Preparing Our Vegetable Garden for Winter

 

BMB Stronghold, 75% Scrap Materials approx. 30' x 12'

    Closing out it's 6th year, this backyard plot started as the usual city-parcel mat of grass and has only been cultivated with simple hand tools and consistent amendments with mulches, composts and mycological fertilizers.  Redesigning it's shape almost annually, we've managed to maximize the use of identifiable growing space in a compact area and also our ease of movement between it.  Subsequently, we've found a suitable enough microclimate to raise storage crops and even a few seed crops as well.  We were also able to limit our infrastructure expenses by using salvaged wood, pipe, stone & planters which left a minimal cost for fencing, posts & a few cinder blocks.  

    Three central rows were lightly turned before punching our garlic in for next year and then covered with the remaining compost & ash fertilizer we raised back in spring.  By time all that comes out, they will be ready for summer greens & herbs and at least one round of hopeful fall carrots before clearing out for garlic again.  The PVC pipe pieces play like permanent pots (unintentional tongue twister) to allow for edible ground covers like purslane, watercress, sorrel, plantain & dandelion to develop amid dedicated spacing for our cultivated crops.  We used the bordering fence as a trellis for many years but our reorganized structures account for so much other vertical growing space that it will be much better suited to cycle thru shorter crops like peppers, peas, leeks and greens.

    In the foreground are 2 fenced screens easily mistakable for a cold-frame, when it is actually an outdoor playpen for the family painted turtle, Bob.  We bring Them out to romp with longer tasks on the chore-list and try to spot any bug-hunting efforts, but most of the time They just bask.  Many lessons to learn from Bob.

    Our cause to abandon the bordering fence as a trellis came with the reinforcement & posting-up of these old greenhouse table-tops along with the northern fence one bed over to create 3 distinct spaces that can better control some of the more indeterminate crops we hope to store for winter like cucumbers, snap beans & tomatoes.  The pallet boxes have a bit rockier soil than the rest, but have been a great place for our herbs and we will likely try raising a fair number of leeks alongside them (maybe even also in the white potted beds).

    We have been chided for our use of leaf mulch as a winter pathway smothering agent, but we believe that sourcing leaves from within the garden's reach can not only help insulate our soil for the health of microbes & worms but also restore nutrients back to our trees.  When thaw comes in March, we'll likely rake it all back to the garden's outer borders so birds & other neighborhood predators can help clear pests away and the soil can harden off to start watching for ground covers to pop up.

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    As the moon approaches it's waning apex, we plan to cleanse our garden with a Smoke Bath Ceremony and consecrate with Huergelmisuatn crafted from this very site.

    Fara Fram, Knatta Thin Theinn Uell.

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