As the summer winds down it’s time to report on the success
and not so successful garden transformation. When I started this project I
wrote about the permaculture concept. What I didn’t state or write about was
the other concept the garden beds are based on. The concept hugelkultur is a
method of burying logs and wood into very large beds. The wood breaks down over
a period of time and provides nutrients to the soil. There are some very
important factors to take into consideration when deciding to go this route.
First and foremost is the understanding that wood will suck the nitrogen from
the soil and deprive the plants of the valuable nitrogen. Picking the right
wood can make all the difference in the world; it is best to pick wood that has
started to decompose and stay away from walnut, cherry and other hard woods.
Hard woods tend to take a very long time to break down. In my case I used dead
wood found in our woods with some stages of decomposition happening. The other
important factor is that I did not bury the logs in my soil in the same fashion
as a large hugelkultur. Instead I framed the beds with the large logs and
filled the beds with large sticks in various stages of decomposition. The idea
of the wood in the beds is to hold water, provide air pockets for roots to grow
and eventual break down of organic material. To compensate the nitrogen loss I
used horse manure, compost and large amounts of mulch throughout all of the
beds; our mulch came from hay. Hay is interesting in that most hay is not cut when
it goes to seed; it is cut before it goes to seed thus the problem of the hay
sprouting new seedlings is not really that likely. Weeding the garden was not a
problem and usually amounted to picking one or two weeds every so often. Even
if you do not build your own hugelkutur you should be using mulch in your
garden or planting companion plants that will hold back weed growth. Both of
these methods will also help in water holding for the plants and in some cases
help to resist pest.
 |
| The tepee or three sisters |
So…how did we do? Let’s start with the “teepee.” The concept
for this area was the “three sisters.” The three sisters are where corn, squash
and beans are planted in the same space, each provides important nutrients to
the other and they are exceptional growing companions. In my case I planted
sunflowers instead of corn; sunflowers are acceptable in this concept. The
beans climb the large sunflower stalks and produce beans as they grow up the
stalk. The squash fills in the space below and help to hold water in for the
rest of the plants. I also added flowers in some of the nooks and crannies of
the log walls; this produced areas for pollinators, bees. In addition later in the season I added
cucumbers and peas. The harvest of this area will be okay but not great. I have
about 7 to 8 butternut squash, several cucumbers and have picked about three
pounds of beans. The peas we ate as we picked them! We just could not resist
the pea’s sweet raw flavor! Overall I am
happy with the bed but know that I will have to feed this bed a lot of nitrogen
over the winter season and I am considering moving the tomatoes to this bed in
my crop rotation plan. I will be researching what will be the best follow in
the rotation plan.
The next bed contains our parsnips, assorted salad mix and
spinach. This bed also has a patch of fresh thyme. We have been eating the
salad mix for the past two and half months and we consumed all of the spinach.
The parsnips are looking good and I will harvest them in December. I will cover
them with a heavy amount of mulch and when it is time to harvest I will brush
away the snow and mulch and harvest. We did this last year and they were
awesome; the sugars in the parsnips really took over and they were excellent!
The bed itself was small and again little to no weeds! One of the greens found
in the mix was mustard; mustard is an awesome plant to have in your garden as
it acts as pest control for the plants. The
other added benefit to having mustard in the garden can be found in its ability
to work as a living mulch. I have to admit I did not plant the mustard with any
of the benefits in mind; in fact it was quite unintentional. Yet, the mustard grew with the
salad mix and ended up adding some excellent beneficial cover crop, pesticide
and tasty addition to the garden!
 |
| Parsnips, salad mix, spinach and thyme bed |
The next bed was our carrot, lettuce and cucumber bed. This bed
has been an awesome producer thus far. We planted butter leaf lettuce and a
wide variety of carrots. Carrots are fun to grow and you can add more to the
bed if you are not getting the results early on. This is exactly what I did; we
planted our carrots and some of them did not take so I sowed more in about two
or three weeks later. The bed is full and I am sure we will be eating carrots
well into January or later. Just like the parsnips I do not plan on harvesting
them until late November early December. The sugars in the carrots will
convert, making the carrots sweeter and just like the parsnips produce some
awesome flavors! The butter leaf lettuce has been incredible and we have been
enjoying eating it for about two months. I have noticed the bees liking the
lettuce and witnessed them flying into the leaves seeking water. This creates
an interesting harvesting plan; carefully cutting the lettuce away, rinsing the
lettuce and getting those pollinators to fly out before my fingers reach in to
pull out leaves. So far I have not been stung! At the end of this bed I put up
a trellis and planted cucumbers on the outside of the bed. Probably one of my
most disappointing aspects of the garden has been the cucumbers; I believe we
have been hit with a fungus and have been working with hydrogen-peroxide to
remove the fungus. Thus far I have not been too successful and will continue my
research into what we can use that will not kill bees. A recent study found
that the use of fungicides have more to do with the contributing loss of bees
in North America. Pesticides are a problem but the study found that the
fungicides might be a larger factor in the loss of the bees. So … I have been monitoring
the situation and yet still have harvesting a small amount of cucumbers.
 |
| Above is the carrot bed with the cucumber trelis above this picture is one of our big bushy carrots! |
This year I decided that my love for leeks required a bed
dedicated to leeks! I was worried about getting the leeks planted in time as it
took me a little longer to get the initial beds built. I planted the leeks in
my cold frame and managed to get them started while I was finishing the beds. I
am really happy with the results! I have a nice crop of leeks coming and have
picked a few to thin them out and they are wonderful in flavor! What I found
was they need a good daily soaking and lots of mulch. The bed is doing nicely and
once again I will be harvesting them later in the season after the first frost.
As you have read in my blog; I cannot stress the importance of mulch!
 |
| Our Tasty leeks! |
The next bed is our tomato bed. Last year we planted 27
tomato plants! We just cooked up our last bag of tomatoes from last year! This
year we planted 6 tomato plants; I suspect I will not be using this year’s
tomatoes next August! Timing had everything to do with how many plants we were
able to plant this year; just not enough time to put more plants in and besides
we did not want to deal with the harvesting issues of last season! Literally we
stopped harvesting tomatoes as we had nowhere to go with the excess! The new
bed was planted with onions, nasturtiums, dill and basil. All of the planted
items were companion plants and seemed to be thriving quite well. Our dill did
not take to well but not worried because we have dill popping up everywhere
else in the yard! I let last year’s dill go to seed (on purpose) and the seeds
must have blown around the yard! Needless to say we have plenty of dill. All of
the tomatoes we have planted are heirloom varieties and all seem to be
thriving. We have just started picking them and they are meaty with good
flavor. The nasturtiums, on one side of the bed exploded and we have blooms
everywhere. Nasturtiums are edible and have really cool looking blooms, the
leaves and flowers are edible and have a pleasant peppery flavor. We used to
serve them in our salads at our restaurant (The Sandhill Inn) years ago.
 |
| Tomatoes, onions, nasturtiums, dill, and basil bed |
Finally our last bed, another success story, the swiss chard
and golden beets has done quite well. We have been enjoying swiss chard for
about 2 ½ months now. Swiss chard is considered to be one of the super foods
and if anything it is super in flavor! I tend to braise it lightly with
vinegar, butter, onions, garlic and salt and pepper. The beets are looking
awesome (I only wish I would have planted more but due to the late planting, we
have what we have) and I have tasted a couple. My favorite thing about beets is
the earthiness they have when you inhale the sweet smell as you pick them. Not
to mention they taste pretty darn good! I also have a few leeks in this bed as
there was not enough room in the leek bed for all of the seedlings.
 |
| Swiss Chard the super food! |
 |
| Golden Beets |
Overall the garden has fared well. The plan for the winter
is to build a couple of small hoop houses over two of the beds. This will allow
us to grow fresh greens, and other hardy plants all winter long. I am currently
reading two books about four season gardens and if all goes well we will be
enjoying our fresh salad in the middle of winter!
