Yard Make Over
It is now September and Fall is here. The weather has gotten cooler and I am loving it! I have decided to do a full make over in my backyard. This summer the weather was a lesson learned for me. As most of you know, my crops were destroyed due to all the rain we had a few months ago. In this area in Arkansas, we received over a foot of rain in just one of those months. My crops caught disease and it was ruined. I had to make adjustments in my garden. I decided to grow my food in the ground. I know your wondering why not just keep them in the raised beds? I did a lot of research and decided that It would be best in the ground. I was not utilizing my space very well. I have clay soil and that was another reason for the flooding in my back yard. Clay soil does not drain very well. So basically my raised beds were just sitting in water when we had a lot of rain.
I did measurements in my backyard. My backyard was almost 3,500 square feet. I was only using about 800 square feet. I knew the clay soil would be a challenge. I had to amend the soil. I used compost, vermiculite and peat moss so the soil could drain better. I looked into different methods of gardening. I looked into Lasagna Gardening, No Dig Gardening and the Bio-Intensive Gardening. I went with the Bio-Intensive Gardening instead. With the intensive gardening I had to do a "double dig". Double dig is when you dig down 2 feet deep. I was not happy about that but I knew it would be better for my clay soil situation. It's a lot of work but for me it was worth it. I wanted my veggies to have more room to grow with their roots. Instead of the roots spreading out, it would be better for the roots to grow deep down in the dirt because of more room for growing. This is why I went with this approach. I also read a book called "How To Grow More Vegetables. You can grow your veggies close together utilizing the growth space. It also cuts down on weeds.
I have also started a compost pile!!!! I am going to start a worm farm in a few more months. I want to have my own compost and fertilizer.
I did measurements in my backyard. My backyard was almost 3,500 square feet. I was only using about 800 square feet. I knew the clay soil would be a challenge. I had to amend the soil. I used compost, vermiculite and peat moss so the soil could drain better. I looked into different methods of gardening. I looked into Lasagna Gardening, No Dig Gardening and the Bio-Intensive Gardening. I went with the Bio-Intensive Gardening instead. With the intensive gardening I had to do a "double dig". Double dig is when you dig down 2 feet deep. I was not happy about that but I knew it would be better for my clay soil situation. It's a lot of work but for me it was worth it. I wanted my veggies to have more room to grow with their roots. Instead of the roots spreading out, it would be better for the roots to grow deep down in the dirt because of more room for growing. This is why I went with this approach. I also read a book called "How To Grow More Vegetables. You can grow your veggies close together utilizing the growth space. It also cuts down on weeds.
I have also started a compost pile!!!! I am going to start a worm farm in a few more months. I want to have my own compost and fertilizer.
July Pictures of the Beginning
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You won't believe this but the three rows you see here were all done by hand, shovel and broad fork. I had to come up with a better way to get this work done quicker and easier.
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Here is a look into August!
I had some advice that I took from Green City Acres on Facebook. They said " If you're turning over your backyard into a garden, till the hell out of it at first. Don't do it by hand, you'll kill your back. Go and rent a sod cutter, and cut off all the grass. Get rid of it some how. Then rototill the dirt multiple times until you get a nice deep tilth. Then form out your beds with your tiller. This is why I use a tiller that is 30" wide, cause it's the width of my beds. Once your beds are formed out with your walkways, then you can broad fork or pitch fork your beds to get a deep lose soil into the subsoil". So I took their advice. I am so grateful for the advice. It totally moved things along very well and quickly. I also got a tiller. I won't be tilling my garden after this. After I get my garden settled I will be doing a "No Till" method going forward.
I called all over looking for a sod cutter. I was able to rent one from Ace Hardware store. No one else in this area had any at the time. It was almost $100.00 a day. We did the tilling in one day. It took me about a week to collect the grass in the yard and put it on the curb. I know the city workers were not happy about heavy sod for curb pick up.
Compost heaven right here!!!!!!!!! I used some of my old pallets to build a compost bin.
I still have more work to complete. I have to finish taking down the raised garden beds. I have 5 more of those to go. I will put up more pictures in October.
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