Abundance!

Vertical Techniques Urban Gardener

Abundance!

The late summer has been an amazing time in my client's hugelkultur.  All of the plants that remain in the garden beds are producing.  They are enjoying the early tomatoes and peppers that have come along.  There are also a large number of squash, melons, and beans that will be ready to go sooner than later.  Pictures really are worth a thousand words here.  The number and size of the vegetables are exceeding expectations.  The worry that all of the carbon in the green wood might tie up too much nitrogen (thus starving the vegetables of that nitrogen) appears at this time to be unfounded.  We will keep an eye on the situation, but at the present time, there is only reason to be very excited about what is to come in the not-so-distant future.  

Here are some photos of the progress.

First the Beans:

These beans are the "Cherokee Trail of Tears" beans.  They are a black bean.  They were planted due to historical significance as well as because they are a vehicle for nitrogen addition. 

The Cherokee Trails of Tears beans are vines.  They have climbed up the pole that I gave them as well as  over to the tomato cages where they have tried to take over. 

Here are some picture of the peppers.  We have a number of varieties from very hot to mild and sweet.  We don't have bells though.  It was decided that they dominated too much the dishes in which they were used.

Looking good!

Early Jalapeno.

The Ring of Fire

The little stems are called calyxes.  The peppers grow from them.  The calyxes grow from the flowers once they have been pollinated.

Many wonderful calyxes!

The De Padron

The tomatoes are showing tons of promise.

Red Cherry Tomatoes

John Baer Tomatoes

Ponderosa Red  (still green... ha!)

Russian Purple Romas.  Can't wait to use the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, these tomatoes, some hot peppers and some local organic chicken to make a black chicken chile this winter!

Tomato blossoms

Look closely...  there are a ton of tomatoes in this picture

Basil, tomatoes, and peppers are good companions.  Here it's obvious that the basil and tomatoes both benefited from being planted together.  The basil is big and so are the tomatoes!

Basil and tomatoes loving living together.

Look at all of the tomatoes!

Next we have the melons.  We are very proud of them.  The client has a child in the house who is very excited about them too

The Pride of Wisconsin

Pride of Wisconsin

Rocky Ford

Chanterais

The biggest Chanterais in the garden

There is an abundance of Chanterais.

Looking at the melon patch.

And finally (last but certainly not least), the squash.

The Howden pumpkin

A baby Table King acorn squash

An adolescent Table King acorn squash

And another.  Right now the garden has about 25 of these in various forms of maturity.

A really nice butter nut squash. 

A small butternut squash

Can you spot the acorn squash?

The squash patch

Here are some photos of the landscape.  As you can tell there is a great vibrance and energy in the yard.  The hammock is very relaxing and the garden attracts a ton of wildlife from bees to birds to chipmunks.  The client claims to be very happy with the changes and looks forward to the transition through fall and into winter.

The Burr Oak

The Red Oak

As the pictures show, our client has a lot to look forward to.  We look forward to the abundance that will come with the fall.  Get on the schedule for the spring or fall installation of your hugelkultur!  Call Will for a free site visit today at 414-308-5435.  Thanks for checking in!

Sweet Summer Rain!

We went about two months without rain in the Greater Milwaukee Area.  I had to water the garden with a hose daily or risk losing everything.  All of the yards around the city were brown.  The hugelkultur project has done quite well in  the drought.  The Burr Oak is the real achievement.  In such a bad drought year the maturing Quercus macrocarpa had put on a foot of twig growth! We never watered the tree directly, but the runoff from watering the garden daily was full of nutrients from the high-quality compost we used to kick-start the soil building process.  Mature shade trees really benefit from getting a little compost on their roots every year or so.  Here are a couple of photos of the oak.

We did water regularly. The rain finally came last night.  It was nice and steady and fell for a couple of hours until late morning today.  It was such a relief.  I prefer the rain to water the garden as the water doesn't contain the chemicals that come from the tap.  But beggars can't be choosers and I had little option if I desired to have a productive garden.  That said...

 The transplants all did really well.  Even the much-maligned  Greens Bed has been transformed into a productive garden.  I transplanted tomatoes there.  The result was a surprise.  The space originally didn't seem to get enough light.  Now however, it has tomatoes!  I am excited also to report that there is dill in the same low-light garden bed.  Here are some photos.

 Moving on to the main hugelkultur bed.  All of the transplants have taken off and most are producing flowers or some fruit.  The tomatoes have looked pretty wilty  since they were transplanted.  However, there are tomatoes on the vines so I am not too concerned.  I have two large squash going and two melons.  My borage looks beautiful as do the marigolds.  I have had to trim back the melons and squash and erect barriers between them and the peppers.  I am confident that the peppers will do well.  They are already flowering and the fruit is starting to come.  I am proud of the peppers and tomatoes because they were started by seed and outside.  Here are some photos.

Pepper and tomato transplants along with marigolds.  The Cherokee Trail of Tears bean is in the background.  Surrounding the chicken-wire enclosure are squash and melons.

Borage is the flower in the middle of this photo.

The marigolds are attracting a lot of bees.  We have a number of different types of bees too.  We have Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, and some type of solitary ground bee. 

Squash!

Butternut Squash.

I think this is a pumpkin...

Musk melon.

Honey Dew melon.

We harvested the beets, and potatoes.  The peas were finished in the three straight weeks of temps in the 100* F range.  We got about three pounds of potatoes from the pots.  I am going to start another round of them soon.  Once the main garden bed is done growing squash and melons, or if the tomatoes or peppers in there die, I will replant beets, carrots, and radishes for fall.  Once we're into September, I will replant peas.

The harvest: beans, dandelion greens, potatoes and beets.  We also recently harvested carrots, peas and the greens.

The Salsa Garden is a huge success... so far.  The tomatoes are about five and half feet tall and full of fruit and flowers!  The peppers in there are about two and a half feet tall.  Some of them have large peppers already!  All of them have a number of flowers.  This bodes well for the future!  Here are some photos of the Salsa garden.

It's no joke!  Those tomatoes are almost as tall as me and I am 5'11" tall!

Sweet peppers.

Anaheim  Chile.

The heat torched the peas and the lettuce.  I am going to replant the lettuce and wait on the peas till September.  My next post should be pretty interesting.  This season has been pretty good for growing peppers and tomatoes and I really looking forward to all the salsas and chilies that I a going to make.  I will keep you posted.  As always please comment on the post!