12 2009-06-29T10:41:31-07:00 false I have been talking for a long time about adding new beds to my backyard garden. I'm really going to do it now. I was given some cash as a birthday gift, and Mr. Katxena has agreed to help with the work over the 3-day weekend (It's the 4th of July Independence Day weekend for those of us in the US). I've been carrying these plans around in my head for too long and they are distracting me, so I'm writing them down here for my reference -- and for peace of mind! We are going to build wood boxes out of 2x12's for the two new beds. These will be about 3x4 feet each, but I need to get exact measurements. We will have the wood cut at Home Depot, then bring them home and screw them together, with the same fancy deck screws I used last time. The main difference from the older beds is that I'm going to put hardware cloth on the bottom to keep digging pests out. These haven't been a problem this year, probably due to the neighbor's new dog, but I might as well do this now. I'll put cardboard and/or newspaper down over the grass to smother it. This worked very well with the first two beds. I will fill the Northeast extension bed lasagna-style. I'm going to get some coffee grounds from Starbucks, and will mix that with coir for the first layer. The next layer will be the contents of my DIY cold-compost bin (it's supposed to be hot, but it never has been), followed by more coffee grounds. Over that, I'll put a layer of my cousin's well-composted horse manure (he doesn't have the horses any more, and he's running out! WAH!), and I'll top that off with bagged organic garden soil (the good stuff, at $15 a bag). If I can collect any dry leaves from the vacant lot up the street, I'll add those in there too, but I haven't checked on the lot lately to see how many leaves are available. I plan to plant right into the Northeast extension as soon as it's full. This is the sunniest spot in my yard -- it gets the most sun in the summer (12+ hours a day), and it stays sunny all winter, when other parts of the yard are shaded, and it gets good sun in spring. So it makes sense to plant this spot with the veggies that give me the most pleasure. I'm going to make this a "naturalized" greens and alliums bed. I plan to move my evergreen bunching onions, chives and garlic chives to this bed. I'll direct seed more evergreen bunching onions to try and get a nice patch of them started. Then I'll seed a bunch of chards and beets together -- I'm thinking I'll probably just mix seeds of all my beets and chards together and plant them and let them all fight it out. I'm hoping the chards and beets will naturalize like <a href="http://myfolia.com/plantings/2010-swiss-chard-verde-a-costa-larga-argentata-beta-vulgaris-var-cicla">Spidra's</a>, and that the evergreen onions (which are base dividing) will get established. In the Fall, I'm going to explore putting a hoop over this bed so that I can protect it in the winter. My plans for the Southwest extension are very different. I do not plan to plant in it until Spring 2010. I don't have the funds to fill it up with soil right now, so I'm going to get it started as a lasagna-bed now, adding enough material to keep the grass smothered, and then I'll continue to add to it as I can. The dirt in this corner is almost all rock, so planting into a shallow bed doesn't make sense. The first layer on top of the cardboard will be coffee grounds and coir, mixed with shredded newspaper (because I am short on carbon materials), followed by a nice layer of the composted horse manure. Those three things should provide enough material to cover the cardboard by 4 inches, which I figure is what is needed to keep the grass down. If they don't, I'll buy enough cheap gardening soil to top it off up to 4 inches. On top of that, I'll add a bag of leaves that have been mouldering since last Fall and a bucket of leaves that remain from my Winter mulch. I plan to do all my trench composting in this bed once it is set up, and to add grass, leaves, and whatever other materials I can get my hands on for free as they become available. If needed in the spring (and I'm assuming it will be needed), I'll buy organic gardening soil then to top off the Southwest bed. I plan to plant it with spring greens, since this part of my yard is the first part of the Southwest side to get sunny in the spring. I'm toying with the idea of cutting the bottom off of my DIY cold-compost bin, flipping it over, putting it over the Southwest extension, and using it like a cone composter. But I'm also thinking of getting rid of it entirely and just relying on trench composting in the future, perhaps keeping one rotating part of the garden free from plantings so that I always have a place to bury things. The bin has never really worked well, and it takes up room on my small patio. 7 false 63506 false false false Entry 2009-06-28T21:00:00-07:00 DMY Public 2009-06-29T10:41:31-07:00 1713 83 F