Sunday, August 23, 2009

We've been doing a lot of interesting projects in the garden lately. If you visit the garden, you'll see some squares of cinder blocks in a corner. These are beds for potatoes. It's common to use tires to grow potatoes, as they will constantly push up through new soil and send out new roots that can grow more potatoes. you can just add another tire and fill it with soil when the potato plant is tall enough. We don't have tires, so we're using cinder blocks for our new levels instead.

We have also started building an herb bed on the terrace. First, we dug out the grass behind the terrace and lined the rock with the newspaper to prevent weed growth and covered them with Carolina grit. Then, we laid down weed fabric on the borders of the bed and put the blue and red rocks on it, making a nice border for the bed. We filled one section with topsoil and another with some of the loose dirt from the excavations below the terrace; as this is going to be a perennial herb bed, we need sections for herbs that need either nutrient-rich or poor soil. I've bought echinacea and rosemary to go in it already, and am starting lavender and spearmint as well.

We'll be throwing a garden party early in the school year, and part of the planning for it is already visible in the back of the garden. We'll be giving away seedlings of herbs, and they're sprouting in the back on a pallet. The ones covered in plastic wrap are the herbs more difficult to sprout. Similarly to or program with the beans, the recipient will hold onto the plant for the winter and have the option of bringing it back to the garden in the spring or keeping it.

The plants are all coming along nicely. The snap peas are coming in just in time for the school year, the arugula is well-established, and the summer squash is producing well. The squash has really been a great producer for the summer, up there with the tomatoes, edamame, okra and NZ spinach- I recommend that we plant these all again next year!

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