At Terra Novus, things look pretty bleak. Nothing but brown. Dead nettle stalks, dead grass, poison ivy that is very much alive. But there is so much potential here to grow whatever we want, however we want. Squash, Garlic, Tomatoes, Asparagus. The list goes on. There are already two different types of grapes growing as well as blackberries.
Robin and Grandma identifying plants
We have set up a compost pile next to the barn, near the garden. In the photo below, we tilled the earth a bit to allow earthworms to sneak up into our goodies, then installed pallettes held up by posts. We then took all the dead plant stalks from the garden and used them as the base of the compost. The loose brush allows oxygen to get underneath. If you look closely, you can even see Grandma’s first contribution: orange peels.
Compost Pile-Beginning
As far as the garden goes, we removed a lot of dead brush, and removed all the tomato cages and other wiring that was lying around. We also found a bunch of garlic bulbs that already started to sprout a bit! Grandma needs to transplant some plants, so we have to wait a bit before we can till the land.
Robin Removing Tomato Cages
Soon we’ll get the rainwater collection system built, and we’ll be able to water everything with natural rainwater. No pesticides, no nothin’!
Olde Doc Decker said,
March 29, 2009 at 5:57 pm
As a layman familiar with the rugged terrain (having been raised there) I might suggest that you look at seeing if you can get started with the old strawberry bed that is up on the higher ground. I am not sure if it is all gone to seed or if it just needs cleaning up. You might be able to grow a few things up there that require a drier soil.