The morning veggie harvest from the gardenWell, now you know the project goals, we thought we'd update you on what we've done so far.
First about our food production: Part one of the garden is up and running. Every year, since we moved into the house 5 year ago, we've expanded our organic garden. It's now 15'x20' with 5 planting areas. This year we have 1 flower plot to attact those pollinators and 4 veggie plots. We're growing 6 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, arugala, romaine, sweet and sugar snap peas, bush beans, carrots, corn, pumpkins, yellow zucchini, artichokes, spinach, mustard greens, broccoli, and strawberries. The herb patch has lavender, basil, cilantro, mint, lemon balm, and chives. Throughout the patch, we've planted sunflowers and marigolds, and the dandelions grow of their own strong will.
Now that the fickle sun is finally starting to show in the Northwest, we are harvesting daily. The spinach and strawberries didn't really do much this year due to our late, wet spring, but the peas are coming in like gangbusters. We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of our tomatoes. The first ones are finally starting to get that first golden edge. This year we planted 4 heirloom varieties in addition to our standard early girls and cherries.
We've also started clearing space to add 3 raised beds in which to try fall and winter plantings. We're exploring local nurseries to see where we can find organic mulch and soil. This year, we built a 3 compartment composting system for turning the kitchen and yard scraps into rich organic matter for the garden. The raw stuff goes into bin one for 2 weeks, bin 2 for 2 more, and then the third bin for final 2 weeks. Out comes rich, brown compost with losts of earthworms for the veggies.
Our research and resource reading for this week has been 2 books about soil and composting that we borrowed from our local library. (See the booklist for titles if you're interested.) Reading books about dirt, we must be farmers!
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