Hugelkultur Part III:
The start of the early vegetables and the planting of most of the rest.
This hugelkultur project is has begun to sprout up! We have planted a lot of vegetables. The blueberry bushes, the hazelnuts, the chestnuts, the hickory, the high-bush cranberry viburnum, and the oak all seem to be adjusting to their new or transformed home. We even have a few volunteers that are really cool!
The vegetables have been a joy to plant! I love getting my hands in the soil. I also love to get down there in the dirt and dig. This compost is great! These gardens were just brimming with life even before planting these vegetables. There were red worms and night-crawlers aplenty. Lots of birds and bugs galore. We even have bees! You gotta take it all in cause it's really an amazing system. When all of the parts get up and running, the biodiversity should be something to write home about! We had these items already in the ground for about three weeks:
High Mowing Organic Mescaline Mix
Pirat Butterhead Lettuce
Vulcan Red Lettuce
Emerald Green Lettuce
(all of the above are in planter boxes on the deck )
Potatoes in drainable pots
Peas in drainable pots
The Greens Bed contains the following:
Strawberry Spinach
Spinach
Arugula
Sage
Cilantro
The Main Garden Bed has these vegetables in already:
Bulls Blood Beets
Chaiogia Beets
Detroit Red Beets
Danver Carrots
Pumpkins
Acorn Squash
Butternut Squash
The Trail of Tears Black Beans
The Black Turtle Black Beans
The Dragon Langerie Bush Beans
The Provider Bush Beans
Acorn Squash
Butternut Squash
The Trail of Tears Black Beans
The Black Turtle Black Beans
The Dragon Langerie Bush Beans
The Provider Bush Beans
When these started to come up about a month and a half ago it was really exciting! Every day there was a little progress and new things started to pop up. Here are some pictures.
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| The planters on the deck have the three types of lettuce and the High Mowing Mescaline Mix. |
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| The little Yellowbud Hickory (Carya cordiformis) |
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| This little American Chestnut (Castenea dentata) get a little more shade than I would like. It might end up on the Main Garden Bed if there is room... |
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| This little American Chestnut gets a lot of sun all day, and really loves this spot! |
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| Potatoes growing in a drainable pot. |
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| This Peony (Paeonia lactiflora) is well established at the site and in full-bloom. |
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| Not a lot going on yet in the Greens bed. The Arugula and the Spinach are starting to come up. It's still quite early. |
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| The peas on the left are the Sugar Ann Snap Pea and the peas on the right are the Snow Pea. |
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| The Hickory, the Blueberries, the Hazelnut and the High-Bush Cranberry are all looking good. This is the Main Garden Bed. The beets and the carrots are planted in there but they are too small to point out. They are located near the Viburnum. The next photos show the garden as of the 23rd of May, 2012. |
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| Red Leaf and Green Leaf Lettuce growing in the planter boxes on the deck. |
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| The Salsa Garden with the chicken-wire fence. If you look closely you will see the tomatoes coming up. The peppers are taking a little longer. The past and current week are a little warm for the season, so that should help. We will be adding Basil to this plot as well since it grows well with tomatoes and peppers. |
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| Peas! |
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| The Peas are being trained to grow up the chicken-wire. |
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| Peas and potatoes. The Potatoes in the red and white pots have grown so much that I have already added a second level of soil. The white pot has enough room for one more level. More levels = more potatoes. |
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| Beets and radishes in the Main Garden Bed. They are coming along nicely. |
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| Beans and squash. |
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| Blueberries and beans. Thank you for checking out our progress. |
