May - Starting Over....Successfully!

So here we are at our new location. We have a bit over an acre of level ground with the potential of using more. And it has dirt! About a 100' x 50' area was previously derocked and used as a garden although right now it is pasture. The rest has rocks mixed in with the soil, so that's gonna be work.

The first thing we did was set up our picnic area. We all agreed that under a very large ohia tree was a great location. So we moved in the outdoor chairs. At least now we had a place to eat lunch, chat, and dream about a garden again. That's high priority stuff!

Afterward we all agreed that we needed to move to big tables over to under the tree.

As for the garden, first steps included mowing everything down real close to the soil. And as grass and weeds started to regrow, we sprayed them with repeated sprays of ag vinegar and lemon juice. The stubborn weeds were cooked with a propane torch. It didn't take long to get the weeds subdued although we knew the grass roots wouldn't all get killed by this method. But we were adverse to using  a chemical herbicide.

We needed to protect the garden from the sheep that were grazing this land. Not having the money to invest in expensive fencing, combined with the fact that we weren't exactly sure where the fencing should be, we opted to build a temporary pallet fence. This was something that cost very little, was easy and quick to erect, and could be readily dismantled and moved. 

(The pallet fence can be seen in the background. The pots hold baby tomato plants that we were getting ready to plant.) 

Next step: layout the first few rows and aisleways. We opted for about 3 foot paths and 3 foot wide beds. We had the beds 23' foot long with a 4 foot wide cross path. 23' was no special number. It was just that we could fit three beds this length across the width of the new garden area.

(Missy is busily preparing the garden beds and setting out the white pipe rows borders. A pile of grass mulch is in the foreground which we used around freshly planted yacon, tomatoes, and herbs.) 

Now that we had our general layout, we started rototilling the derocked area and planting our first new crop - potatoes. We had several bags of seed potatoes sprouting and ready to sow. So in they went. Ta-da!  The new garden officially is growing! And by the end of the month we also sowed seeds for radishes, daikon, and turnips. It's a start.

Rocks! 

And more rocks!