SelfSufficiant Gardenventure in eastern Germany

[Lunai]

Good day everyone!

I'm in the middle of my childs adaption phase for the nursery. I've spent the last week 1 hour at the garden, because that's the closes thing close to the facility... and what to do else with only 1 hour everyday... I've spent the whole week clearing the space on one side of our pond. Taking away fieldstones and gravel. And finally today I was able to dig in (always digging ) the walls for the planned to be fundament for our new bridge. There where several obstacles in form of an old half rotten treestump, some misplaced pavement (really like an obstacle course) and a trillion of Stones, sunken into the ground.

Obstacle 1: the treestump... you can see it on the righthand side just above the misplaced pavement.

... what treestump? after hacking away at it with my trusty spade for 10 min (sadly didn't have an axe) it turned out that it was indeed quite rotten. So much so, that with one deep thrust of the spade under the stump and a bit of a waggle ... I could just simply lift it away without any effort... talk about exercise there it is that little bugger (still 40x50x25cm)

Obstacle 2: The trillion fieldstones... seriously... just exhausting. They turned up everywhere. As I (thought I) had every Stone taken away and started to dig, they just kept on coming. Even 40cm down I could ocassionally (more regularly) hear the odd *cloink* as my spade hit another stone...

Obstacle 3: The misplaced pavement... don't know who had the glorious idea (sarkasm) to make a small pathway between main walkway and grassy area with steps in it... 10cm up, 10cm down... tripping hazard at it's best, and you can't even proper use it with a wheelborrow well it's gone now, replaced with something more even (at least no more steps). Small pathway to the right in the picture: Had to puzzle a bit (lot) to fit the stones in, and it's not so good to use wet sand to fill the gaps but... nothing for it.

As You can see there will be two levels. At the back in the middle (the bigger white ractangular) will be the new fundament where the bridge will sit on top. It will get cemented and paved, to look a bit nicer. from that there will be a step down. Haven't decided how big that step's gonna be and what shape it's gona have. To the left and right there will be some flower or herb beds, havn't decided that either, but I will definetly bury the treestump there somewhere on the left side is a plate missing (none left...) but we have plenty of (really big) stones left tosomehow fill the gap That was my work today and I feel quite satisfied with the results. Ah, and the bridge will span from the middle rectangular somewhere to about where the white umbrella stand is on the other side.

And because I'm from germany: Happy 1st Advent!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

It's well past my bedtime so I'm keeping it short, haha.

But looks awesome! And I'm glad the tree stump gave way so easily - they can be quite the hassle otherwise.
Love the looks of the layering. Just be wary that you might shade out the plants below, depending on which side the sun shines

 

[Lunai]

It's well past my bedtime so I'm keeping it short, haha.

But looks awesome! And I'm glad the tree stump gave way so easily - they can be quite the hassle otherwise.
Love the looks of the layering. Just be wary that you might shade out the plants below, depending on which side the sun shines

haha, it's my bedtime nowa t 10:20 p.m. (or as the europeans count: 22:20 o'clock)

yeah, before dicovering that I could take it out, I was thinking of just covering it with pavement, or putting it inside of the bed. But this surely is better now.

for the layering of the beds/steps: take the last pic: sun rises aproximately at the right bottom corner, rises ofer the left bottom corner at midday and sets somewhere around the left upper corner. meaning the higher area is standing always behind the lower area.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha, it may have been well past 1am for me last night. Feeling a bit sleepy today, not going to lie.

Sweet! I'm hoping to reclaim some garden from the weeds to grow. My issue is the weeds, especially the guinnea grass... the whole place is covered in weed seeds multiple times a year and I haven't found a way to win yet. Especially since neighbouring properties are just as badly covered, so even if I get rid of them here, they'll still find their way in.

Ahh sweet! Figured I'd leave the information with you before you filled them up

 

[DThille]

Well, I'm back and have just gotten caught up.

Blueberries like somewhat acidic soil, so using the cedar (thuja) with them is a good idea.

If one wants to know sun patterns, consider installing SunSurveyor Lite on your phone. It's free and can help you determine the solar path at different times of year (summer and winter solstice are good dates to pick).

We got our first snow of note on Nov. 10-11 and it's here to stay. That said, in spite of some cooler days, under the snow, the ground isn't frozen yet (I'll be adding to my insanity thread about how I know that). Where ground is exposed though, it is frozen. Later in the winter, we can get a frost line down 1.5-2 m deep in this part of the world.

There may have been other responses I wanted to make, but there was a bunch of catching up. Oh, of note, when using the Three Sisters, it is intended for storage vegetables - winter squash, dry beans, and dry (flint) corn. I saw something one time about a person who attempted to do it with zucchini (summer squash), sweet corn, and snap beans and kept trashing everything when he was attempting to harvest. Sometimes those details get lost.

I didn't get there, but this weekend was the return of Canada's oldest Christkindlmarkt here in Winnipeg. It started in 1985. The wreath went on the front door this morning (a day late, but better than a week).

 

[daveb]

Well, I'm back and have just gotten caught up.

Blueberries like somewhat acidic soil, so using the cedar (thuja) with them is a good idea.

If one wants to know sun patterns, consider installing SunSurveyor Lite on your phone. It's free and can help you determine the solar path at different times of year (summer and winter solstice are good dates to pick).

We got our first snow of note on Nov. 10-11 and it's here to stay. That said, in spite of some cooler days, under the snow, the ground isn't frozen yet (I'll be adding to my insanity thread about how I know that). Where ground is exposed though, it is frozen. Later in the winter, we can get a frost line down 1.5-2 m deep in this part of the world.

There may have been other responses I wanted to make, but there was a bunch of catching up. Oh, of note, when using the Three Sisters, it is intended for storage vegetables - winter squash, dry beans, and dry (flint) corn. I saw something one time about a person who attempted to do it with zucchini (summer squash), sweet corn, and snap beans and kept trashing everything when he was attempting to harvest. Sometimes those details get lost.

I didn't get there, but this weekend was the return of Canada's oldest Christkindlmarkt here in Winnipeg. It started in 1985. The wreath went on the front door this morning (a day late, but better than a week).

one side note on cedar if used as a mulch it decomposes very slowly just pay attention to the mulch occasionally aerate it on occasion is a suggestion i would make , or an alternative is in area i planted my blueberries i also chewed into soil a large number of pine needles with rototiller. And yes good point on the three sister its origins were based around - dry corn, a type of bean was like what we call scarlet runner today , and a hard shell winter squash or type of pumpkin that was more like the hubbard squash then a pumpkin as we know it today.

 

[Lunai]

Hello everyone
these few days I worked a bit more on the foundation of our new to come bridge. The other day my fiancé was working at a local school doing some messurements on the lightning rod system. While speaking with the janitor of that place he was told that if he wants, he (we) can have as much fallen leaves as we like, cause they have huge trees on the school ground and all their composters are already full to the brim. So we went and got 4 120l bags full of autumn leaves in the morning, and my fiancé wnt again after work and got me another 10 bags

As you can see I started the path leading up to the bridge. I also buried the treestump on the back left side with whole bag of leaves, on the back right side is also a whole bag of leaves buried.

Today I added a corner of the pavement and buried 2 more bags (one left, one right). And dare I might say: it's starting to look good

now i only need to fill up the top middle section with 2 to 4 wheelborrows full of gravel, a few shovels of sand and THEN I need some cement to fill out the last remaining cm on top to form a real solid fundament/base on which to put the coming bridge.
Also the ridge base on the other side needs to be set up. And I have currently no idea how I want that to look like...

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Love the update. Starting to really take shape
I bet even the fish will love the change of scenery.

Do be aware that when you fill a bed over the edge, it may spill out when watered or raining, wasting soil.

 

[Lunai]

Love the update. Starting to really take shape
I bet even the fish will love the change of scenery.

Do be aware that when you fill a bed over the edge, it may spill out when watered or raining, wasting soil.

there is a bag of leaves beneath, so I pretend that It wil sink a lot, even with me stomping them down. But I didn't stomp down the soil on top.
In addition to that, I need the soil out of the back middle section

 

[Lunai]

Look what happened overnight!
Had to bring my daughter by bike to the nursery...
That was at 8 a.m.

this was 2 h later

It's so early for snow SO unusual for our region to have snow so early in winter.Usually we only get snow in late January. Last year we had nothing till 23rd of Jan and on the 24th of Jan we woke up to 1m brand new snow. What a chaos on the streets that was...
Anyway... no gardenwork for me

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Snow

Haha, don't compact your soil too much.

 

[Lunai]

Quick Update

Here is a quick update on he Garden: the very first raised bed didn't do too well with the very low temperatueres of -10 °C we had recently, all cabbages died...

The Stone one did slightly better

The other cabbages on the ground are faring ok and the turnip cabbages are coping as well just the leaves got damaged and they cracked but otherwise totally fine.

The new platform for our bridge is looking fabulous and didn't take any frost damage. And as you can see now the weather is more on the grayish wet side and we almost have +10°C.

The blueberries are faring quite good from what I can see.

and our greenhouses can finally be opened again after the doors beeing frozen shut for 2 weeks...

and two final pics from the -10°C period.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh no! Poor cabbages... Glad some of the other beds fared better though.

Love the update, some parts really take shape now and look amazing. I bet once the frost goes, you'll have lots of things growing there.

Oof, even the greenhouse frozen shut... that'd be a bummer. Glad it opens again though. The plants look like they did quite alright thankfully.

Can't deny that the frost looks absolutely beautiful. Love how it "pillared" in all directions.

 

[DThille]

Time will tell on the blueberries...the native ones in North America are very very hardy. That said, if I had a concern, it would be about how close they are to the edge of the planter - the edge will get colder quicker than in the middle of the planter, so planting them farther from the edge may be a consideration if these ones don't make it.

+10 would be nice...almost tropical considering we got close to -30 a couple nights last week. At least the days are getting longer.

 

[Lunai]

Propagation Station Jan/23
This years will mostly be dedicated to get 19 Tomato varieties and 14 chili/pepers/habenero/Jalapeno sorted in our garden. Ther will be other veggies, however the emphasis will definetly be on those two. And because chili/pepers tend to be anual in our climate (7a) and some chili (especially the verry spicy ones) tend to be a bit fickle and mimosa (at least with me ) I already started that chili/pepers/habenero/Jalapeno familie now in early January. Because IF some of them fail in any way (no sprout/seedlings die etc) there is still enough time to start once or twice (or thrice) over, AND the headstart gives me around 1 1/2 months more time for the ripening proces and harvest. So instead of the first harvest in August (and the plant already dying in late Oktober), there is a chance that I get the first harvest in mid June or at least early July.
The window is facing directly south, so here (northern hemisphere) that's the brightest place (sun from dusk til dawn). But because the weather is a bit gray at the moment I have some LED's to help out.

In the following I start from left to right^

These 4 small containers are home to an eggplant variety called Eggtree (Solanum melongena). It produces white, chicken egg sized eggplants.

These buggers I tried and tried and tried to germinate and in september they finally did it so

far the overwintering is going fine. the varieties are from left to right: Habanero chocolate, Aji Pineapple, Aji charapita yellow.

The block paprika /bell peppers ahven't shown up till now, but I can see them strating.

The yellow chili (is a supermarket variety in 2nd generation, don't know the actual variety) in the top half was the first of all to sprout. The pointed paprika/ ponted sweet pepers in the lower half are coming through as well.

From the far right corner of the first picture have just 2 varieties sprouted: Jalapeno early, and Longhorn XXL. And we are currently waiting on the following varieties: Numex twilight, Habanero sweet, Mini Thai, Filius blue, Cayenne, another habanero chocolate, and Maconi purple. the last oneis actually a blue bell pepper.

In February I'll start with the tomatoes.

cheers

 

[Lunai]

At the garden I've built some nesting boxes for birds. 2 or so are still to come.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Loving the excitement for the growing season! 19 tomatoes and 14 chili's? Wowzers!

I love the birdboxes <3

 

[Lunai]

I've forgotten to tell you about the blueberries and the last of the ground beds on the right side.
There have been 3 blueberries added. They fruit at different times which extends the harvest season throughout june/juli/August

And I've started to layout the rest of the groundbeds on the right side. Still need to look if I have enough curbstones to set the edges maybe I have to improvise

And look what I found when digging in the blueberries a thick little new fried looks as if he got a full tummy

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Love it

Hehe, looks like a Christmas tree may have been turned into mulch?
Love the layout, seems really do-able. And seeing worms is a good sight! Love it when I find worms.

 

[Lunai]

Look at them they grow SO quickly