Part 2 of my random garden photo’s revolves around the vegetable garden.
“Mother Earth News” was my inspiration on how to start a garden without the use of a spade or a rototiller. I have no desire to dig up sod if I don’t have to.
I did mine slightly different then they suggest but the idea originated with an article from Mother Earth News Magazine.
These bags of dirt became the newest expansion of my garden this year. In fact, this is how I started all of the veggie plots and have gradually added more over the last 4 or 5 years.
You just cut them open, leaving the bags to block and kill the existing grass,
Spread out the dirt,
and like magic, you have a garden bed. At the end of the season, just pull the bags out and you would never know you didn’t dig or till up the grass.
I usually have some new experiment going on. Sometimes they work and sometimes not. So we’ll see how the new experiments go this year.
One of them was that I planted potatoes using the potato tower method. I had never seen this done till I read about it recently on One Hundred Dollars a Month and thought I would give it a try.
I used chicken wire and rebar to fence in a circular area. Then put straw around the outside against the wire. Inside the straw I layered dirt and seed potatoes.
Eventually, the plants started growing out the sides and top of the towers. Since this photo was taken, the plants have gotten much bigger and now have tons of blossoms.
I’m hoping that means lots of potatoes!
The idea is that I will get more produce from my small space and less back breaking digging when it’s time to harvest them.
Just an early overview . . . those tomatoes and peppers are much taller now with green tomatoes and peppers of all kinds starting to form.
And another . . . with various kinds of onions, shallots, leeks, carrots, and beets . . .
Then there was the green bean dilemma. They started to come up quite nicely. Then . . . the rabbits moved in and this happened. They also ate off all the peas which did not recover as well.
Those cute little furry varmints are not so cute when they come uninvited to dinner.
A fence went up around the beans and they came back and now look like this . . .
Now this may not look like a lot of beans . . . but let me just tell you . . . last year we had more than enough to keep us satisfied in fresh green beans and I still have some in the freezer.
They produced till the first killing frost of fall. And I saved some to plant these this year.
The lettuce crop proved to be more than we could consume ourselves.
But you can always find someone to take a good head of romaine off your hands. I hope to have the ambition to plant a fall crop.
These are the trellises I built for the spaghetti and butternut squash, the cucumbers, pumpkins, and watermelon.
I used 2×4’s that I already had in my garage, 1×4’s and, rope.
They just keep growing . . .
and growing . . .
A baby spaghetti squash . . .
A baby watermelon . . .
A baby pumpkin . . .
Early photo’s of scallions and radishes . . .
Yellow squash and zucchini . . .
Much bigger now and producing lots of goodness . . .
This was just one days bounty . . .
The garlic I planted last fall is ready to cure from the garage rafters for a couple of weeks . . .
And then the broccoli . . . another new one for me.
Every day something new has happened . . .
I feel sorry for those who come to visit because I drag every last one of them out to look at the wonderment of my garden.
Some share the excitement . . . some see it and want free stuff . . . and some just roll their eyes at my childlike amusement. But that’s ok. I’ll be feasting off this little garden all winter!
© 2014 – 2017, Pamela. All rights reserved.
beautiful! I wish I had the energy to do this! I love fresh vegetables. I put a three levels ‘thing’ together last year, but had to have someone put the dirt in because it is just two much for me to carry. I grew flowers, but this year, I want to do veggies with flowers around it. How tall are your 2×4 trellises for your squash? It would be a huge project for me, but I do want to try it.
Thank you Barbara! The trellises are 5 foot tall. For each trellis I used three 8 foot long 2×4’s and cut 3 foot off the end of 2 of them and used the short pieces for the top and bottom connecting them with long screws to make a rectangle. Then I cut the third 2×4 in half to use as props to hold them up. There is a piece of 1×4 that I cut the same width as the trellis and attached with screws to the top front for the 2 props to hold them up. I screwed in little eyes along the sides to attach the clothes line rope across the trellis. I was a little nervous they would fall over in a strong wind but shortly after I put them in the garden, we had a terrible storm that flattened a lot of the corn in the fields around here and the trellises stood strong with no problem. At the end of the season I stored them in the garage to use next year. I have seen smaller versions of these but It’s pretty windy where I live and I’m not sure the smaller ones would have been able to withstand the wind, and the weight of the squash and pumpkins that grew on them. if you try this I hope you have as good of luck with them as I have!
Your garden looks absolutely beautiful!! I like your no dig process…I am using a similar one this year to expand on what I have already. My daughter and I share 4 raised beds that my husband built plus I have 9 half whiskey barrels that I use. Looking forward to Garden 2015…already have seedlings under lights….(I get bit by the gardening bug early here in cold wet NJ)!!
Brenda
Thank you Brenda! Wow! You’re way ahead of me! I’m just getting my thoughts together about what seeds to buy. I have my “Old Reliable’s” that I always plant but I always have to try something new to keep it interesting. Every year I say It’s big enough and every spring I change my mind and make it bigger. I hope you don’t get hit too hard by the coming blizzard the next couple days! Stay safe!
Pam