Ah, the new moon on June 02 2011. I have been waiting for weeks for it to hit so I can complete my planting for my lasagna gardening and farming. I have spent the last few weeks being profitable by planting a lasagna field (roughly ten feet by ten feet) in a sunny corner of my backyard.
The layering that I used was a cardboard box, some horse manure, some cuttings and dead leaves from my front lawn and the street for composty filling, some potting soil, another layer of manure and then some more soil. I am layering the top of the mulchy mess with both alfalfa straw (to build up the nitrates over the next six or so months) and straw hay (to keep the moisture in the soil as I water it).
I have acquired tomato plants, watermelon seeds, cantalope seeds, yams, and some other fine tenants who will provide nourishment and something to look at other than lawn in the back.
My planting will start tonight and I already am starting to get a small tomato on one of my plants. I am excited (what can I say, I excite easily with some things).
I will try and get some pictures up once I get everything into the ground and watered. The temperature has been hot but not hot enough to dry the land completely out and for that I have been grateful. My other garden is doing well. The spearmint I planted is doing well, the chocolate mint -not so much. My spinach and cauliflower are under attack from bugs and I think my strawberries are under both bug invasion at a possible gopher. For my gopher problems I need to put some meshy plastic or something like that under the earth and I forgot to do that over my new plantings. Ah well.
The strawberries, when I get to them before the critters, are pretty sweet and tasty.
The roses in the front of our yard are doing well as well as our trees wth the exception of the poor plum tree. The plum tree has been around for decades from what I understand (I met one of the guys in the neighborhood who remember planting it decades ago) and the few plums that are coming out are under assault my squirrels. The dogs wait patiently at the bottom of the tree having learnt the art of dog stalking. They sit like statues and wait for the squirrels to come down the tree or try to leap to the fence from a branch. A couple older ones have made it. A few babies ended up in Angels’ not-so-tender mercies and teeth.
The dogs have been pretty good about staying out of the garden after tons of yelling and chasing them away. They finally are getting the message. Prior to this Shiloh more than Angel would dig at the roots of the plants and veggies to try and get to them. Smart dogs.
I am in the midst of cleaning out the rest of my backyard from weeds and am trying to get a decent spot to put chickens. The self-sufficency seems to grow upon itself and compound. Er, I think that is a good thing or at least until I run out of energy completely.
If you also have any tax questions or issues please drop me a line or holler at me. Just cuz we are out of offical tax season doesn’t mean that you aren’t getting letters from the Fed or State or don’t have questions, right?
Stay happy and healthy gang!
Kim Isaac Greenblatt
June 02 New Moon Farming