Making some changes
The past week has been a time of reorganisation and consolidation in my kitchen garden. When I first started, I had a few herbs that I either bought, or was given by relatives. I put these into the ground wherever I had a space to fill. There was no real planning or preparation. As I got more herbs and vegetables, I realised this wasn't going to work.
There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, there were some plants I wanted to put in particular spots, and some I wanted to group together. My earlier plantings prevented this because there was something else already there.
Secondly, I realised that I have a very heavy clay soil, and the herbs that I had planted were growing very slowly, if at all. I needed to add some compost to try and break the soil up a bit, and also to provide more nourishment for my plants.
So the past week has seen me dig up most of my herbs and transplant them into pots. I then dug up the garden bed down to a foot deep, turning over the soil and adding two bags of organic compost. In the process I discovered a lot of 'rubbish' in my garden - large rocks, broken bricks, broken glass, bits of cement sheet, chicken bones, and roots of old plants. All this was pulled out, and some Blood and Bone, and Dynamic Lifter pellets mixed in with the soil and compost.
A couple of days later I was ready to start planting again, and this time put a bit more thought into where I would locate everything. My garden bed is up against a wall, and the first thing I did was to put in a trellis for some tomatoes. I had seen a lot of interesting varieties of tomatoes in the nursery, and wanted to put in one of each, so I now have about three metres of trellis with six varieties of tomatoes spread out along its length.
The rest of my herbs were then planted around the base of the tomotoes, starting with the oreganos down one end (four varieties), then some marjoram, thyme (four varieties), and parsley. I still have some coriander in a pot, which I may put in another section of the garden, along with the basil and mint which I didn't dig up at all. They were doing fine where they were, so I decided it was best to leave them.
While doing all this work, I also put in some galvanised steel garden edging to stop the water running off onto the garden path. This also enabled me to build up the garden beds a little.
Each of my plants is still very young, but the garden already looks a lot better with the new arrangement. Once the plants are established in their new location, and are ready to start picking, I will write more about each one. For now, it's a matter of waiting, watching and watering as they grow.
There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, there were some plants I wanted to put in particular spots, and some I wanted to group together. My earlier plantings prevented this because there was something else already there.
Secondly, I realised that I have a very heavy clay soil, and the herbs that I had planted were growing very slowly, if at all. I needed to add some compost to try and break the soil up a bit, and also to provide more nourishment for my plants.
So the past week has seen me dig up most of my herbs and transplant them into pots. I then dug up the garden bed down to a foot deep, turning over the soil and adding two bags of organic compost. In the process I discovered a lot of 'rubbish' in my garden - large rocks, broken bricks, broken glass, bits of cement sheet, chicken bones, and roots of old plants. All this was pulled out, and some Blood and Bone, and Dynamic Lifter pellets mixed in with the soil and compost.
A couple of days later I was ready to start planting again, and this time put a bit more thought into where I would locate everything. My garden bed is up against a wall, and the first thing I did was to put in a trellis for some tomatoes. I had seen a lot of interesting varieties of tomatoes in the nursery, and wanted to put in one of each, so I now have about three metres of trellis with six varieties of tomatoes spread out along its length.
The rest of my herbs were then planted around the base of the tomotoes, starting with the oreganos down one end (four varieties), then some marjoram, thyme (four varieties), and parsley. I still have some coriander in a pot, which I may put in another section of the garden, along with the basil and mint which I didn't dig up at all. They were doing fine where they were, so I decided it was best to leave them.
While doing all this work, I also put in some galvanised steel garden edging to stop the water running off onto the garden path. This also enabled me to build up the garden beds a little.
Each of my plants is still very young, but the garden already looks a lot better with the new arrangement. Once the plants are established in their new location, and are ready to start picking, I will write more about each one. For now, it's a matter of waiting, watching and watering as they grow.
posted by mproeger at
6:31 am
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