We decided this year to connect the main garden to the annex. We're calling it 'the appendage'! The extra garden area is going to be handy for a few reasons. I would really like to start growing a little grain, oats and barley namely, for the rabbits. Growing shoots in sunny winter windows that the rabbits really enjoyed made me think that it might be a good idea to grow some in the summer and dry it for winter feeding. Another reason for expanding is that part of the main garden needs to go fallow for at least a year, it doesn't produce well and it hasn't been built up with compost as much as the rest of the garden because I tend to run out of compost by the time I get to that part. I thought I would build it up as much as I could with bunny balls and compost and let it ferment over the winter. If I'm going to be losing part of the main garden, it'd be nice to have an extra area to make up for it. Don, of course, loves when any kind of extension is done, be it making the chicken area bigger or extending the garden. Anything that means less mowing is fine in Don's books. I don't blame him, even with a riding mower, an acre of lawn is quite a bit to mow.
The simplest way that I know of to connect the two is to make a lasagna garden. There's lots and lots of different ways to put together a lasagna garden. I have learnt there are few hard and fast rules. Everyone has their own method and ideas. I have never made the same lasagna garden twice, every one is made with whatever I have on hand. This one was put together with less layers than usual so we'll see how it does.
The first layer is newspaper that I roll up and put in a bin. Then I fill the bin with water. Apparently there is something in newspaper that kills the grass. I have found rolling up the newspaper makes it a lot easier to manage when it's wet, just take the edge and let it roll out and lay it down on the grass. The thickness of the newspaper is usually anywhere between three to six layers. I usually just use what ever the thickness of the paper is, no adding or taking away, just open up the paper, roll it and get on with my life. I don't sweat the petty stuff (and I don't pet the sweaty stuff). Newspaper seems to be the preferred medium but cardboard can also be used. I knew a couple that ran out of cardboard and newspaper but they had some old plywood hanging around. They drilled holes in that and laid it down. Seems to have worked fine. The first hard and fast rule is the first layer must be something that will prohibit the grass growing up through the lasagna garden as long as it's not plastic.
So I've laid out my newspaper and now I put on my second layer. The second layer is usually the stuff that will take the longest to break down so I used the 'mucking outs' (new homesteading word :)) of the chicken coop and the brooder. It's wood shavings and chicken dropping. This layer is generally the smelliest as well. I made the layer about 4 inches thick because that all the wood shavings I had. The thickness of my layers is directly dependant on how much I have. You'll notice that the shape is rather odd looking. That's because I didn't soak enough newspaper and ran out. By the time I soaked more paper, the ground and the paper laid out would be drying out would be a no-no. That's the second and last hard and fast rule, everything should be wet. So I decided that I'd do what I could for the time being. I knew I wouldn't complete the whole garden in one day anyhow. It's very rare I have 4 - 5 hours uninterrupted to do anything, except sleep and sometimes even that isn't a given. I'd get back to laying newspaper the next time I worked on it.
The next day, I soaked everything, laid down the rest of the newspaper and chicken shavings (that just sounds weird, like chickens know how to use razors and they need to) and put on the third layer. It's a mix of rabbit manure and dead leaves from last year. I mixed them together because I didn't have enough of the rabbit manure ( dang those worms, they eat it all). This layer is about 5 - 6 inches. It will break down fast and it doesn't need to be as composted as the higher layers.
With the next layer, it's beginning to look like a real garden. This layer is semi-composted compost. It's been sitting around since last December and only started breaking down with this spring's warmth. Even so, it's pretty decomposed but I will find the occasional eggshell, apple core or corn cob that is well aged but not quite disintegrated. No matter, it'll finish 'aging' here. Generally speaking, I like this layer to be the thickest as I consider it the one that will do most of the support care of the garden for that crucial first year. It's always as thick as I can get it. After each layer, I'll water it down. The wetter everything is the better. While the garden is moisturizing, I'll start hauling in the next layer by wheelbarrow. There's a lot of back and forth when making a lasagna garden from scratch with your own stuff from your own place. That is because the materials needed are scattered all over the place. A little in the coop, a bit in the compost heap, a smidgen by the trees... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be organized but where's the fun in that? You'll notice there's a green patch that really shouldn't be there. I've left it because that's where the unexpected sunflowers started growing. I can always lasagna-patch that next spring.
The fifth and final layer! This layer is well aged compost mixed with worm castings and a little good earth. I like this layer to be as thick as possible, too. It's about 4 inches deep, a little on the thin side, but it should be OK because I will be planting in mounds and not digging down to make rows. I don't plant root veggies the first year in a lasagna garden. I like everything to break down before things start growing in it. So now the garden is good to go.
Usually my lasagna gardens have a layer of fresh cut grass but I didn't have any. I usually recruit one of the kids to follow their dad around as he mows the grass collecting the cuttings but they are up to their eyeballs in the end of term exams. When Don was cutting the grass, I was busy mucking out the chicken coop so no grass was collected. I thinks that's why I like this method of garden making the best, it's basically made up as I go. There is lots of room to improvise and usually everything works out fine.
Um, yes that is a tire in the foreground. It's a little experiment I'm doing. More on that once I know for sure if it worked or not.
Last April I concocted a pretty sad looking cold frame just to see if it would work. It actually produced a bunch of tomato plants! Which is surprising because the design left a lot to be desired. There was way too much air circulation and things would dry out and I wasn't very good at remembering to water it. On top of that, the weeds also grew like, well weeds, and I wanted to wait before pulling anything so I didn't inadvertently pull tomato plants. So I'm figuring I had a lot more success than I had any right to. I am definitely going to do this again. In fact, I'm hoping to recruit teenage son, P, a pretty decent carpenter, to build me four nice, working, practical, cold frames this summer.
The tomatoes seemed to grow in clumps. At first, I thought I'd just leave them there to grow. Then I figured there wasn't enough room really, I had about 15 - 20 plants so I decided to transplant a few. It was difficult to separate the clumpy tomatoes' intertwining roots so I'm going to have to figure out if I will be able to remedy that. I'm thinking no, if I'm throwing the tomato waste in there in the fall, I don't see how I can avoid clumping. I smoothed and evened out everything as much as possible but I guess tomatoes like to grow together. Once I separated them, I planted them in the new garden I made. They are doing quite well there.
