Ground Cover Between The Raised Beds

Another day home with a sick little boy. While he is napping I thought I would reach out and see if I could get some suggestions.

I have to put down some cover between my raised beds and along my walkway. It will also serve for a small setting/staging area. Here is the area I need to take care of:

I need something that serves the following needs:

1) Drain well and be able to walk on when wet without getting messy.

2) Comfortable to work on.

3) Not compact the soil beneath it too badly.

4) Look nice.

5) Low maintenance.

I keep thinking about different options and I cannot think of a single one that satisfies all the needs. I have looked at mulchs, gravel, trailings, glacier stone, pavers.

Thoughts? Suggestions? What has worked for you?

Garden Plans

Home sick today with Buddy. Got a little time to ruminate on the garden plans for next year.

So we are thinking of several points of focus this year:

1) Aroma Garden - The wife is planning an aroma garden for the right side of the yard (in front of the raspberries if you are familiar). Not sure what all this will include, so it will be a nice surprise.

2) Finish the Raised Beds - Still need to finish the ground cover, put in some trellises, get the setting area set up. Wondering on the ground cover. The original plan was something like this:

But this might be a pretty expensive, and I am worried that it might not actually be comfortable to walk on . I think I have enough there for another post, or 20 .

3) Fruit Trees - Really two separate issues here. Trees for the yard (apples, cherries, and if I can convince the wife, nuts), and dwarf/mini trees for pots that will have to come in over the winter (lemons, limes, pomegranates, Bay, camillia sinensis, ?). Lots of work to do on those. But the rewards!

4) Improve Fruit Beds - We need to VASTLY improve the soil in the strawberry beds and plant a new variety in the second one, more grapes, better delineation, protection and support for the blackberries, install the haskap, add a second cultivar of raspberries.

5) Soil Improvement - I almost want to call it soil breeding. I am really trying to change my paradigm to think of soil as living, not just an inert structural support that you can pour nutrients into. That is harder than one would think. Also, wondering how to improve the soil all around, under my trees, etc. Its going to be a LOT of work, but worth it.

6) Surprises - I have a few surprises for you and the wife, but that will have to wait.

Wonder what else will come our way.

Any ideas out there for ground cover for the walkway and in between the raised beds?

Bedding Down The Strawberry Beds

Our strawberries did not do so well this year. Looking back and thinking about it some I think we had several factor leading to this:

1) unfavorable weather - It was cool, wet, and most definitely unsunny.

2) potassium - Our soil in the beds developed a potassium deficiency. I can solve this with bone meal, but if someone can think of another organic solution I would love to hear it.

3) plant age - I think we bought plants a year older than normal. This means they produced early but may be nearing the end of their productive time.

4) failure to properly perform winter care - we did not properly close the beds last year.

This year we properly closed the beds. I cut all the old foliage back. Covered up with straw, held that down with some sticks, etc, for weight, put some slug repellent down.

This spring I will be putting some fresh compost down, some potassium supplement of some sort, maybe a few fresh plants, particularly on the underused bed, and hope for some more affable weather.

Pumpkins Uber Alles

Here are the five beds. Unfortunately I don't have this angle during the high point, but you can really see how they filled out. They have been so productive its ridiculous, and so enjoyable!

If you look over there on the left you will see the pumpkins and water melons which I put in that bed with the intent that they would over flow in the yard.

I guess I succeeded! as you can see below the pumpkins just exploded, they are also running into the neighbors yard, and thankfully they don't seem to mind.

There are two large flat pumpkins that have turned orange/red, two large flat ones that are still yellow, and two smaller ones that seem to be taking the rounder (almost egg like) shape. I had to harvest one of those when the vine it was on gave up the ghost.

The water melons over here seem to love hanging out and growing under the pumpkin vines. An interesting and unanticipated occurrence.

Garden Update

Well here is the above shot that has been progressing through the summer. These are the main beds (but by no means all, I need to find a better way to summarize visually). Everthing is thriving with a few exceptionsl. The broccoli and carrots are not doing to well. I only have about a dozen carrots and I should have three times that amount. I will plant some more seed tonite and see what happens. The broccoliI am just not sure about. It was some borrowed saved seed and I am not sure how old it was. I may have to try and plant more of it as well.

Here we have two of the beds around the deck. Lettuce (seven varieties confirmed) on the left and Patty Pan, zuchs, acorn and crookneck squash on the left. Still no sign of my beloved squash bees, but its been wet and a little cold.

Here is my favorite shot down the walkway. I still have a lot of work to do to get the finishing touches on the garden back here, but I still enjoy it SOOOOOO much. This is my sanctuary.

And that is my organic seaweed fertilizer in the bucket. That stuff works like charm. I am totally impressed with it. Unfortunately I just realized this is a slightly dated photo of the walkway. Will update tonite.

Garden Update

Well, the garden is doing really well. A quick rundown:

Fruit - looks like about 20 bunches of grapes, some strawberries, a few apples, some ground cherries, our blackberries FINALLY bloomed so we may get some of those, and the raspberries have almost all taken. Not bad.

Veggies - All the veggies have taken, although the brocolli, cabbages, and carrots are struggling a little. Not sure whats up with the carrots, I got a really low germination level (one in ten, maybe) and I may have to plant some more to see. And something is already eatting some of my beans.

Herbs - All the herbs look good, but the thyme and tarragon are not thriving. It could be some prolonged transplant shock or a poor soil mix on my part (mixed my own potting soils this time - thanks for the inspiration Susy!). Will have to wait and see. And if I have one more person tell me that thyme is easy to grow and becomes invasive I will throttle them! This is my third year trying and its still not going well.

Anyways, here are some pics as well:

A shot down the walkway. Its about a week old, I need to update it desperately!

Cabbages. Coleslaw, steamed, sauerkraut, kim chi, soup, endless reasons to drool!

L to R - Tomatoes, radishes, and beans.

And here we have some ground cherries.

A Few Updates

Sorry about the weird lighting, I took these at dusk, so some of them needed a flash and others it didn't work.

The beds (as you can see if you have Super-Vision) are all planted.

We have grapes! It looks like about 20 bunches of grapes, most of them mid to small size.

We got apples! Granny Smiths on the way!

Yummy. Yummy. Yummy.

Planting Fool

Finally put a plan together Friday, finished the beds and (save two small additions) got all the planting done.

The small additions are an additional blackberry which I successfully grew from a cutting over the winter and some acorn squash. I thought I had saved seed, but can't find it for my life, so I am going to have to buy it.

I need to get pictures, but I planted Monday night until it started to rain and I haven't been here when it wasn't raining since. Will do as soon as I can.

I was surprised how much work planting all that additional area really was.

I also have my eye on asparagus for next year.

Namaste.

Beds Full, Area Cleared, Breathtaking Stupidity, and No Plan.

The wife and I got the beds filled yesterday, got the strawberries beds finished, filled and planted, cleared the area in the back, repaired the underground cable I cut (did you ever take your own breath away with your own stupidity? well, I am still having trouble breathing), and realized its time to plant and I have no planting plan.

I am a consumate planner. What we are going to plant. Check. Design and execute new garden. Check. Orders in. Check. Orders back. Check. Seedlings in and hardened. Check. What gets planted where. Uhhhhh.....

Favorite Shot

Almost forgot, here is my favorite picture from this weekend.

Busy Weekend

Hello.

The girls and my parents were here this weekend. Had a great time and played lots of Agricola. Got some help with the garden as well. Didn't get quit as far as we hoped, but go far enough that we have some great pictures and some work to show. Shall we get too it?

Here we have all three of my kids staining the beds on the outside. Notice the little one was not supposed to be helping, hence no smock. He got one later. We had to till some earth to get the ground more to the planned form (I would say level, but thats not the case, we need to keep the drainage moving) and get the beds placed. Finally.

It feels SO good to have reached this point. I was hoping to have the beds filled and plants in, but it has been unseasonably cold (freeze warning last night!) that I think it will all work out for the better.

Also finished the strawberry beds. Now we have to get soil moved into the one and get it planted as well.

Have a good one!

Where We Are Now

Here is where the garden is at now. We have three of the raised beds installed but not filled all the way yet. We went with the 12 inche deep beds so root vegetables have plenty of space to grow (looking forward to the carrots, potatoes, turnips, and sweet potatoes!) and so the tomatoes, etc, have a good base to defend from the wind. We get plenty of wind.

One of the things we were looking for was also kind a formal presentation. So there will be a linear walkway between the wall and the raised beds. Eventually it will be filled with (locally found) gravel. This kind of limits the options, but we did find three options and I am sure one of them will work.