Putting in the Plants (June 3rd)

Due to the fact that I have seen very little success with my own seeds germinating and the fact that it is already June 3rd I have decided to go out and purchase the plants for the garden this time round as for the fall I hopefully will get a good enough start to grow all of my plants from seed.  

Today, June Third, I met with Uriel again and we went out and bought all of the plants needed for this project.  Here is the exceprt from my Journal (whith added pictures) of our adventures in gardening today.

"June 3, 2009

         We (myself and Uriel Rohas) began installaton of the garden today.  I went to the garden supply srore and purchased two flats of white allysum for the boarer and another two flats of marigolds.  We also got five tomatoe heirlooms, a lot of pepper plants (both ornamental and regular bell peppers) arugula, swiss chard.

Along with this I bought a trellace and two soybean plants to grow up them.

We also have two squash plants etc.  While none of my seeds that I purchased made it big enough to be in the garden I learned that for the upcoming cool season I need to sow more seeds than I ever thought.  The fact that most of my seeds eventually germinated (~50%) lets me understand that I need to sow double what I plan to use.  Furthermore the flats that I used to grow my seedlings are too small and I need to have larger flats to make a sturdier plant for growing in order to transplant them into the garden.   Currently to go aong with the backyard garden produce I have a watermelon plant growing on my balcony,  a few morning glories just sprouted, there s a peach tree, and as said I have a blueberry bush (although it is not producing this season).  The garden took most of the day to install during which I got to intimately meet Urial Rojas (our gardener who is also a professional Charros man) We went to his family restraunt Talpas on pico and sawtell and he ordered me the house special.  We sat, talked, drank, and got to know each other and then we went home to work.  On the ride back he played me some of his favorite mariachi music and I was indulged in the truly spectacular world of mexico. "

I will try and compile a slideshow of the days events as there are many many pictures.

Creating the Raised Beds (From May 20th)

So as I slowly catch up on my blog here is what happened May 20th

In order to create raised vegetable garden beds topsoil and compost must be added to at least one foot high in order to generate enough room for deep rooted vegetable crops, such as tomatoes, to grow.  Most vegetable crops collect around 90% of their nutrient uptake from the first one foot of soil and therefore for a first year no dig garden at least one foot of soil must be added.

In order to get all of the soil nessesary for this sort of project I called around to many local, wholesale topsoil distributors.  Most of these companies would delivery all of the soil we needed (about a large truckloads worth) for roughly a few hundred dollars.  While this is a great deal for all of the soil needed, due to circumstances (living in beverly hills needs a permit to allow these trucks to operate, which is another few hundred dollars) I was not able to purchase al of this soil at the wholesale price.  Instead I had to opt for purchasing bags of organic topsoil and compost from the local garden centers.  

I knew I needed a lot of soil and I estimated (with the help of my friend Uriel, who is also our gardener) the project would need 20 bags of topsoil for ~$7.00 a bag.  So on the morning of May 20th me and Uriel purchased these bags and brought them to my house to begin creating the raised beds.  

Also on this day (prior to making the raised beds) me and Uriel layed down the permanent plastic borders.  To do this we used a shovel to make shallow ~6inch crevasses into he grass where the boarder was to go.  After creating these openings we cut the plastic flexible boarders down to the exact size needed and we began hammering them down into the grass.  After putting the boarder in we used stakes to secure it.  The boarder raised to about 6inches above the ground and has a few multiple uses I will describe.   (pics: Me and Uriel creating crevvass for boarder as well as putting in the boarder)

One use of the barder is for formality as it gives the garden a clean even look.  Another use for it is to help resist the grass lawn for perculating into the garden beds (helping to reduce weeds)  And finally, one important reason, is to hold those six inches of soil up, which is enough to grow flowers like the allysum, along the barder while supporting the integrity of the raised beds being one foot deep in the center.

One more bit of information that I forgot to mention earlier is the purpose of the newspaper.  Newspaper layed down over grass is important for a no-dig garden for many reasons.  One, it surpresses the underlying grass from growing into the garden (killing it in the meanwhile and reducing weeds).  Two, it encourages garden critters, worms, and microorganisms to live in the garden as it provides them with their ideal living conditions (cool, mosit, and dark).  Three, it acts as a support to pile topsoil on, where without the soil would fall into the grass crevasses and we would essentially need doulble the ammount (or at least a few inches more of toposil).  And finally, as already previousely mentioned it is very helpful in developing the soils depth and integrity as it attracts these microorganisms (worms etc) in from deep in the grass soil helping move nutrients up, break up the hard compacted clay, promoting natures own tilling process of the soil. 

Anyhow, after the boarder was put in place we began emptying bags of topsoil onto the garden beds smoothing them out with a rake as we went along.  After using all twenty bags we decided we needed to buy ten more in order to get the raised bed depth that we seeked.  By the days end we had all of the garden beds full with topsoil to about a foot deep in the centers and about six inches deep on the edges.  Here are a few pictures of the raised beds after we finished.

 

Laying down the Newspaper, Compost, and Border (May 14th)

In order to create a no-dig garden the first step is to lay down wet newspaper over the grass in the areas in which the garden will be.

Before doing this I wanted to research the newspapers I was using to make sure all of the ink used in printing the papers was of a vegetable (soy) based ink and not from petroleum as to not contaminate my garden. I called up the newspapers and they assured me all of their ink is of soy-based inks. So, I decided to proceed.

Danielle and I worked in the morning soaking newspaper and laying it down in between the drawn out border. This was relatively easy although one challenge was presented. Being in sunny southern California it was a very hot day and some of the newspapers would dry up before we were finished with the project and subsequently it would blow away. Trying to keep newspaper soaking wet on a very hot day was probably not the best idea.

Anyhow, after we layed down the wet newspaper we took a break for the day until the next day when we rented a truck and drove to the griffith compost facility to pick up a truckload of free compost. It should be noted, The next section of my blog is coming from my journal entry the day we went to Griffith Compost Center

"May 14th
In the morning I went to pick up a Budget rental truck/van in Santa Monica. After I picked up the truck I had to leave our Prius on the adjacent street. I went with Danielle and started the drive to the compost facility. Once we arrived at the Griffith compost facility we drove up to the compost pile and began shoveling this very partially decomposed highly manure-smelling compost. There were another two men grabbing compost at the time (for their veggie garden) and we talked to them for a while as we loaded around a half a truckload of this compost. During this visit we met the man in charge of the facility and he felt compelled to tell us that this compost was composted of sewage from the Los Angeles Zoo (agh ok…thanks for telling me)
After we left the facility we drove back to my crib and began unloading wheelbarrow loads of this compost and layering it down in a small layer over our newspaper. Once all of this was used I decided what I had imagined was not going to be suitable and we were going to have to order bags of organic topsoil as this free compost was too high in concentration (of nitrogen and other nutrients).  It would definitely burn plants put in the garden.

Nevertheless this was a great way to start the garden; when doing a no-dig newspaper style garden like this, one issue that arises is the uneven nutrient content the newspaper provides. Simply put, newspaper is basically all carbon (a nutrient which feeds not only the plants in a garden but also the microorganisms living in the soil). And the microorganisms, like humans, need a balanced diet (being equal parts nitrogen and carbon). Therefore without providing them with a supplement of nitrogen (as I did using the composted manure) the microorganisms would otherwise suck all of the available nitrogen out of the soil and subsequently there would be little to no nitrogen to be used by the plants for vegetative growth. In turn this would lead to a very poor garden growth. This is a very important aspect of all no-dig newspaper gardens!"



Putting the compost over the newspaper --------------------
Finished putting on thin layer of high nitrogen composted manure.

Begining the No-Dig Garden (From Early May)

When beginning to turn my design into reality, I first had to lay out the design and borders over the grass lawn to figure out the correct dimensions and make slight adjustments to the drawn design.

We did this by recycling unused chopsticks (from chinese food take out) and using them as markers in the ground. The chopsticks marked the essential corners, turns, center and edges to the garden. We placed these according to the design layout using a measuring tape.
When these were all in place we strung them together using some garden twine and voila, we (my mother and I), saw that the drawing I had imagined was taking shape here in our backyard!!! (although since neither I nor my mother are math gurus (while my brother actually is) this process took a lot longer than we anticipated due to minor miscalculations.
All and all it was a fun bonding moment between the two of us and we got to get some sun as well!!

Looking at my work ------------------------------->>> Profile Shot

HEAD ON -- Starting to look like my design