So we've been living in the new house for a little over a year (two summers now, woot!). I've fought with the soil. I've amended it with straw, horse manure, and other things. I've used kelp meal and calcium pellets.
But when I got here, the soil was... well, it still IS just DIRT.
I have areas now (and did then, though smaller) which have a nice, dark, crumbly texture. These are the clearly-used garden areas. These are where the previous owners grew flowers and a few veggies, apparently. But everywhere else is just clay style dirt - it's dry, it's pale brown, it's dusty when dry and heavy and sticky when wet. It's got rocks in it - big ones, in some places. It's heavy and very difficult to turn when it's dry, because it tends to cake hard. And it's got GRASS growing in it in most areas - I HATE grass. Seriously, I despise the stuff. It's my gardening arch-enemy. It's always hungry, it forms root mazes that destroy other plants, it's invasive, and it's UGLY.
I have cherry trees that I put in on the premises - some of them have died. Four or five are still alive. The apple and nectarine tree seem to be ok. But I need suggestions!
I'm new to the idea of permaculture, but I love it. I want my yards to be a bounty of food. I've been interested in edible landscaping all along, and this just seems a natural extension of that.
Can anyone give me some suggestions on what to do with my mess of a garden, to get it going? Keeping in mind that money is almost nonexistent (I grow from seed, not from plants - the trees were a gift from a friend), I'd like suggestion on specific plants that would work.
I need suggestions for the legumes especially - I can fill in with veggies that my family will eat for groundcovers and for miscellaneous annual materials, but I don't know what I'm doing really.
Oh, and if we can't eat it, I don't want it - unless it specifically supports what we _can_ eat (and even then I've a preference for things we can eat (or eat parts of) that will do the job).
Any suggestions? :)
Suggestions for a permaculture backyard? :)
sevidra - I could have written this myself - I HATE grass with a passion - it's useless!
I have often said to hubby and friends: "If I can't eat it, I don't grow it!" - although next year I HOPE to have some flowers for cutting, 'cause they will brighten up my desk at work and be a constant reminder of my garden at home :)
As to your nonexistant money - I started my garden with very little money, too. Then I got a part-time job so I could have some extra cash to buy the gardening supplies I need.
One thing that will really help break-up that clay soil (we have clay, too) is compost. If you drive around your neighborhood during the Fall, you should find lots of leaves that have been put out for recycling. If you keep the leaves damp over the winter, they should break down by spring.
Once you have your clay soil incorporated with lots of compost, you can grow anything!
Heh, I've been composting everything I could get my hands on. It's become a joke around the house - one boy (I have four) will catch another thinking about throwing out a banana peel and say "Don't let Mom catch you! She'll yell at you!"
And yeah, all those brown leaf-bags have been very tempting. My only concern is that I already have too many maple seedlings in my yard from the neighbors - if I take their leaves, won't my compost pile be full of little maples?
sevidra - yes the maple seeds will grow, but they are easy to pull - then they become compost, too.
Is there something your boys really like to eat? Maybe you could tell them the banana peels will help grow their favorites. We have strawberries growing all over the place. Their runners have even set down into the clay and produced wonderful tasting berries. Of course, if I tried actually planting strawberries in the clay, they probably would not survivie!
ROFL I have had success with strawberries. They even put runners down into the grass. The boys think it's hilarious that I go out every so often and dig the grass out from _under_ the strawberries. :D
The strawberry bed has nearly doubled in size from last year. And the wild ones (we have a bed of those) are incredible.
The boys are great for composting - they just accept it as normal now, but they think my obsessiveness is kind of funny.
I really need to find more information about this. Maybe I'll post it on the sustainable alternatives forum or something.
This message was edited Jul 17, 2009 11:00 PM
Newspapers and cardboard boxes will kill grass, prevent weeds from germinating and break down just like leaves. They'll decompose faster in direct contact with the damp soil and covered with a bit of soil and/or leaves and grass clippings. This is a free and effective resource. An effortless way to kill sod for garden expansion. Also a key component of the very effective lasagna beds. The only negative is that it's very unsightly unless you cover it up with mulch.
twiggybuds - the newspapers and cardboard works great on everything but Burmuda grass. I have been battling this grass for weeks, and it still grows through nine inches of newspaper/cardboard/leaves mulch!
I did notice that it gave up rather readily in my sweet potato patch, so perhaps it's unable to compete with them, or the Burmuda doesn't like the shade the potatoes provide.
Bermuda grass in my neck of the woods is a gardener's curse. It's everywhere and virtually impossible to kill. I am organic, but even if I wasn't I've heard all the weed killers in the world won't take out Bermuda - lol. I've heard from some old timers in my neighborhood that this area was used by the calvary during the Civil War as grazing land for their horses. And guess what kind of grass they grew? Yup - Bermuda. I think because of it's ability to grow where nothing else will grow - lol. And we are still paying the price to this day.
And Honeybee is right - it grows through whatever you try to cover it with. I have just conceded to pull and chop it out where I find it and have resigned myself to the fact that it is a never ending battle . . .
A definition I heard of "weed" - a plant growing where we don't want it to - sure fits bermuda. A terrific pasture grass, but around the garden , , , ,
But it's not a monster that can't be killed. Roundup definitely will. I spray periodically to kill bermuda in selected places and to control goathead, blue flower, star thistle, datura, fox tail, and other noxious desert plants.
There's a process for killing bermuda with heat by covering with clear plastic, but I've not tried that.
I've controlled bermuda by brute force, digging it up. You don't have to get all the thread-like root fibers but the runners and root nodes have to go. Thoroughness is essential. Then I mulch heavily and keep the soil wet to encourage the bermuda I missed to grow. Two or three week later a second, much easier session will just about do it. Afterwards occassionally I'll pop out seedlings or an occassional root-based regrow.