Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The garden is almost totally planted

 I planted flowers into the circle and covered it with seasoned wood chips. Strawberries at the back protected by chicken wire.
 Strawberries too got a fine wood chip mulch.
 The herbs are starting to grow. I thought that the Catnip had died but :) its starting to grow new shots :) My cats and the bees will love it :)
 Borage and Calendula are growing nicely 
 As you can see in this photo I covered all pathways with hay to suppress the weeds. I also covered Brassicas and Carrots with fleece. All the soil will be entirely covered with hay once the vegetables start growing. I dislike naked soil. Naked soil is dead soil. Covered soil supports the Soil Food Web and keeps healthy plants because of all the microorganisms and earthworms s living under the cover. The cover also keeps the moisture in the soil. Naked soil needs 95% more watering than covered soil :) this alone makes covering perfectly sane :)
By the way, not to forget, at the front are the Squash and Pumkins also covered.
I didnt have enough fleece so I used an old method of protecting these young plants with hay. Just lightly applying some hay so the light can still penetrate through it and the plant can push the hay away when growing. 
This is our small garden above the summer house which we used in the past. It developed white fungus which attacks onion plants. Our Garlic almost entirely died out. I decided its time to plant cover crops like Phacelia and White Clover for the bees and to enrich the soil with Nitrogen. I covered the seeds with just a tiny layer of soil and on top of it a thin layer of hay to keep it moist. Thicker hay on the sides to suppress the weeds.

In a few days I will start planting the rest; free land cucumbers and Beans/Peas. They need warmer soil.

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