The winter is our down time without a garden to tend full time and rain and cold weather most days. We try to use this time to work on projects waiting on our to do list and one of these is to work on the big garden. We broke ground on it three years ago and removed untold tons of rocks, leaving behind mostly red clay, unsuitable to grow much other than crabgrass and weeds. Over the last few years, we have been slowly improving the soil with compost and other organic materials.
Last year, the garden got off to a good start but with the addition of all this fertile organic material, it also gave a boost to the weeds, which ended up outgrowing much of our vegetables. So the goal for this year is to cardboard the entire garden as a weed barrier and then add several inches of compost and organic material on top. To plant, we will cut holes in the cardboard for transplants and hopefully starve out most of the weed growth. Over the next couple years, the cardboard will decompose and eventually be tilled in.
I didn't quite realize just how big the garden was until I found myself breaking down box after box for days and only managing to cover half of it! Thank goodness I had some help from family in town for the holidays. Probably not how they intended to spend their holiday vacation but that's what happens when you take your vacation at your sister's farm.
I have found a source for appliance boxes in town, which dramatically speeds up the process, but they only seem to put the boxes out on Wednesdays when I'm at work! It does make one feel kind of creepy to be cruising store dumpsters and digging out boxes, but a girls got to do what a girls got to do!
One bonus is that I found a patch of carrots growing in the garden that had been starved out by weeds but made a comeback when the weeds were all bushhogged this fall. The pigs were thrilled for such an odd January treat.
Last year, the garden got off to a good start but with the addition of all this fertile organic material, it also gave a boost to the weeds, which ended up outgrowing much of our vegetables. So the goal for this year is to cardboard the entire garden as a weed barrier and then add several inches of compost and organic material on top. To plant, we will cut holes in the cardboard for transplants and hopefully starve out most of the weed growth. Over the next couple years, the cardboard will decompose and eventually be tilled in.
I didn't quite realize just how big the garden was until I found myself breaking down box after box for days and only managing to cover half of it! Thank goodness I had some help from family in town for the holidays. Probably not how they intended to spend their holiday vacation but that's what happens when you take your vacation at your sister's farm.
I have found a source for appliance boxes in town, which dramatically speeds up the process, but they only seem to put the boxes out on Wednesdays when I'm at work! It does make one feel kind of creepy to be cruising store dumpsters and digging out boxes, but a girls got to do what a girls got to do!
One bonus is that I found a patch of carrots growing in the garden that had been starved out by weeds but made a comeback when the weeds were all bushhogged this fall. The pigs were thrilled for such an odd January treat.
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