Organic Gardening

Fall 2015

I moved to a new house with just over half an acre lot. Nice new and big garden to make. The previous owner had not done a lot to the backyard. So I wanted to establish a good price for setting up a new garden.

I borrowed a rototiller... yes I am going to til the soil instead of putting down newspaper and garden beds. I wanted to mix some amendments into the soil since this would be the base for the new garden. I used some tent stakes and paracord that I had laying around to establish the boundries and squared it off the house foundation. I setup a 25' X 35' area and tilled it, added some rock dust and biochar. The soil has some organic matter and is sandy. Not a bad starting soil... at least its not clay.

Over the final weeks of fall I added leaves that I picked up with the leaf blower/mulcher. I also got leaves from a couple of neighbors that I added as well as some final grass clippings. I did not till the leaves or the grass clippings into the soil, if the were not fully decomposed they might lead to a temporary nitrogen deficiency.

I put up a fence around the garden which I am going to guess costed about $50. This was to keep the dog out of the garden as well as rabbits. I also staked the fence into the ground with landscaping spikes every 5 feet or so.