Now's The Time To Plan Your Garden

[rhodielady_47]

If you have only a limited amount of space to garden in, perhaps you might like to try a hugel bed.
[BTW--This picture comes from Pinterest.]

Comments

[dark_phoenix54]

I had no idea they stood that tall! I thought they were just heaps that you let rot down. Wonder how well they are for watering.

[rhodielady_47]

So did I, but apparently this is a new version.
I'm thinking it would be good for smaller veggie plants--radishes, carrots, beets, onions, lettuce, etc.--anything that doesn't take up a lot of room and can be planted fairly close together.

What do you think about maybe installing a soaker hose into the top and sides? Seems like it would make it a heck of a lot easier to water.
:^)

[meistergedanken]

Yes! I am planning to construct one of these in spring. What has held me up has been determining its location in the yard and an insufficient supply of wood. But I think I have solved these problems...

I have a large red maple that is on the decline and needs to be taken down. That will furnish the bulk of the logs. And the former issue was solved when I decided to locate the bed in the front yard, instead of the back.

I hadn't considered that before, because the house faces north, and therefore the "back" side, that faces away from the sun, would be facing the street. No one talks about how to treat the "shady" side of the mound. But then I hit on an idea I hadn't seen before - to build a retaining wall that would "cut into" the shady side, match the brick of the house and improve the appearance from the street. So now, instead of making a bed that is 6 -7 feet wide, it can be narrowed to 4 - 5 feet.

Now all I need is for the snow to melt...

[rhodielady_47]

I just had a thought occur to me

[meistergedanken]

I have a big deer problem, so whatever I plant there will also have to be resistant to them in the bargain (my raised vegetable beds in the back have hoops and netting over them). For the first year or two I will likely just sow some wildflowers there, since the soil cap will be pretty shallow until the wood starts to break down in earnest.

It's quite wet where I am, and there are all sorts of strange fungi that come up in the yard, including grapefruit-sized earth balls that spring up all around where the septic tank is buried (I'm sure that's completely fine and not indicative of anything amiss...) - but I'm way too hesitant and wary to try and identify which are edible and which aren't.

More Information for you--

[rhodielady_47]

There's no need to worry about which fungi are edible or not. Shiitaki mushrooms are grown from mushroom spawn that you buy, so of course they're okay to eat.
Shiitaki mushrooms are planted in the form of plugs placed into freshly cut logs. After that, you wait a few months and then you should start to harvest mushrooms for the next few years.

Human urine is some of the best deer repellent that there is.
[Now is the time of year that you begin applying the urine. You apply it everywhere that deer walk on their way into your yard. Since deer won't walk across a yucky scent barrier like that, it breaks them of the habit of visiting your yard while they look for food during the summer months.]
:^)

[favoritebean]

Do you think this would work for tomatoes? Or would I just need a separate space with a trellis?

[rhodielady_47]

I don't know....tomatoes tend to grow such long vines.

I've been wondering if you could grow a tomato vine on a trellis the same way the French do their espaliered fruit trees? Your tomato vines would be so much easier to take care of and to find and pick the fruit.