Part of my dream has come true. I have a small house on an acre. I grow many of the vegetables I eat, have chickens for eggs, some of the food I don't or can't grow, yet, I try to buy locally. I make many of the things I need, cook from scratch, and bake. But there are more things I want to try, cheese, yogurt - again, meat chickens and maybe a goat...and definitely more fruit.
In the backyard I have fruit and nut trees but I would like to increase the amount of fruit I grow by adding berries. I never thought about berries but I as I get to know people in my neighbourhood and speak to other gardeners it seems that berries grow very well here. Just a month ago I won two blueberry bushes because of my participation in the Powell River 50mile food challenge, to these blueberry bushes I plan on adding raspberries and strawberries.
But I don't have a garden bed for them so this past weekend, with a little bit of nice weather, my husband and I started the berry patch.
We put down some cardboard to kill the grass and weeds, then topped it off with yard cuttings, leaves and the soil from my flower baskets, then we ran out of nice weather. The weather man tells us that Tuesday and Wednesday will be sunny....fingers crossed.
We will extend the bed to run the length of the veggie garden and add some of our compost, more leaves and some seaweed. Then we leave it, next spring, we will add some more manure or compost, whatever we can get our hands on, then till the bed. Find someone with whom I can barter or trade some berry plants, but will buy some if needed. But it's so much more fun to trade. And hopefully the following year we will have berries. Not sure if it will work but that's the plan...
Has anyone tried putting this type of garden bed together? It's not quite a lasagna bed but it's somewhat similar. If anyone has suggestions to pass along I would love to hear them.
Now a less lofty dream...socks and sandals, I always wanted to wear socks and sandals, and look, I'm living the dream, here in Powell River.
5 comments:
Wonderful that you are living your dream. Oh how I love Powell River through your eyes. We grow raspberries and strawberries along with apples. Gotta love that fruit.
I love your socks and sandals.
We would grow more things,but we live in the shade of ceder trees so we don't have enough sunshine.
We don't get kids here. We live in a senior mobile home park out of town so unless someone has grand kids visiting no one comes.
~~Hugs~~
Congratulations on those berry bushes!! What you're doing looks pretty similar to the way we built one of our beds: basically cardboard on the bottom and whatever you can find on top. Let it rot and there you go. For berries, you can add some pine needles or fir boughs for acidity, too.
We had our first year with the blueberries and the rhubarb the telling will be in the spring.We lived on a farm where berries were uncultivated.No mulching or composting so I'm hoping the berries will not need too much tending to.Did you make the socks??
You are living the dream for sure. I never dreamed that I would find a place as nice as Powell River, but I found it just the same. I can't imagine living anywhere else. My grandmother grew boysenberries. I loved eating them off the vine or in lots of baked items. I love our blackberries, but the boysenberries were so big and juicy! I'd love to try a blueberry bush, but our cliff area is too rocky. I did have thoughts though of maybe trying one in John's back bay. I am sure he wouldn't mind. It's nice and moist on that side. - Margy
Post a Comment