Saturday, May 26, 2012

Mind the weeds... I'm just learning!


If you have 'liked' our page on Facebook, you  may have seen some photos from Garden no.2.

There are lots of 'weeds', and we're not really bothering maintaining them.
Why? Partially due to limited time, but also because we're new!
We are new to gardening and this is our first backyard so we know nothing about these weeds - do they have pretty flowers? do they attract beneficial insects? do they detract pests?

We would never find out any of these things if we just pulled everything out!

Although I don't think this is going to be a highly productive method of vegetable growing, I do think we will learn a lot- and isn't that the goal with experiments?

We observe how they are interacting with the plants that I want to grow - if they do not seem to cause any problems we will leave them alone.

When it is obvious that a plant it interfering with something that we are trying to grow, we will pull it out or move it elsewhere in the garden.

We will be sure to share any interesting findings!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Garden 2: Pallet Compost Bay

Today was the day...

 In Garden no. 2 of the Experiment 2012, there was a little black composter which was far to small (and already full!). A few pallets from our recent shipment, some long nails and a couple extra pieces of wood was all that it took.


In this experiment we expect to learn more about composting! Will we need to put up chicken wire to keep the squirrels out? I'm sure we will find out soon...

With this composter we are going to add and turn the compost as we go. We will mix in leaves, wood ash and kitchen waste.

As the pile grows we will build up the side with planks of wood one by one. Now on to the rest of the garden..............