Garden Progress

I'm frustrated that the garden seems to be taking so long to get going.  But when I look back, I've made a lot of progress since I started in the late winter of this year. The garden area started out a mess; the owner had previously done some digging there to erect a shade house, and then changed her mind.  There was a perimeter trench that had been filled in old pieces of wood and garbage of various kinds including the limbs of an artificial Christmas tree, and a scrap wood pile.  My first steps were to remove the detritus in the area where garden would be and to fill in parts of the trench that would be in front of the garden.  We used the pickup to pull the few sagebrush that were growing in the area. 

After the trash is moved, beginning to break up the sod

 Then bit by bit, I used a shovel to break up the sod that covered the area.  The lack of snow this winter and higher than average temperatures helped with this.  I was able to work throughout the winter months because the ground never got covered in snow or froze beyond the surface.

 

I put together a rudimentary compost collection bin using saved pallets, cattle fencing, and chicken wire.   This is temporary; I need to design something with multiple bins and figure out where exactly to locate it within the garden.

 

I hired a neighbor to help erect the fencing.  I planned to use just t-stakes and chicken wire and thought the project would take about five hours.  But he persuaded me to use some of the latillas that were lying around the property and had other ideas and the fencing project began to take on much bigger dimensions that I'd planned. After about twelve hours of his labor, many cups of coffee, and several free lunches, with only five wood posts in the ground, I declared enough was enough and decided to finish the project myself. 

 

I moved two of the wood posts he'd erected (he mis-measured), and put in a few more myself. Mike helped me by pounding in the t-stakes.  I wrapped the perimeter with chicken wire and attached it to the posts with wire. 

I decided to use Zuni waffle-style beds that are dug into the ground rather than raised beds.  This should provide the seedlings with some protection from the wind and help to conserve water. 

Water from the sky is scarce this year so I'm being very conservative in what I chose to plant.  I'm going mostly with some perennials that will take multiple years to become established.  I've planted asparagus, comfrey, sun chokes, and horse radish.  I'm planning a drip irrigation system but until I get that established,  I'm hauling water gallon by gallon from the stock tank.