I am getting a really early start on prepping the garden this year, as there is so much work to be done and April will be sneaking up on us quickly!
We built a 40x30 ft crop cage last year - I like to call it the Crop FORTRESS - because it is impermeable to deer, coatamundi, javalina, birds, and even mice and packrats!
The entire thing is enclosed in chicken wire and the bottom is wrapped in painter's plastic, which has successfully kept out rodents.
Half of our garden was in-ground, and the other half is in 55 gallon drums cut in half.
We quickly realized that our plants grew much better in the barrels, because we can control the soil quality. Our soil in this particular spot is quite dense and poor, which required amending. We didn't amend it nearly enough and the in-ground crops showed signs of poor soil quality. Our poor potatoes couldn't even properly potato!
Even though our barrel garden side did very well, I need to really amend the soil in those big pots too. The top third I used potting soil, the middle third was soil from under the mesquite trees, and the bottom third is gravel.
So I am shoveling out all the materials from the barrel, and I am mixing them with our compost that we have been collecting all year.
I am also spreading out the barrels as we need more space in between them. There is decent walking room, but I have to be able to push the wheel barrow between all the barrels. When the plants get big, they close up the aisle space really fast. Another lesson learned.
I figured out a really good way to move these barrels. They are still quite heavy with only the gravel left in them!
We still have some over-wintering to do. Our strawberry plant is still putting on babies, and the artichokes need to be cut back. I think I am going to cut back the raspberry as well.
I am going to move the artichokes into barrels, as they are not too happy in the ground.
It feels good to get such a headstart on the garden. Last year, we had just moved onto the property and was barely able to get the crop fortress up in time for planting, so we had a proverbial garden shitshow going on. This time will be much more precise, and improved. I am really looking forward to the results!
I want to end this post with a thought about HIVE. It has been close to a week since my last post, and it reminds me of how much of a commitment blogging really is. I have been on here for a long time - since 2016 - and it's easy to fall off the posting, commenting, and socializing wagon. The days drift by at lightning speed, and it is too easy to put off the next post until tomorrow, which turns into a week, and then a month.
I am usurped by work and off-grid life, and I have brushed off posting this week. But, I don't want to fall off the Hive wagon AGAIN, as I always end up regretting it. I am trying to make a commitment to a once-a-day post. To do that, some posts probably won't be as long as others. But I think it is important to make that effort.
This upcoming week, with the holidays, I think making three posts is a good commitment. And from the new year on, I will work on keeping a one post a day commitment.
I have really been enjoying you all on here, so many of you have thoughtful comments that are really helpful and I have been pleasantly surprised by the rewards. So I want to keep it up!
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely, Regina Cal.
