Tag: raised bed gardening

Companion planting

This spring, I’m chaos companion planting in a new raised bed. I planted peas, sweet peas, and wildflower seeds in a bed that was ready, hügelkultur-style, with small branches, unfinished compost, and…no watering system except a small watering can and …no protection from rabbits and squirrels. Yes, the area is fenced, but the ground is somewhat uneven and there are gaps…like, under the gate. Even the squirrels don’t need to climb, they scamper easily right under the gate.

Now I am able to keep the soil surface watered, but still I occasionally see signs of digging. Today I go scavenging around and in sheds to see if I can find some way of protecting the bed. A small piece of chicken wire would do the trick, laid on top of the bed. A larger piece, I could make a semblance of a fence…

I’m gardening on no budget and with all the strength a 75-year old woman can muster…

So even if only a few plants survive I will count it as a success.

I’ve already done a “second planting”…mixing all the veggie and flower seeds left over from years of seed purchasing and scattering them over the surface. More chaos!

What if nothing much grows? Well, the volunteer potato plant will thrive…and the four pea plants seem to be surviving! …so that’s something! I will cover the bare spots with grass clippings. In the fall I will add more compost, maybe some bagged soil, purchase a NW wildflower seed mix and scatter that…

I’ll just keep making the soil better and trying again.

Meanwhile, I’ve written another book about a more deliberate, scientific method of companion planting and am offering it as a free ebook through this Sunday, May 11th. Help yourself to a free copy!

Not quite ready for spring gardening…

Me in the garden the other day, staring down at my “raised” bed:

It’s not clear, I know…I know…let me try to explain…

I pushed half of the soil aside with a rake, then placed small fir branches, then I stepped on them to break them up a bit and pack them in. I then shoveled some duff from under the fir trees into a wheelbarrow and dumped that in. Duff is this stuff under a couple trees, not sure what it is, maybe some sawdust from long ago logging, also what’s sluffed off of a rotten old stump, fir needles, and ?

On top of that went some half finished and finished compost along with some worms, then I pushed the soil back over the top. Then I looked at the other half and realized I was exhausted.

Yes, I’m that old and out of shape. Baby steps all over again. I decided to skip the hügelkultur on the second half of the bed, my bad.

The next day I pushed a small trellis into the middle of the bed and planted peas on one side and sweet peas on the other, without bending over. I made a shallow trench with a piece of bamboo, kinda tossed in the seeds, and pushed the soil with the back of a rake to cover.

I scattered chives seeds around the edge and onion and milkweed seeds over the rest of the bed. And called it done. Putting off watering until later…but about half an hour after I came inside, it started raining. And rained off and on for the rest of the day.

Many thanks from a weary ol’ gardener. But now I water with a watering can every day.

Fall and Winter: What’s a gardener to do?

1. Sleep deeply under warm wool blankets, dreaming.

2. Fall: yard and garden cleanup, mulching, admiring foliage.

3. Winter: Bundle up in a wool sweater while sipping tea from your herb garden and looking at seed catalogs. Plan ways to outsmart the squirrels and bunnies.

4. Read a good gardening book –

Novice Gardener’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening