Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Lasagna!

What an exciting few days - we have been working on building soil in most of my beds Lasagna style. While the beds are a bit large for excellent lasagna method gardens, for this year at least it is a beginning.

The front field where the potted nursery stock sat for so many years under black nursery tarp had such miserable soil in it - I made a stab at it with easy crops - lettuce, basil, chicory - had good lettuce - hey, it was all sand! It now lays under a good thick layer of cardboard, followed by rough material gathered from clients gardens, my gardens, and now we are adding in some eel grass and some ancient horse manure - can't believe someone has horse manure that is 20 years old! sprinkles of bone meal as we go along - it won't be 20" deep, but it is a great start.

Back garden has been neglected for 14 years when I put in truck loads of goat manure - it is pooped. Same method - cardboard, rough debris and bone meal, topping with the horse and eel grass . I will make that my main food garden come spring - I see it every day, it's smaller and more controllable - easier to get deer fence around it - which was a problem with front field and the temporary fence - kept meaning to get that high wire up and hang the Japanese lanterns on it to shoo the deer away - but summer is "clients first" time.

Also thinking of moving some of the benches in the greenhouse and putting in an old cold frame, filling it with compost and trying some winter crops - Elliot Coleman style ( ish)

Really can't believe I'm still in fall clean up stages and anticipating next springs crops - a month ago I didn't want to see a garden as long as I lived! That's the Nantucket Season for you!

The only crop that didn't suffer from this summer? Artichokes - lots of yummy ones.