Gardening Journal Page 2

This is Jim. See our Garden.  See Jim work.  See me take pictures.  See me smile.

Ok, so I got a bit silly..... speaking of gardens...... notice the cedar chips, the poles, and the black landscaping fabric. These are very important to a good garden.

As you study this site, remember that we are gentleman farmers. My definition of gentleman farmer is "city slickers who move to the country and try and look like they've been been born with a shovel in their hands" Are we doing a good job?

This is a better look at our garden in the beginning. I will explain why we use landscaping fabric. NO WEEDING!

Also, it helps to keep the moisture in the soil. But mostly it is for weed control.

Our tomato cages are being used for our cucumbers. It is an experiment. We will let you know how it works at the end of the season. We cut the fabric in long strips that are slightly bigger than the length of the rows. We made our row width such that the fabric covered it naturally.

We use our prolific hangers, (that seem to breed like rabbits), that come with our dry cleaning to hold the fabric down on all sides and down the middle of the rows. We use a wire cutter to cut the wire into lengths. We bend them into square horseshoe pieces. We push the pieces into the rows through the fabric. It hold them down nicely.

This photo is of our lettuce and radishes. The green lettuce plant came up from last year's planting voluntarily. We laid the fabric around it. We put holes in the fabric and planted the red lettuce plants we bought at the nursery. We pick them all daily and fresh for our salads. The red lettuce wilts quickly even in the refrigerator after being washed. Pick it just as you use it. The green kind stays crisp for days.

Pile the dirt up around the edges of the fabric help hold it down.

In this photo you are looking at fabric and mulch. We use cedar because most insects do not like it's smell. It doesn't rot like most other mulches so it holds the moisture well. This allows us to walk between the rows even when the ground is wet. We place the mulch even between the rows.

Here you see Jim with his bag of cedar chips, spreading them on the garden. One of the first things we bought when we moved in was a chipper. And, don't get me wrong, we have used it, making many bags of chips that we have used for mulch in our flower beds. However, it is hard work and takes a lot of time. It is something that probably should be done during the winter in order to have it ready for spring planting. So, as you see, we broke down and bought some because we didn't have the time to chip it for the garden.

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