A Garden Tour in July

When I posted some soundbites from the garden, I realized that I haven’t fully shared here a broader look at the gardens. We have three main garden areas – the chicken field, the pallet garden, and this year’s new addition of the (how have I not told you about this?!) food forest.

This little man has a passion for all things propagation and plant, so I thought I’d let him show us around. Care to join us?

The Chicken Field

When you leave our little cabin, you wander down a path past the rain water catchment tank and on your left is our first garden area. This is the homemade gate to the chicken field, so called because of its proximity to what was our first chicken coop. That coop has since been turned into a compost heap (quite literally), and we are now on our third iteration of chicken housing.

I put our tour guide, Abram, in chard of planting sunflowers along the east fence line, and plant he did. You are immediately greeted with these beauties upon entering.

The chicken field started neat and tidy this spring with four long rows of beans. Those got eaten up about three weeks after the boys and I planted them, so we started over. A row of melons now bookends slightly haphazard plantings of black eyed peas, pigeon peas, as pictured above, and volunteer sweet potatoes. Stewart also threw out some sod buster radish seeds, which have been really exciting and I need to tell y’all about them sometime.

Last year this space looked neat and tidy. This year, we’ve let the weeds take over a bit. Honestly, though, I think the weeds are actually helping with shade and additional ground cover on these hot days, so I’m in no rush to pull them all.

This just in… there are 16 melons in the chicken field! (I wish I could convey the enthusiasm with which that was reported by our oldest boy.)

Peekaboo!

The Pallet Garden

If you wander a bit beyond the chicken field and hook a right before you get to the bright red chicken coop we use today, you will reach the pallet garden. Don’t worry, though, it’s kind of hard to miss.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy all things homemade, including gates?

If you come in here with the children, the first thing you’ll hear is little Annabelle whispering “‘mater, ‘mater, ‘mater” as she waits for the gate to open. Then all bets are off as they all dart to the three tomato trees plants to the right. Tomatoes were just a little afterthought in the garden this year as low maintenance calorie crops like beans, roots, and greens took center stage.

Those tomatoes are shaded by pallets and surrounded on three sides by patches of black eyed peas. When you first walk in you’ll want to watch your step as the tatume summer squash nestled within those black eyed peas is sprawling. The six other summer squash plants just don’t seem to feel the need to stretch out as that one does.

Looking straight ahead from the gate you’ll see more black eyed peas (they never disappoint) along with a row of Lucullus Swiss Chard, also shaded on one end with pallets, and the last beet that I’ve been meaning to pull but just can’t quite bring myself to do.

To the left is, big surprise, more beans and tons of weeds. Again, I’m only pulling weeds as necessary to encourage shade and ground cover. If you look past the black trash can that holds water pumped via solar power from our ponds, you’ll find a small sea of spearmint, peppermint, and orange mint. Also back there are a handful of tomato plants we recently put in as well as a volunteer squash.

And finally, looking to your left as you just enter the garden, there is a row of okra, another couple of rows of beans, and the medicinal herb area. Here we have mullein, tulsi, and wild oregano. There are also chives throughout the garden. And, just beyond that pallet, is the strawberry patch. So far the boys have each planted two strawberry plants, but I’m pretty sure they’re looking to expand that operation.

And that’s the pallet garden.

When you leave the pallet garden you will wander back to that bright red chicken coop and take a right. Here, Stewart dug some swales as we began getting heavier spring rains. On top of these swales we planted black eyed peas and blue speckled beans. Yep, there are a lot of beans.

We have chosen to fence the chickens out of garden areas rather than fencing them in. It helps with grasshopper control and seems to work for us. I’ve been surprised that this unfenced area of beans has gone rather unscathed thus far.

And finally, the furthest 1/8-1/4 acre of our little two acres is the food forest. This homemade gate leads us to more swales planted in sunn hemp, black eyed peas, and blue speckled beans. Not pictured is a host of different fruit trees, berry bushes, perennial herbs, sweet potatoes, flowers, and other lovely things.

But maybe Abram can show us more of that on another day.