Category Archives: Gardening

Pics of Swale After Rain

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  • swale – looking to the south
  • swale – looking to the north

The new swale was holding back a lot of water when I checked it this morning after a 2-inch rain. It looks like it worked exactly as designed– it slowed down the water runoff, and let the water sit long enough to allow insoak. The fig trees I just planted on the high end will have access to huge amounts of water stored in the soil for weeks to come. The standing water should disappear in a few days, so the risk of mosquitoes laying viable eggs is small.

Melons, beans, okra, cowpeas planted 4/24/21

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With the help of Aiden and Amber, we added a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon in the huglekulture bed, along with a lot of cowpeas and beans. We also planted a few okra and cucumber in the front raised beds. Several of my tomato and pepper plants were injured/killed in the late April freeze we had last week.

Swale and fig trees

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I created a swale (AKA ditch-on-contour) to catch the runoff water that flows behind and around our house. I transplanted the 11 fig trees I started from cuttings last year on the high side of the swale. The idea is to slow down the water and let it soak into the soil. After a big rain, this area might look like a pond for several days. All that water eventually moves down into the soil where plants can use it for weeks or months after, reducing the need to use extra water.

Strawberries are producing

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This is the first year the strawberries have produced anything. I was going to dig them up because they take up space all year for not much return. They taste too good so I’m keeping them!

I have one 4×4 raised bed that is mostly filled with strawberries. It hasn’t produced much until now, and wow, it has taken off! Awesome flavor!

Worm Farm – April 2, 2021

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Bench in storm cellar doubles as worm bin. Inside is painted with fish pond epoxy paint.

For the past few months, I’ve only added food to the left-most side of the worm bin in hopes of convincing all the worms to go over and stay on the left side and let me use the castings on the right. I was trying to avoid the time-consuming task of filtering out the worms when I want to use the castings. The plan kinda worked, but there are still lots of worms left on the right side, even though they haven’t had any added food. What I thought was just worm castings has sunk down a good 3 inches, which tells me the worms are still working on it.

Other observations: I had a lot of worms crawl out of the bin this year. I think this was because I overfed them at one point and created a hostile environment. You can see lots of dead worms on the ground.

This bin has worked out very nicely. The worms are safe from critters and haven’t seemed to have any problem surviving the blistering summer heat or the super cold winter.

Tomatoes and Peppers – March 27, 2021

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I’m several weeks behind and didn’t even have time to plant the onions I bought, but today I did manage to get the raised beds cleared out and a few things planted. I used my tiny chainsaw on the monster okra plants, which worked great.

  • 3 new tomato plants in bed 4
  • 2 pepper plants in bed 5
  • Early Girl Tomato
  • Super Fantastic Tomato
  • Porter Tomato
  • Tam Mild Jalapeno
  • Mammoth Jalapeno

Planted Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Carrot, Beans – August 30, 2020

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I’m trying once again to direct-seed cool weather plants in the heat of summer. The ‘feels like’ temperature was 105°F today because of the high humidity due to the 2.8″ of rain this morning. Nice to have the rain though! I was unsuccessful in direct-seeding plants like this last year.

  • Raised bed #1 w/ strawberries – planted about 16 cauliflower
  • Snowball Y Improved Cauliflower
  • Raised bed #2 planted 24 broccoli
  • Green Magic Broccoli
  • Raised bed #5 planted 14 brussel sprouts
  • Long Island Improved Brussel Sprouts
  • Raised bed #3 planted carrot
  • Imperator 58 Carrot

Earlier this weekend before it had rained, I was able to move a lot of top soil out of the “pond” area and place it on the eastern part of the Hügelkultur bed #1. Just before dark I added straw mulch and planted about 50 bean plants, then distributed a packet of buckwheat cover crop to a lot of the bed. The plants I’ve had growing in this bed haven’t done very well. I think it is a combination of not enough soil, the typical first-year poor performance of a hugelkultur bed, and not enough water. I added more soil to this part of the bed compared to the part I already have plants growing in– hope that helps. I’m eager to have plants growing in it to hold the steeply-sloped soil in place. I figure beans are a good choice.

  • East end of Hügelkultur bed #1
  • Provider Bean
  • Common Buckwheat Cover Crop Seed