As you may have read in my previous posts, I am currently looking to buy land for a permaculture/restoration agriculture project. I wanted to give you an idea of how I express that dream while living in suburbia.
Currently, I have tiny 40' by 35' backyard which is planted to Pears, Plums, Peaches, Fig, Blackberries and a 16' by 4' raised-bed which itself is planted to sow peas, onions, strawberries, peppers and tomatoes.
Above you can see the raised-bed, half is garden soil bought at a big box store and half is leaves collected for free from the curb of neighbors' yards. The two were not mixed together, but rather the store bought soil was placed in the background (behind the onions) and the leaves were placed (about 18 inches thick) in the foreground. The leaves were given about a month to start decomposition before planting. As you can see the results are fairly similar between the two, the peas are nearly 4' tall and are currently producing.
Last year the onions struggled in the store bought soil, but all indications are good this year, they are thriving. This year they were planted in the compost pile from last year.
Strawberries on the right were planted last year and the ones on the left (shaded by the snow peas) were planted this year.
The peppers and tomatoes are planted quite close together if you have more space than I do use it! They will grow planted close, but they will crowd each other and it becomes difficult to harvest. They are looking great for having been frozen back a week after planting.
Let me know if you have any ideas or like somthing you saw!
I like it
Thanks!
Looks great! That is a pretty amazing garden for this early in the year.
What types of tree leaves did you use? Do certain types of leaves have any different effect of is the thought just leaf compost in general? We did all organic store bought dirt last year, we just didn't separate plants enough to get a full yield. We plan on using half of the yard this season.
That's what living in the south will get you!
The leaves were a mix of Red Oak to Pine, all set to be thrown away. Personally, am a fan of compost so I like the free biomass option.
That's awesome. We have a bunch of Magnolias, 1 Japanese Maple and a living Oak. I will have to set some leaves aside for next season. We only added food compost this year and a few cups of store bought night-crawlers.
I also add leaves to my food scraps, layer of leaves and then a layer of food scraps.
Is this good for all types of food bearing plants? We don't have much experience. Last season we planted the cucumbers and squash to close to each other and they slowly choked each other out as the season went on. That was a tummy hurting lesson as we were really enjoying eating both fresh daily.
I know some flowers require nitrogen in the soil, do food plants have the same types of differences in requirements? Any idea?
wow, you've got a ton of awesomeness crammed in there! I wanted to try some berries next in our garden. are they easy to grow?
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