Let's Get this Party Started

Now that the sweet potatoes are harvested and a four inch layer of wood chips provide a cover for the garden, it is time to get started with a new, hopefully easier method of gardening.  I don't have a tiller and have always worked up a very large garden with a shovel and hoe.  I am 53 years old and I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep that up.  To add to that I work a full time job in a city 42 miles away.  I leave my home at 5:15 am each morning and return at 5:15 pm - at the earliest each day.  That leaves me with little time for gardening - a hobby that I love.  Especially when the days get shorter, I run out of daylight.  Let's not even talk about WEEDING the garden!

Soooo, I finally gave in and decided to try the "Back to Eden" gardening method.  We're going all in on this as we've received 20 truckloads (so far) of wood chips.  Who knows, next year I may be back to traditional gardening, but we like to experiment and learn and don't mind trying.  I decided there is no time like the present to get started.  Here goes.  I used a rake to move the wood chips away from the soil, leaving about a 6 inch stretch of soil uncovered.

We love sugar snap peas.  It is a favorite cool-season crop of ours.  The stalks grow tall.  The flowers are beautiful and the peas are delicious.  I like to just stand by the trellis and snap off the young, immature pods and snack on them.  Tricia stir fries them, adds them to fried rice and soups and salads, and cooks them with butter as a side dish.  I like to order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  The seeds are open-pollinated, so you can save the seeds from your mature plants and plant them year after year.  (Last year we ATE all of the peas, breaking an old axiom: "Don't eat your seeds!")

I say this all the time and I'm sorry I repeat myself, but seeds are always a miracle to me.  I like to pour them in my hand and look at them.  Here is a handful of "dead" seeds.  They've been sitting in a paper envelope for months.  No soil.  No water.  No sunlight.  These could be soaked in water and be eaten, but no.  These peas will be put into the soil.  They'll sprout and produce a hundred-fold of what I'm holding in my hand - probably more.  Delayed gratification.  It requires patience.  And work.  And it is risky.  But the rewards can be huge.

I gently worked the soil to loosen it.  I didn't work it deep - just enough to make a nice seed bed.  The wood chip mulch that has covered the soil has kept the soil moist and easy to work.  I placed the peas 4 inches apart all down the row next to the trellis and then covered with a thin layer of organic garden soil and watered it in.  When the peas have sprouted, I'll train the seedlings to climb the trellis.  Then I'll rake the wood chips over the exposed soil to discourage weed growth. 

That's it!  Last year, I would have worked the entire area with a shovel, used a hoe to pull up a row, worked up the seedbed on top of the row and then planted.  This year it is so much easier.  I actually had time to get ready to plant my Waltham Broccoli seedlings.  I used a string to mark a straight line and used a rake to move the wood chips away from the soil.
 

I planted the broccoli seedlings and watered them in.

Tomorrow night I have church, but my plans are to plant the rest of my broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seedlings Thursday and Friday and then plant carrots and all of my other winter crop items starting on Saturday.  I'm a little late this year, but we'll see how things go.  It feels good to work in the garden.  The weather is nicer, with temps in the 70's.  We'll keep you posted on this new gardening method, telling you the victories as well as defeats.  Wouldn't it be nice if this method truly was easier and better?