Friday, March 25, 2011

Organic Gardening = Making Groceries At Home

Even though it snowed last night, the sun came back out today - finally in a position to shine on the organic garden area! I decided it was time to get started on my spring/summer preparations... first, finish raking in the donkey poop I had been dumping over the fence all winter... and churning up the top soil & donkey poop I had layered into the garden beds last summer.
DONKEY POOP + TOP SOIL (removed from around the barn) = amazing black composted dirt !!!
I made a new garden bed too today! As ya'll can see, I dont go for the high class look in my garden... i use whatever i have around to build with (meaning no $$$ is needed, no store has to be driven to). Sticks, old lumber left over from building, and rocks are how I put it together --- and its filled with 100% donkey doo doo.
I had some hay that got moisture in it, and was no good to feed to the animals... so i started using that for my paths I walk on, in between garden beds.
In the pic below... are some of the semi-raised beds I have slowly been filling up. If you are not impressed with how it looks, take a look at the work I had to do to get it to this point...
click here ::: Flashback to A YEAR AGO!
Some of the donkey poop had grass seeds in it, that have begun to grow.
I weed it out, then give it back to JuJu and the chickens!! The hens looooove to run off with the whole clump of grass .... :))))
THINGS THAT CAME BACK! :::::
so my fall winter garden didn't work out at all, because i had the big depressing surprise of having no sun during that time of the year (due to the placement of the mountain ridges). But many of the things i planted during that time stayed alive under the snow, they didn't die when wind & temperatures hit -20 f ...
My dwarf fruit tree have survived! The pear, peach and cherry!
and in my gardens beds...
the kale! the spinach!
the carrots! the rutabaga!
and many herbs are poking their first leaves through the leaves and soil - oregano, parsley, thyme, mint, bee balm, comfrey, chives, lavender and sage!

Xoxoxo

3 comments:

Kittie Howard said...

I remember when you began clearing the area. Girl, you do great work. So much survived the winter, a testament to your skills for the good soil insulated.

There's some good eatin' ahead from that garden!

Wild Canary said...

Makes me itching to get started; we still have a bit of waiting yet, but we are playing in the dirt and moving the donkey and other poo around. Thanks for your inspiration!

Joe said...

Have you tried Quinoa
http://www.ridgecrestca.com/lifestyle/food/x148134492/Quinoa-dubbed-super-grain-of-the-future