Something I have been meaning to do as a new homesteader is start a garden. Actually I doubt you would even call me a homesteader since I am lacking that important little piece homestead... a garden. So this past fall I started the task of a garden. I should also mention that our neighbors on both sides are master gardeners.
This means two things:
1) Their yards always look amazing
2) A free resource of tips and advice on gardening (flowers or veggies!)
When I mentioned to our neighbor that I was wanting to start a garden but had no idea where to start he recommended a method called layer gardening. So here is our journey to monster tomatoes, salsa all year round, and bell peppers that are so delicious we can't keep them around.
Layer #1
I did not prep the ground in any way. I looked around our yard at different times of day to see which spot would receive the most sun since I planned on planting tomatoes and peppers. The first layer is cardboard laid flat. Be sure that your cardboard is wax free and all the postage or tape has been removed before laying flat.
Layer #2
After the cardboard was down I started the layering process. The next layer is leaves and/or grass clippings. We used both. If you have a yard full of leaves its nice not to have to bag them all.
We ended up putting a little chicken wire fence around our garden because the pup was very nosy about what we were mixing up.
Continue to layer, layer, layer throughout the fall and winter. Don't worry about piling it to high over the winter and spring showers it dwindles down and leaves you with a bed of lush compost.
Layer # 3 (optional)
After spring rolled around and we were preparing to plant we added in compost from our compost pile. This is not necessary since you've been essentially composting all winter.
This is the garden before planting! Needless to say the flimsy chicken wire did not hold up against our 70 pound golden retriever .
Lets Plant!
Now we are ready to plant! This garden is great for any kind of vegetable you want to plant. We chose tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapenos.
The garden quickly grew and turned into a jungle!
We had tomato cages when we started but the plants quickly outgrew their cages and we had to tie them up to 8 feet dowels!
Our first little harvest!
Now we can hardly keep up with all the tomatoes!
