Planning

This year we decided to plan our garden  in a way to defeat 2 issues.

1.  Lack of pollinators

2. Issues with water retention in the soil.

Lack of Pollinators

Years 2003 and 2004 bees were plentiful throughout the yard.  A small plot was created in the garden about 5′ x 7′.   There was a nice honeysuckle and mulberry tree in the front yard.  Now since about 2006 bees have declined so much I can’t remember the last time one was found in the yard.  This year we decided to hire some bees.  We purchased 2 bee nucs.  Bee nucs are basically a young beehive on 5 frames.   We ordered and built our beehives and moved each nuc into each hive (one orange and one yellow).  We decided to start the foundation using a natural method we followed in a beekeeping 101 video. You just take about 2 inches of natural beeswax foundation and put it in the frame using melted beeswax to hold it. Each hive had its 5 frames they game with and 15 frames we prepared between two hive bodies.

Lack of water retention

We moved to going with raised beds. We created 24raised beds in the garden.  Each bed is 10″ high and the boxes are 8′ x 4′.    We laid fabric cloth down and filled each box with either pure horse manure or a mix of sand and horse manure.   We used pine wood on 24 of the beds.  We already had 1 additional box created from cedar wood and it was filled with Natural Miracle grow and our compost (composted rabbit manure, wood ash, and vegetable kitchen scraps).  We call the box cedar wood box “Nelly”.  We tested Nelly last fall and had fantastic results (extreme growth and great water retention).

All the beds were filled during the winter.  The had an average of about 3 months to set (avoiding ecoli and burning the plants/seeds).

Additional thoughts

Insect Maintenance

We decided to do companion planting to give diversity and attract a balance of beneficial and non-beneficial insects.  We usually use scraps of our handmade soap, water, and tobacco to make a insecticide spray.  We cannot use the spray because it could harm the bees.  The companion gardening was a plan to allow nature take its course.   Eventually the idea is the soil will develop to give the plants a strong start.  The non-beneficial insects may eat off the plants but they should sustain until the beneficial insects come to eat the non-beneficial insects.

Soil Building

We purchased 4000 red wiggler worms to breed and raise to assist in building soil.  As worms move through the soil, they leave a secretion that assists in helping the soil retain water.  Also, worms improve the soil by lessening compression and their feces are good fertilizer for the plants.

Expected results from planning

Soil – We knew that the first year our results will be unpredictable because the soil is new and barely composted.  We do expect the soil will retain water

Insects – We have no idea if companion planting will work

Worms – We had them in a plastic bin. We followed instructions found on Youtube and gardengirl.  We expected good potting soil from our first bin and use the extra population per month to add to the raised beds.

Gardens_2011

Results

We planted over30 different types plants throughout the beds mid March.  OMG it was awlful.

Worms Are Gone

We found our worms were gone during the beginning of spring.  We had checked them periodically and one day they were gone.  No dead bodies or nothing. Instead we found there was a ton of Ants and a few baby red wigglers.   The soil was gorgeous but we lost our wigglers.  We do not know what happened.  It was still spring.

Many seeds did not germinate.  We think it was because the soil was to green and may have burned seeds.

Early May the garden looked very promising.   Seeds that we had dismissed as being gone sprouted.  We had the diversity of insects we expected in the garden.  Ladybugs thrived eating the bugs that were eating the young vegetable plants.

Mid June

Texas heat brought on death to majority of the garden.  The blazing sun destroyed the majority of the garden.  Tomatoes, okra, carrots, and cucumbers are the only thing that survive.  The squash had not quarrels with the sun but squash bugs ate them out of existence.  They almost killed off the cucumbers until one day the squash borers/bugs  declined.   I still see a few in with the cucumbers but they cucumbers are thriving.

We planted watermelon into 2 beds that nothing germinated in.  We added compost to the beds  and planted  2 types of watermelon.  The 2 watermelon beds are thriving.  One bed has a Bull Blood beet that decided to germinate in the bed suddenly.

July

There are 4 beds with tomatoes but only 2 beds have tomatoes that are flowering.  Carrots were planted too close together so they are not growing well.  This may be why 2 beds of tomatoes are not flowering.    We have bell pepper plants that are surviving the heat but they are not flowering as well.  The bell peppers are located Nelly (bed made up of finished compost and Natural Miracle Grow soil).   Everything else in Nelly has perished (including some tomato plants).  We water daily through the Texas Drought to keep the soil composting.

The bees are fine.  We found that they had trouble with our foundation we installed.  They took the foundation out and drew their comb.  The frames are taking a long time to build.  We hope they’ll have areas of storage for the winter soon.   We are now planning for a fall crop to help fill our empty freezer and help the bees prepare for winter.

Well we are now working to prepare the beds for the Fall planting in Mid August.

Notes:

1.  We had the dirt exposed ….we will work to put some ground covering over the exposed soil.  We’ll use free mulch or leaves.

2.  We will not be using any soil that there is a chance it will still be green.

3.  We will be careful not to crowd the plants.  Carrots are too crowded and cannot grow.

4. We’ll try a different method of raising worms.  We may try raising in the rabbit barn and lay ground oatmeal or grits around the box to defend against ants (the natural feed will explode in their bodies when it meets with the ants digestive system).