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from Natural Life magazine, May/June,
2009 I started with sand and gravel. As the last of the glaciers retreated from Georgian Bay, they left, what is now, the predominant soil structure around the area of Midland, Ontario. Theoretically, my garden zone is somewhere between four and five, but my particular acre of land, in a valley of sorts, surrounded on three sides by majestic white pine and facing in a southerly direction, often acts like a zone three. The garden is protected from wind and sudden frost and often receives twice as much rain as my not-too-distant neighbors. That’s most years; some years, I lose all sight of what is really going on here! I have gardened here for the past eight years. What once was an open acre of land has filled in with a small barn and goat yard, a sixty- by fifty-foot vegetable and flower patch and an eight-tree apple orchard. The first year, I planted squash and garlic and started an asparagus patch. The next two years, I added potatoes, which loved the sandy soil. My planting style is: “Plant as intensely as possible, worry about how to get in to harvest later.” The first soil amendments were composted chicken manure mixed with shavings, straw (as my mulch decomposed) and organic seaweed powder. Each year, there was less lawn and more local food! My foray into raised beds happened out of necessity. I wished to plant herbs closer to the kitchen door, but the area that I wished to plant could not be tilled or dug into, as it was too close to the septic bed. I had read about “lasagna gardening,” so after the beds were constructed out of hemlock boards and positioned on the lawn, we layered cardboard, leaf mulch, chicken manure and topsoil mixed with compost and peat. The beds are now spectacular with herbs and perennials. Each year, I add a bit of composted goat manure and mulch heavily with straw. These particular boxes are edged by grass, which is, in hindsight, lovely to look at in the late afternoon light but difficult to maintain. As I try to reduce my use of the lawnmower and trimmer, I find the grass an ecological strain. Learning from my trials and errors as the years have flown by, the plants themselves have been my most valuable guides to what works and what doesn’t. Two years ago, I faced my growing dilemma of where to find the time needed for all this gardening. Somewhere around the end of July, I would become tired of every spare hour being spent in the garden, as it left so little time for book reading or visiting or just plain sitting down to rest; and the weeds would win the battle of “Whose garden is it anyway?” I’d like to be okay with the weeds but, really, I love a very tidy garden. Even eating the weeds and making tinctures out of them on the full moon did not make much of a dent in my dilemma. Over the years, the soil has turned from sand to dark, nutrient rich, compost. It has benefitted from amendments and plant rotation. However, the constant rototilling also intensified the weed problem. Research into Permaculture gardening had expanded my vision for no-till methods. Wishing to preserve the soil ecology that I had so painstakingly developed, and in deference to the many earthworms and soil bacteria that now teemed under the surface of the soil, I decided on converting the entire garden to raised beds! This time, we could not afford the hemlock. We bought ... To read the rest of this article, subscribe to Natural Life's digital edition, which includes access to this and other back issues. Monika Carless, a former unschooling mom, works as a freelance writer and nutritionist. She is dedicated to promoting sustainable living practices. An animal and plant communicator, she is currently writing a book on the subject of plant consciousness, debating the issue of vegetarianism as it relates to spirituality and what the plants have to say about the food chain. Contact her via her website www.wholeearthspirit.com. |
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