INTRODUCTIONS

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Permalink Reply by Mike Eastlake on November 2, 2009 at 9:58am

I am new here and am saying a fuller hello. My name is Michael and my current garden ( my 5th) is 13 years old, in SW Ohio in a rural county, on the edge of a big woods in heavy yellow clay. You would all be welcome here in person.
This garden was designed for the plants well-being. Having never seen a square or rectangular naturally-occuring structure other than solid stone, the beds are all 8' dia. circles contained by hand-coped wooden barrels about 24" tall and set into the ground 12" deep. We dug out the thick yellow clay about 16" deep ( like a circular flat-bottomed pool ) for each 8' circle, and then made our own soil to fill each circle. We find that most gardening work is the care of the soil. The plants here know what to do, given good soil. We plant them in family groups, and rotate the family groups season-to-season around the geometric arrangement of circles. There are 7 of these circular beds. There are also 6 nine'-on-a-side triangular beds set in between the circular arrangement of 8' circles. Looked at from above, the garden suggests a 50' flower with petals. The plants like it. It is well-adapted to water conservation, niche control of soil quality, crops rotation, minimal weeding effort, and beauty. I am a carpenter so the bed containers had only effort cost. We grow all our lettuce in a triangular arrangement of 6 half whskey barrels, each with a different species.




We ( my mate and I ) save seed, put-food-by for the winter, but definitely focus on fresh food to the table...so we are cooks. I consider the unspoken interaction with the plants...learning by paying attention to them...my best learning tool. But I'm hoping to extend that by listening to you.

Our current new challenges are three 3rd year GojiBerry bushes which are now established, and learning how to utilitze the abundant crops of chestnuts we get every fall from two trees in the yard.

Thanks for welcoming our garden into this circle. Michael

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Permalink Reply by Everett McDonald on November 2, 2009 at 6:44pm

Mike welcome to KGI. Your garden is is the kind of inspiration that I came to KGI for.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Eastlake on November 2, 2009 at 7:30pm

Thanks for the warm welcome. Let's stay in touch. This is my 1st endeavor at computer "anything" ... seems like a useful tool for sharing inspiration. My best to you.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on November 8, 2009 at 9:53am

Now, looking at those photos, I so want summer back. Sigh.

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Permalink Reply by Nick hanson on November 5, 2009 at 11:05am

Hi
Im Nick, I live in Lincolnshire in England, This summer was the first summer we have had an attempt at growing out own produce. we grew tomatoes, cabbages, strawberries, runner beans , butter nut squash and Onions with vatrying degrees of success. I would love to speak to other gardeners producing things on a really small scale, especially any in the UK

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Fletcher on November 8, 2009 at 5:13am

Hi Nick
Welcome to a select band. There are not too many from the UK on KGI, so welcome.
I,m up in Yorkshire so you should do slightly better than us for the weather. I would imagine your soil is OK there as well. I think that the smaller your operation then the more you need to concentrate on getting the soil in as good a condition as possible. Feeding the soil is the only thing i do now by digging in as much home made compost as i can make. This year i have also started obtaining the free municipal compost that has become available from the green bin collection systems.
I think if you imagine growing vegetables as recycling then you won,t go far wrong. You are converting all your waste garden rubbish into tasty things to eat.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Eastlake on November 7, 2009 at 8:42am

Hi Nick. I'm not from the UK, but 4 of the 5 gardens I've grown over 40 years were definitely small scale ... living in the confined and small space of a city yard, or the current garden in the country which is purposely small and highly efficient. I've learned and chosen to grow small gardens by thinking it would be best to really focus on a small space than have a larger growing space that I might have trouble keeping up with. My current garden totals 460 square feet ( that is equivalent to 20' x 23' ) but it is made up of 10 small raised beds ... 6 circles and 5 triangles, plus one circle just for flowers. ( The numbers above of course do not include the space for fruiting bushes and nut trees. ) We grow enough in that space to feed us ( 3 adults ) most of our vegetables from April 15 through Thanksgiving, fill our large standup freezer for the winter, share a large amount with our neighbors, and have enough that what the local critters eat doesn't hurt the flow at the table. We also grow through the winter most years using coldframes that fit over top the raised beds...yes, live fresh food through the winter. Our climate is similar to the UK ... I traveled there for three years off and on and have a good sense of the weather/climate.

By focusing on the smaller space, we find our produce comes out very high quality. We are completely organic in the sense we use no chemicals, for bugs or disease or the soil health. We save as much of our own seed as possible. I've learned by doing it ... growing small ...why it works, how it works, and why the plants like it, and how to keep it inexpensive for my pocket.

If I sound like a guy that might be helpful to you, send me a note mentioning what your thoughts and questions are for your own gardening. I'd be glad to share what I've learned by doing. Either way, keep trying ... the first year gardening is the hardest, so you're already over the hump. My best to you.

Michael

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Permalink Reply by Nick hanson on November 8, 2009 at 10:02am

Thanks very much for everyones offers of help and advice, This is why i came here. I have attrocious soil (clods of clay )and after digging in lots of material this year i am going to hopefully have better results this year. I had alot of problems with butterflys on cabbages. I am very against using chemicals and wondered what the best way to keep them of organically, I may try some kind of netting next year any ideas ?

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Fletcher on November 8, 2009 at 12:24pm

Hi Nick
They do say that clay soils make the best soil in the long run, when you have added compost over the years.
I would also check your acidity and if you can try adding some lime. Lime makes the clay form a better crumb structure. If your soil is quite alkaline then adding lime may be a problem.
You need to encourage to the garden the things that are going to eat the caterpillars. People don,t like wasps but they do eat a lot of caterpillars. I would try growing nasturtiums and poached egg plants, near too, or among your brassicas. Cabbage white butterlies love laying ther eggs on nasturtium, so they may leave the cabbages alone.
In the early years, I would net say, half of the cabbages, [so you have a comparison] but the nets must be above or they will lay through the nets.
You will find as your soil improves, and you reach a natural balance the plants become more resistant to attack.
You could also try garlic and chilli spray, that is supposed to deter caterpillars.
I also like the idea of putting bits of broken white eggshell on the plants. The butterflies think that another butterfly is already on the plant and leave it alone.
This is a useful page.
Good Luck.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Eastlake on November 11, 2009 at 11:41am

Hi again to Nick Hanson ... those darn white cabbage butterflies! and their caterpillars that follow. One very workable strategy, particularly for a small plot gardener, is to defeat them by timing your planting of the cabbage ( same holds true for kale, broc, brussels, and cauliflower ... the whole brassica family ). Cabbage and their whole family definitely like very early spring and very late fall growing conditions. I plant all those plants as "starts" in the third week in March ( which were started inside my shed 6 weeks earlier ). I know that seems to contradict temp zone planting rules, but all the brassicas do just fine really early outside, even with an occassional late snowfall. That means that the cabbage and broccoli are matured and ready to harvest by the 3rd week of June ... at that time the cabbage butterflies are just beginning to show, and their caterpillars have not matured. By the time the worms would be wreaking havoc on the leaves, the spring crop is already in the kitchen. We again grow starts in the shed the 3rd week of July, planting the starts outside the 3rd week of August, and harvesting right up until freezeout around late November. We are harvesting and eating cabbage, broc, kale, cauliflower, and brussels right now. The most devistating invasion of the cabbage butterfly cycle is late June through early September. In short, I try to grow those particular crops when the worms are not around much. That way, other non-chemical approaches to detering them have a better chance of being completely successful. When that big crop happens mid to late June, of what you can't eat then, keep some in the fridge to eat as you can and put some of it by for the winter by blanching and freezing it ( either I or someone else can explain that easy and fast method of putting-by for the winter if you are not aware of how to do it. ) Brussel Sprouts are probably the only acception to this cycling method ... they pretty much have to grow through the whole summer while the butterflies are most active. When the cabbage butterflies are having their midsummer haydays, we are growing and eating stuff they don't bother.

I might also mention that we have learned another trick. Finches ( here they are Goldfinches ) eat those worms right off the plants ... they feast on them. We discovered this by the accident of having a rather large bed of Echinacea growing near the garden...that is, Purple Coneflower. The finches hang around our garden year round, because their favorite food is the Echinacea seed-filled heads in the late summer-early fall. All summer long, they feast on the cabbage worms, waiting for Echinacea flowers to ripen. So this very large Echinacea planting all around different spots in our yard has become a habit, and it happens to support a natural control of the little green worms on the cabbage family crops. I think the message is to have a healthy and balanced ecosystem in the yard, and it finds a way of keeping itself in balance.

I'm hoping this is some help. You're right, it makes no sense to use chemicals when the whole idea is to improve your health through clean and natural food. Nature herself will help you if you invite plenty of diversity into your yard...you just have to pay close attention and see how it works ... that is the key to mastering gardening without chemicals.

As I reread this, I might also say that the published early and late planting times for a particular location can be quite a hinderance ... not to be followed strictly. EVERY garden has it's own niche climate. I have learned well to stretch the seasons, both early and late. There is no way to discover these temperature critical dates for your yard other than trying to start both earlier and later than published for each end of the growing seasons. We find ourselves eating fresh produce in the spring when most people are just planting ... the same happens in the fall. Know your own yard's niche climate and learn which plants like which seasons ... then you can just plant and grow out of cycle with the bugs for at least some of the crops. We use a similar stategy with the timing of poles beans and japanese beetles which would feast on the leaves if given a chance.

Michael Eastlake

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Permalink Reply by Sheryl Stewart on November 13, 2009 at 9:58pm

Hi Everyone

My name is Sheryl and I live in St Catharines, Ontario Canada. I have recently acquired a larger home with a big garden. In my home I also have a root cellar and a huge pantry. I have been gardening and putting fruits and vegetables down for many years but have never had a root cellar. I have been looking high and low for information on the subject but there simply does not seem to be any here in Canada. Odd since I live in an area full of fruit farms and vineyards. I am here to learn from others about gardening and self sufficentcy.

Cheers
Sheryl

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