Our Garbage Gardens

 When we moved here April 2015 we tilled a small area by our feed shed and planted a few things. It did not produce well as the ground here was total junk, I was still in school full time and Keith was building our grain bin house.

Summer of 2016 went a bit better. The first garden was planted with popcorn and it produced well. We also tilled a second garden spot by our home but the soil was filled with clay. Some herbs grew and a few tomatoes but not much else except beans. Beans did very well. We ate a lot of beans that summer.

Summer of 2017 we tilled a third garden. This one was farther away from the grain bin house and the soil was easier to work with. We had a variety of veggies but the weeds got away from us as we were focused on building the new barn. (Excuses? You bet. We have tons of them). Garden number one was planted with tomatoes that failed, but we turned our broiler chickens into that area and they thrived. So what we lacked in canned tomatoes we made up for with chicken dinners. 

Present day. 

Garden number one by the feed shed is in its fourth year and the soil is rich and loamy. We added lots of organic material to it last summer and plan to fill it with sweet corn and popcorn. It's fenced in so no problems with chickens tearing up things. The few in the picture below are allowed in until we plant. Lots of worms to eat!

Garden Number One

For Popcorn and Sweet Corn

Two Weeks Ago 

Unplanted

Garden number two or "The Kitchen Garden" is the one just off our homes entry way and in its third year. It is still heavy with clay but after adding organic material to it in the way of straw, rotted hay, compost from the cows manure pile, and cardboard (!) it is now teaming with earthworms. I've expanded my herbs in this area and planted spinach, lettuce mixes, radishes, peas, cherry tomatoes, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cukes and flowers such as cosmos, zinnias, gladiolas, poppies, coreopsis, nasturtiums, iris, marigolds and sunflowers.

The Kitchen Garden Two Weeks Ago

I want COLOR this year! I also want to walk only a few feet to gather up salad and flower bouquet material for our home.

Garden number three is the Main Garden or Garbage Garden as I often refer to it. It has been planted with large tomatoes, beans, asparagus, onions, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, garlic, rhubarb, beets, and peppers. 

It's the Garbage Garden (above) not because of its vegetable contents, but because of Keith's creative ways of protecting tender young transplants. This year he pulled out all the stops, as well as all the "inventory" he'd been saving in the decrepit house, including but not limited to: plastic boxes, plastic milk and juice cartons, antique bricks, wood boards, PVC pipe pieces, old foosball game rods, glass lamp shades and oil lamp globes. Average and arguably, saner folk, will cover their plants with lovely row covers of similar shape and size, but we are cheap here on The Poor Farm and so we use what is on hand. It is a functional, but untidy garden the first few weeks. 

Not Our Garden

Our Garden

Our Garden 

As the plants grow and become more resistant to weather extremes, and hungry robins, the "inventory" will find it's way back to the decrepit house. How do I know this? Because Keith is the garbage collector and I am the garbage put away-er.

It's a team effort.

Definitely our garden