I have been studying up for the past couple of hours. Some of what I'm studying is a refresher course, and some of it feels brand new. After flipping through the Maritime Gardener guide put out by Seattle Tilth, and thumbing my organic gardening book, and reading the information on the seed packets, and drawing up charts of what I want to plant and what month it should be planted in....I'm overwhelmed. There is so much information to be had!
This is a far cry from digging up the soil, throwing in seeds, and watching them grow.
I'm currently studying about:
- compost and composting methods
- fertilizers
- lawn care (the back yard will remain a lawn, as we love to hang out there with friends and it's Tessa and Shep's play space)
- crop rotation
- cover crops
- irrigation (how ARE we going to water the whole front yard?)
I'm trying to do mostly heirloom, all organic gardening. I prefer perrenials to annuals because in this case I'm cheap and lazy. I want vibrant color (uh oh annuals are good for that) in my flowers, I want interesting textures, I want them to be low maintainance, I'd like native plants, drought resistant.....
I have a lot to learn.
I also have to figure out how to build the path through our new garden beds. Gravel? I'd love slate, but it's too expensive. Any suggestions for inexpensive (free would be good) pathways?
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One way to go with paths is to dig down to dirt. Put down a heavy layer of newspaper. Cover with mulch. It's pretty and it takes a really long time for weeds to get through all that. Good luck with your garden.
Anna Banana,I like your idea. I especially like it because if I change my mind about the location or shape of the path, I could easily mix the mulch in with the soil after a year or two and add a new topper. Thanks for the newspaper idea, as well, as I had forgotten about that. I read the newspaper online, so I'll ask my friends to start saving theirs for me! :-)
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