I finished transplanting the boxwoods from the front of the house to right along the back fence. The previous owners installed the fence to add privacy. I see it as a sun-blocking device (but I like that no one from the alley can see my produce). By placing boxwoods along the fence, I break up the monotony and fill up otherwise (constantly in shade) dead space.
I also bought two raspberry plants, today. They have been planted along the eastern fence (left, below). They should get decent light from about noon to about two hours before sunset. Because raspberries like acidic soil, I "mulched" them with the limbs (or should I say boughs) from the Xmas tree. The trunk of said Xmas tree will eventually be firewood, but right now it is a scary ass club.
I also planted a rhubarb plant and several asparagus plants. All three main crop plants are delayed gratification investments: none of them may (or can) be harvested in the first years. I'm okay with delayed gratification... for now.
22 March 2011
Urban Organic Farming (aka I'm back-ish?)
As you can plainly see, I have not updated my blog in quite some time. Other priorities, I suppose. Anywho, although I do hope, some day, to finish documenting my 2007-08 trip to Italy, I intend to shift gears with Teenage Wasteland, and mainly document my efforts at Urban Organic Farming. Well, "farming" might be too strong of a term. I plan on turning my yard into one hell of a garden - a farden, if you will.
This is what I am starting with. Some of the work was begun last Autumn. The raised bed at the rear (southern end) of the yard are composed of untreated pine 4x6's. To kill the grass, I put down newspaper, wetted the newspaper with water from my rain barrel, and topped it all off with compost. Theoretically, the newspaper would smother the grass and compost itself in the process. It was a near complete success. There are some chive-like weeds that survived the process. Kudos to the previous owners of the house for not chemical treating their lawn. If this means that I can have safe veggies and only have to pull up the occasional shitty chives (as opposed to non-shitty chives, which I will be growing), I am a happy fardner.
Last September, the beds had been planted with (from east to west) mustard greens, white radishes, turnips, more turnips (Jan Jansen would be proud), miscellaneous Asian greens (small section), spinach, and some sort of pinkish greenish lettuce.The thought was that I would get some baby greens, some roots, and use the rest as green compost. The mustard greens grew really quickly and were delicious (still "baby" greens) until the frost killed them off. The radishes survived the frost, but were mainly eaten by wildlife. The turnips ARE (present tense) doing well. I'm gonna see where they are a little closer to the frost date. The Asian greens did well and seem to be returning. I'll see where they are in a few weeks, as well. The spinach was eaten by wildlife in its infancy. The lettuce was killed by the frost. Some of it came back, but not enough to bother experimenting with, so I covered the dead-ish beds with composted leaf mold. They'll get a dose of composted manure closer to the frost date.
This is what I am starting with. Some of the work was begun last Autumn. The raised bed at the rear (southern end) of the yard are composed of untreated pine 4x6's. To kill the grass, I put down newspaper, wetted the newspaper with water from my rain barrel, and topped it all off with compost. Theoretically, the newspaper would smother the grass and compost itself in the process. It was a near complete success. There are some chive-like weeds that survived the process. Kudos to the previous owners of the house for not chemical treating their lawn. If this means that I can have safe veggies and only have to pull up the occasional shitty chives (as opposed to non-shitty chives, which I will be growing), I am a happy fardner.
Last September, the beds had been planted with (from east to west) mustard greens, white radishes, turnips, more turnips (Jan Jansen would be proud), miscellaneous Asian greens (small section), spinach, and some sort of pinkish greenish lettuce.The thought was that I would get some baby greens, some roots, and use the rest as green compost. The mustard greens grew really quickly and were delicious (still "baby" greens) until the frost killed them off. The radishes survived the frost, but were mainly eaten by wildlife. The turnips ARE (present tense) doing well. I'm gonna see where they are a little closer to the frost date. The Asian greens did well and seem to be returning. I'll see where they are in a few weeks, as well. The spinach was eaten by wildlife in its infancy. The lettuce was killed by the frost. Some of it came back, but not enough to bother experimenting with, so I covered the dead-ish beds with composted leaf mold. They'll get a dose of composted manure closer to the frost date.
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