charcoal has an ash content (it shouldn’t) and this will act like like lime.
More info here
http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta.html
and at the Permaculture Forums
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 pm
[…] Some unusual uses of charcoal Gardeners starting to use char Metropolitan Rural | The Garden is In! Char very much a part of this community’s life International Chat: International […]