Building the New Herb Garden November 26, 2018 @goldenoakfarm
In the early spring of 2016 I decided to turn this lawn into something productive. I had my helper friend coming regularly and he would help.
I measured it up and drew a plan on graph paper. Then I put it into my online garden planner (https://www.growveg.com/ ) and printed that out (lower right corner).
On May 18th I went outside and laid it out. As with most things, it didn’t go as planned and there could not be a walkway on the south end as we had to get the mowers through (back center, corner).
There was going to be a LOT of sod removed. I absolutely would not till it into the soil as it was full of crabgrass roots. It had to be removed. So we rented a sod cutter and started work.
First I cleaned out the thyme bed. I’d planned the garden to incorporate as much of the thyme in the yard as I could. Because I could not put a walkway on the far side of it, I would put in 6” black plastic edging, to try to keep the crabgrass out.
The end of Day 1 I had the perimeter cleaned out, the thyme bed cleaned out and replanted with thyme from other areas, and had started laying the sod.
On days I had my helper friend we got a lot more done. Day 2 saw the garden nearly ½ cleaned out.
This is where we were laying the sod.
I worked by myself on Day 3 so much less done.
Day 4 and I obviously had help.
Day 5 and the end is in sight….I had again worked alone. The patch on the right was too poor for sod and would just be shaken out and discarded.
At the end of Day 6, another day alone, and just the poor stuff to tackle next.
We’d laid all the sod under the trees, then put the rest on the slope the snowplow tears up.
Day 7 and it’s done. I will till it just this one time and never again.
Tilling
You can see how poor the soil is. It has never had anything done to it, just mowed as lawn. I laid out the permanent beds. They measured 4’ x 16’. There was a perimeter walkway on 3 sides, 3’ wide and walkways 3’ wide between beds. A narrow 1’ walkway ran the length down the center. The edging had been put in along the south end.
Because I had decided so late in the year to make this garden, I had not done soil testing in the previous fall or ordered amendments for it in January. So I put down Azomite, as that’s what I had extra, and hoped for the best.
Because I decided to make this garden early enough in the spring, I was able to order seeds and start them in time. So I had plants for the garden.
Here it is all planted by June 7th.
I put up a hoophouse for the 6 ginger plants I’d grown.
Looking Northeast
Looking Northwest
Looking North
Looking West, the thyme bed and the dandelion bed
Because the soil was so poor, the plants so tiny, and the land sloped, I needed to get some sort of soil cover over as much as I could.
My helper and I chipped up as much branches and so forth as we could prune but it didn’t go very far. I had unprinted newsprint and put that down as a weed barrier. (It didn’t work very well, not thick enough).
Then we found a free source of wood chips just down the road. We managed to get the perimeter walkways done. Then we started on the upper part of the slope and did the interior walkways. Then we ran out of wood chips the end of June.
In July we got more chips, but not as much as we needed. So we put them down thinly.
The New Herb garden in the rain July 2016
In August we got more chips and made all the walkways about 6” deep. As you can see, some plants did well, and others did not.
September 2016
In late August, in an effort to improve the soil, I planted peas and oats as cover crop where plants had died or failed.
In October I found hay mulch and put it down as far as it went. The cover crop in the upper part of the photo is doing well.
So that’s how the New Herb garden was created and what I put into it for amendments and soil conditioning the first year.
Oh my goodness!
If only I had that much space for my herbs and flowers! I would be in my GLORY!
quite a transformation. looks very nice!
Thanks! That was 2 years ago. This was this year:
looks like a beautiful quilt!
You know, you are right! Never thought of it like that....
Hi goldenoakfarm,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thanks! I am glad it was liked that much!
I have never realized how much work it is to create a garden (be it vegetables or herbs). We always had gardens and I somehow didn't think that somebody before my parents had to create them :)
I like to see your progress and it was a great idea from you to take photos from different periods. I usually forget to document what I'm doing and then regret it :)
It looks quite big and I saw a photo in comments which shows your amazing harvest. Do you consume all of these herbs or do you also use them somehow differently?
Your work is very inspirational and shows that you can do miracles with a piece of land.
Thank you for sharing!
What a great project you have @goldenoakfarm. In my country, it seldom have a piece of lawn in front of our house. Every piece of land in my country used for development.
I love how you planned your project start with the land, then slowly put in the seeds. Did you make some research on this project of yours? Because as what I understand, different herbs require different amount of water and sun light. When I saw the progress of yours, I could feel the satisfaction and accomplishment in it. And you make me to have an urge to plant something myself even in a small pot.:p Maybe I should do it..
Is this your hobby ? You have turned how many lawn into herbs land so far?
I didn't do a lot of research as most of the herbs had been grown here before, decades earlier. Basically, it was sink or swim, they survived/thrived or not.
My sister planted the original herb garden in 1992. She did do some research on what would do better where. But over half died in the following years. I just cared for what survived.
This herb garden was the first I've done from scratch.
Do you make use of the herbs? Chinese like to use herb as a natural medicine or supplement. Although the result not as fast as the western medicine. But we do love to use them because it has no side effects. But of course, we still use western medicine for some serious cases. My mom love to read about herbs and collect them as much as possible, or plant them in a pot.
This was a successful herb garden @goldenoakfarm. I do believe whenever you did with love, the plant could feel it.
The garden was started to provide supplement for the laying hens in the winter. I also use some of it for us, both culinary and medicinally.
Oh wow.. i didn't know there were herbs have that functions. But you need to keep the hens comfy warmth and lights as well.. If not they will fall asleep:P.
We do use lights so they will lay all winter, but the light is on a timer. They get to sleep 10 hours.
We do have heat lamps but they are more to keep the water unfrozen than to provide heat for hens.
Happy to learn that :) Hope able to see more of your project @goldenoakfarm :)
Wow, that is a great diary, I like the whole idea, when looking at your garden in first place and seeing such big area that is just asking to be used for something and if you are a person who has no problem with hard working then you can create many nice things like herbal garden with your our hands. I like that you kept the diary and pictures, it is so satisfying to see the result of your work and to know that you will have all natural and healthy stuff from your own garden. Really a great respect for your hard work, beautiful result :)
Thank you! I mostly keep records and notes and photos due to memory issues from chronic Lyme disease. But it means I can share my "memory" with you all. :)) The better I am at documenting events, the more memory I will have.
WOW, you are so lucky to have so much space for growing vegetables. Amazing work and wonderful to see all the single steps. I am such a huge fan of Ginger and never had at all the idea to grow it myself. WOW, I have to read more about this option.
Thank you so much for this inspiration!!!!
I've done a few posts on how I grew the ginger over the last couple years:
https://steemit.com/growingginger/@goldenoakfarm/growing-a-little-spice-in-your-life
https://steemit.com/gardening/@goldenoakfarm/growing-and-processing-ginger-in-2017-and-2018
Oh my, seemed I never saw your posts about ginger before ... wow, thank you so much!!! Gonna check them out right away!!!
The vacant lawn already looked appealing to me because of its simplicity and tranquility. However after seeing the transformation plus your updated photo reply to @andre-ager below, that's wow! The garden actually added more life to the view with the variety of herbs in there.
I wonder if you would consider planting flowers along the sides. I think that will make it look livelier. 😊
Great job with your garden! 👍
Every garden I plant has "just flowers" in it. I would not plant along the sides because there is now a fence there to keep the skunk out. (It was digging up the transplants as fast as I planted them.) Having the wide mulch perimeter keeps the crabgrass at bay.
This year the flowers were zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, heliotrope, stocks, and balsam. And of course, the herbs' flowers too.
I can imagine the zinnias with different colors, plus the other flowers too. I just love the colorful sight. Add to that the scent and calmness the plants and the herbs bring. Wow! 😊
Yes, it was pretty cool this year!
Wow, that is huge, and a ton of work! What a fantastic job you have done with it, I envy the harvest you will receive from it.
We have very poor soil, mostly clay, and the poplar tree roots from surrounding trees travel everywhere throughout the grounds. I have converted over to mostly garden beds, but even those are a ton of work.
Yup gardening is work, and growing a year's amount of food is not an easy task. But it is sooo worth it. I no longer use a wheelchair....
The soil where the herb garden went in was pretty poor also. But I am working to improve it, year by year.
You are definitely right, it is so worth it, especially in regards to our health.
My Mum always taught me, “hard work never kills you”, lol, something I live by today.