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I realized this over the weekend. My neighbors have neatly tilled squares in their yards; little red-brown clay rows studded with dark green sprouts. No mulch and lots of space between every row.

Mine, on the other hand, wasn’t tilled. I started layering the lasangne steps right away last summer, by laying cardboard over the grass where I wanted to grow stuff. I have this strange mixture of lasangne, square-foot, permaculture, and moody gardening going on… no rows. I like the tomatoes to be side by side with an iris with an herb with a marigold. I like green beans tucked in between everything and peas and morning glories competing for climbing space. Over the cardboard went grass clippings, raked leaves, ash from the wood stove, and chicken shit (oops…trying not to say that word but goodness it fell in rhymically into the writing there…) poop. It cooked compost style all winter. Before I planted I put a layer of the NYTimes; old stocks and beautiful models becoming worm food in short order. I poured top soil over all that and punched holes where the plants needed to go. Then, I took straw and nested it all around; this keeps the water in and the weeds down.  Nice and pretty low maintenence; the actual planting was done in two afternoons and now every evening I just go out to water it.

In a few weeks I’ll add stakes for the tomatoes, the blackberries, and the cucumbers.

I decided to line the edge of the sidewalk with garden. This way, I can use it for “edible landscaping”. It’s also very much more in keeping with a passion of mine: suburban homesteading. I have a city sized lot out here in the country…there’s no real reason to have a squared off “farm plot” in my yard, a miniture version of a pasture. Especially in light of the Food Stamp Challenge, I think it ultimately makes sense to continue to work and discover how much food can be produced in the suburban and urban garden scenarios because they are a wonderful resource for a higher quality food while still saving money.

So we’ll see how it goes this year. The last two gardens I had were left right before harvest due to summer moves so I’m not sure what the yeild was for the amount of planting I did.  I kept is small this year too; my original goal was to add two goats,  25 meat and egg chickens, and another raised garden bed. The neighbor situation has led us to beleive we’ll try to sell next spring and so most of my “home energy” will go to finishing projects up rather than starting new ones.

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For those interested in tidal homeschooling, I have a new post up on the blog I keep for the record. And I revamped my 365 blog as well and it’s back in business, somewhat adjusted to allow for imperfection ;-).

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