garden update!

It's been a square two weeks I believe since I planted my fall vegetable garden and as promised, here's an update on our progress.

We've had some very interesting activity in our beds. When I prepared the soil this year I used manure from a friend's horse barn and my own compost. Of course, compost is the result of decomposed fruits and vegetables, among other organic and biodegradable things, and it's natural to think that maybe seeds from those fruits and vegetables may linger behind, storing up life within themselves and waiting for the right environment so that they may release their energy and grow into food.

Now, I am not sure if the "mysterious" seedlings that have been popping up are from seeds in the compost, or if they were dormant seeds in the beds that came to life because the soil was attended to and amended. I do recognize the seedlings but am not sure of the variety of each plant. The sad part is, this is not the growing season for those fruits, so we may not get the chance of seeing any of the plants bear fruit at all, but it will be fun to watch and see.

I'm also starting a garden time lapse page so you can see our progress cumulatively.

this bed has collards, kale, radishes, strawberries and lettuce, along with other seedlings that have sprouted up that I will point out to you.

this bed has collards, turnips, lettuce and kale and also has some mysterious seedlings

here are the radishes (strawberries far left), and right in the spot where a radish plant should be is some kind of squash plant... at least some kind of vine plant TBD

in this picture you can see a kale seeding (I think... maybe collard) and a tomato seedling

growing up against the edge of the smaller bed are these two plants... not sure what these are but I do think they are vines? I dunno...

The type of gardening that I do is called square foot gardening. The approach involves building raised beds that are a good 10"  to 12" deep (2 2x6s end to end work well), filled with 1/3 vermiculite (for drainage), 1/3 compost and 1/3 manure. This allows you to have perfect soil without having to till up any of your own soil and try to amend it to work best for your plants. Also the nutrients in the soil are dense and contained. Another added benefit is that you can grow more food in less space, with less water, less seed and minimizes your watering needs. I also have only ever had to use neem oil to prevent any insects from affecting my plants, which is totally organic and natural. Because of the diversity of the plants in your raised bed pest problems tend to be minimal and contained to summer months (at least that was my experience).

If you live in an apartment, or in a big house with a lot of land, you can garden this way.

Here are some photos pf my garden over the last few years.