Garden Update: When Life Started to Stir From the Soil

Back towards the end of March life started to stir and appear from the soil.

First were the spring bulbs in the Cut Flower bed.

The first to show was the hyacinths with lots of iris leaf growth.

The meadow plants started to put on new growth and the comfrey (left) appeared after being dug under when the irrigation system was put in.

I got the eagerly anticipated call from Verna at Fruit Trees and More that my order was in. I went straight away and picked up an Italian plum and many different shrubs and berry bushes.

I also did a thorough search of one of my favourite nurseries Le Coteau Nursery and found many of the trees and shrubs on my list.

At this stage of planting the beds, I am making the big decision about which tree will anchor the ecosystem in each bed. Next, I look for the compatible shrub layer. However, I was sidetracked by the beautiful condition of these hostas at Le Conteau Nursery and bought a collection for the new bed between the cedar fence and the hugelkultur beds. They settled in straight away and put on new growth within a few weeks.

The locals thought the Hostas looked delicious too but nibbled only a few of the lower leaves.

I had said to Sammy I wanted to plant native Dogwood shrubs. One day he brought around some sticks and pushed them into the ground. Already their lovely red stems are a feature in the bed.

While continuing to build up and protect the soil with a mulch layer, I was focused more on planting while the rains continued.

Backyard Project - August, Finally the Rock beds are Flourishing

After working out the bugs in the soil were thriving under a thick layer of straw mulch and eating every sprouting seed, I removed the straw mulch and planted a third lot of seeds. By August those beds were covered in thriving plants.

These purple snap bean plants were most prolific and delicious, along with a yellow variety.

Fava/broad beans matured later and grew tall but I didn't bother staking them.

There were also scarlet runners that attracted insects and hummingbirds to their flowers.

4 different types of kale and a border of mesclun garnished with nasturtium flowers and leaves have kept us in salad greens for 3 months so far. 

The comfrey grew back quickly after its last cut back. I will cut it back again giving it a chance to grow some before the winter and colder temperatures set in.

The globe artichokes and a number of different squash were planted because they grow large and will provide lots of biomass to the soil when dug in. I'm not sure the growing season will be long enough for the squash to mature but in the meantime, they are certainly growing large leaves and trailing along the beds protecting the soil.

I planted 4 different types of potatoes. After a potato patch had been harvested I covered the remains with a thick layer of straw to encourage the soil organisms to get busy at what they do best - making soil.

These green mulch crops have been most successful and the food harvest has been an added bonus.

Backyard Project - Moisture - Mulch - Mulberry

Ron calibrating the moisture meter.

When the rains stopped late June and our dry season began we had to start hand watering all of the new beds. The irrigation system in the backyard had been destroyed by all of the construction and earthworks. The irrigation company we wanted to use was booked up for months ahead but they couldn't start anyway until the next phase of construction was underway. We were a bit tardy on getting that next phase of construction going. I was busy focusing on keeping the new soil beds alive with soil building activity.

After a month or so of me leaping out of bed before 7, every third day, to go and hand water all of the new beds for a couple of hours and coming inside with my PJs wet through Ron got into planning mode and set up a temporary irrigation system. It involved multiple timers, different types of hoses and a range of sprinklers.

In some places, the perfect spot for full coverage by the sprinkler was to set it in the middle of a path. Priorities. It took Ron several weeks of shifting sprinklers, gauging water pressure, testing soil moisture with the water meter and fine tuning the timers before the system could run with less attention.

I have drawn up a moisture level plan for each garden bed with different amounts of soil moisture  related to the number of hours of sunshine and the type of plants to be planted in each bed. The moisture requiremnets are different in each area which added to the complexity of setting up a manual irrigation system.

As some garden beds filled with plant growth the watering needed to be adjusted and all of the newly planted trees continued to need regular watering of a couple of months. We continued to monitor the system over the whole summer.

This year the rains started again with a sprinkle on August 28th and the irrigation system has been turned to manual. I still need small amounts of water now I am into to fall planting.

We are very pleased we got through the summer without any loss of life and now have beds full of deep rich soil. 

Davey Tree Truck full of freshly shredded tree prunings.

Ron made contact with a local Davy Tree company owner who lives near our place. When he has a truck load of good quality shredded trees and prunings he arranges for his truck to swing by our place and dump the load. It is convenient and a cost saving for them and a load of gold for our garden. A win-win situation.

We were finishing off the second mulch pile when the Davy truck came by with a third load this summer.

I must say I am fascinated watching the details of how vehicles work.

This driver displayed impressive driving skills when he backed his large truck in under a tree to dump the load exactly where I wanted it.

Here he is at Control Central with safety vest and ear protectors on. Stabilising legs go down, the cherry-picker hoist is raised, the back door is opened, the tray is raised, the load slides out - all with accompanying different warning signals.

And there it is. I am going to ask Sammy to bring around another load of spent hops from a local brewery to mix into this pile to get it activated and to speed up the breakdown process. 

And... I found a very healthy mulberry tree for the Leaf hugelkultur bed - more details about the tree choice later.

Backyard Project - Sharing the Fruit and Other Ways of Encouraging Life in the Soil

We have so enjoyed a small crop of figs off our newly planted trees but we left this one for the ants. The ants are working hard at breaking down and mixing the soil in the new Hedge bed.

The results of a fun morning at our local nursery. Now to plant all of these in the beds without straw covers. There are plants that grow lots of leaves, have large leaves, or have lots of biomass in the soil - mesclun, squash, sweet potato, mullein, artichoke. Also, there are lupins to plant around the new trees, with each tree getting 4 of these nitrogen-fixing plants. There are plants for the Gravel bed garden - all medicinal or culinary. 

Willow Water

I pruned the willow tree outside my studio window then cut the prunings up finely and left them to soak in a tub of water. I have since read I need not have put the leaves in the water. Indole butyric acid (IBA) and Salicylic acid (SA) leaches out of the cut willow and into the water. These 2 chemicals act as a natural rooting hormone and prevent infection in new roots. 

I soak each root ball in the willow water before planting and give the new plants a followup drink of willow water. And I talk to them to help them settle into their new home. It all works.

Gardening rule - "One must plant all purchased plants before going back to the nursery to buy more." My sister says she has never heard of this rule and never will. And if there was such a rule it wouldn't apply to all of those cuttings and plants from friends waiting to be planted.

Following the rule, I am now allowed to go back to the nursery for more.

The nasturtiums are doing well growing next to the hot rocks. Hummingbirds and many different insects visit them. I snack on the leaves and flowers while out gardening.

Time to turn the studio beds again.

I take off the straw cover, lightly fork over the soil, give it a good watering...

...and put the cover back on so the soil can continue cooking with renewed vigour.

I am pleased with my decision to leave some beds fallow because it is so much easier to continue adding layers as the soil builds up. On the other beds, I am using plants to do most of the soil building work.

Backyard Project: Soil Building verses Plant Growing

Once all of the soil beds had a layer of mulch topped with a deep layer of straw I planted literally hundreds of seeds and waited. Patiently. But nothing except the potatoes and a few nasturtiums appeared. A month later I thought I must have bought a nonviable batch of seeds so went to another place and bought more bulk seed. 

Weeks later still nothing.

Sammy thought the straw layer may be too thick preventing the seedlings from getting the light they needed to grow. 

We pulled back the straw and found these - they have lots of different names - pill bug, roly-poly, wood louse, armadillo bug, potato bug, among others. The deep straw and rich mulch provided ideal damp dark conditions for the pill bugs and many other insects, worms, slugs and ants to thrive. And they were feasting on every new shoot that dared to pop out of the ground. But at the same time, all of the bugs were doing an excellent job at breaking down the organic matter. The pill bug and his cousins are particularly adept at breaking down the cellulose in the mulch. They were well on their to making rich soil.

I had to make the decision - leave the bugs to do their work or plant more seeds so the plants can build up the soil? I decided to do both but in different beds.

Since the potato beds were doing relatively well I pulled off most of the straw on those beds. It exposed the soil to the light and it dried up a lot and I had the added task of heaping the soil up around each potato plant. There wasn't much extra soil so some of the growing potatoes were exposed to the light and developed green sides. Oh well, I was growing potatoes for soil building and there were still more than enough to eat.

After I mounded up the soil around each potato plant I planted hundreds of seeds for the third time.

In the back straw-covered beds the bugs are hard at work.

In the front is a potato bed interplanted with 5 different types of beans and 2 different types of peas. While the beans, peas and potatoes are good companions, the beans and peas have root nodules the nitrogen fixing bugs like to live on.

Within the week, a welcome sight.

It is all about learning from experience.

Backyard Project: Flowers and Hot Mulch

The garden suddenly turned colourful.

In the Cut Flower bed lilies bloomed.

This is such a beautiful colour scheme.

The exquisite shape of another lily.

The nasturtiums are out in bud.

Insects are feasting on comfrey flowers.

The 3 fig trees' Breba crop is filling out.

The feijoa/pineapple guava is in flower.

Sammy brought around a load of spent hops from a local brewery. 

He mixed it in with the mulch.

I put in the thermometer - 80 degrees. Over the week the heat produced by the soil organisms moved the temperature up. I texted Sammy when it reached 160 degrees and he came back to turn the pile. Within a few days, the temperature started to rise again. Hundreds of mushrooms appeared and covered the whole pile when the temperature hit 130 degrees. They died off in a few days while the temperature rose again to 160 degrees. I opened up the steaming pile to let it cool down. It was too hot to hold my hand on the pile.

Once it has cooled down again we will spread this elixir on all the garden beds. 

Rough and Loose, Green then Brown - Two Gardening Mantras

An ant nest found under a mulch of coffee sacks. The ants were forced to move their colony because I was ready to work on the soil in this bed.

While attending the Organic MasterGardener course Ron and I learnt two very important mantras that continue to guide me as I work at building up the soil in all of the garden beds.

Coffee sacks and a woolen blanket have protected this soil bed until I had time to work on it.

The mulch is removed. The ants are moving out.

A deep watering of  the soil to encourage the soil organisms to get active.

The first mantra is 'Green then Brown'

To make compost whether insitu ontop of the soil or in a trench, or in a compost bin the materials need to be layered by alternating different types.

First the green. I harvested most of the comfrey now the flowers have finished and they are no longer visited much by the bees. It is high in minerals the tap root has brought up from deep in the soil and also high in nitrogen. Comfrey is the 'green' and was the first layer put on the soil.

Next I added shredded branches that are high in carbon as the 'brown' layer. 

The 3rd layer was coffee grounds that are high in nitrogen, a 'green' layer. Technically the grounds I pick up from coffee shops are also high in carbon because there are lots of paper products such as filters and paper cups in the bags. 

So the mantra goes, 'Green then Brown, Green then Brown' which translates to 'nitrogen-rich' then 'carbon-rich' then 'carbon-rich' and so on, until you run out of materials.

Time for the 'chicken scratch' while repeating the 2nd mantra, 'Rough and Loose, Rough and Loose.'

I make like a chicken, lightly mixing the layers together while leaving the surface uneven and light. I avoid standing on the soil as much as possible. This method creates the ideal conditions for supporting soil organism activity.

After a deep watering and the addition of  a final top mulch layer, the bed is ready to hand over to the soil organisms to do their job of making a rich friable soil. 

I ran out of time so put the coffee sacks, blanket and cardboard back in place but will replace it with shredded plant material as soon as I can.

'Green then Brown' - 'Rough and Loose'