A Garden

I'll start with a pretty photo of our zinnias, which are still going crazy! I haven't watered them in weeks. When writing this blog, I have to put my interesting photo first, so it will be featured. Does anyone know how to choose another photo to feature in a Blogspot blog? I should figure that out someday.

But the big news around the Pumpkin Patch Ranch is, we got our garden in! Sam started with 4 inch PVC pipe that's been laying around since we put in the electric and telephone wires over 10 years ago. We want to use and reuse what we have!

We're doing a modified version of a rain gutter garden, where water runs through the pipe and wicks up into the buckets. (If anyone is interested, we could send you the link; it's on YouTube.) We also drilled holes in the sides of the buckets, for aeration, and periodically tested the fit.

Next, we prepared the soil. I did most of the mixing, since Sam had to be at work, but Sam's our researcher and planner.

We're using our native PPR soil, and adding this really good potting soil and a couple of soil additives, including a local brand called Tank's.

We met a guy, Matt, with a lot of growing knowledge at Ace Hardware in Benson. He recommended a pH test, which meant I had to do some studying. I was never that great at science experiments in school!

The pH test showed that even with the additives, our soil is pretty alkaline, at 7.0 or 7.2 pH. We'll have to continue feeding it the good organic mulch-type stuff.

We lined the buckets with weed fabric and put the weed fabric around these little baskets that poke down through a hole in the bottom.

Then filled the bottom with a really wet mixture of the soil, to jump-start how the water wicks up into the bucket.

As I filled the buckets, I wet down each layer, and when they were full, I set the buckets into the PVC pipe, which is set into the ground on the sunny, south side of the house.

The next morning, we transplanted our baby seedlings that have been growing in our greenhouse! So far, the winter garden is collards and arugula. If these do well, more to come!

Have a great weekend, everyone!