The E-Garden – My Garden

July 28, 2020

Garden Expansion

Mid-May marked the second month of working in my home office as a result of COVID-19. This has the advantage that I have more time, because I don’t have to commute to work each day. I can also spend my lunch breaks in the garden.

Most years I am very ambitious with my gardening activities, this year I brought this to a new level. I had a few days off from work so decided to turn an unused portion of the garden into garden beds.

After clearing the grass away and digging up a large pile of roots and stones, I ended up with 5 new growing beds. In one bed I planted a row of watermelon and cantaloupe melons. In another row I planted Muscat (nutmeg) pumpkins. As both of these need a lot of room to grow, I planted buckwheat in every other row as a cover crop.

Three alternating rows of buckwheat, with watermelon and pumpkins between them.

As the melons and pumpkins grow, I can dig in the buckwheat and make the space available for their expansion.

The beds right before I dug the buckwheat in.

April 30, 2020April 30, 2020

E-Garden September 2019

The garden year 2019 remained productive into the new year. In January of this year I was still harvesting kale, fennel and carrots.

E-Garden Overview September 12, 2019 — Overview September 2019

April 30, 2020April 30, 2020

E-Garden August 2019

The plants in the mini-bed garden did very well, and there was very little labor involved. In the beginning there were a few weeds around the plants, but eventually the plants blocked out any weed growth.

min-bed Garden August 19, 2019 — mini-bed Garden

June 20, 2019July 15, 2019

E-Garten – June 2019

So far this year we have had a good mix of sun and rain, the garden is thriving.

The mini-bed garden is doing well, the only negative point that I have found, is that when I don’t munch these beds, the soil is stone-hard.

One of my pear trees is bearing fruit for the first time.

May 25, 2019July 15, 2019

May 2019 – E-Garten

This year’s E-Garden is in full bloom.

This year I reduced the amount of potatoes by two beds, replacing these beds with an additional bed of strawberries and a bed of red raspberries.

June 28, 2018June 28, 2018

The E-Garden in June

The garden is starting to burst with fresh produce, this past week we enjoyed the first zucchini, cucumbers, peas and early potatoes of the season.

I also harvested the red currents last weekend, here is a “before” picture:

The potatoes are looking good, despite an extremely dry year.

The early potatoes that I harvested are not shown in the picture above, rather they are wild potatoes that grew in between my squash section:

The area where I had buckwheat is now planted with Hokkaido and Butternut squash. I covered the wood-framed beds with fleece the first couple weeks, as the birds were eating my plants. Shortly after this the neighbors ripening cherry trees lured them away, and they haven’t been back. Now if only the slugs would leave.

My minibed test beds are doing really well, we have been eating lettuce and kohlrabi from these beds for several weeks. This weekend we want to pick the first cabbage and pointed cabbage. The chard in the back is also ready to eat. I have started adding shredded leaves as a mulch, the beds have been drying out too fast.

I planted garlic last fall on some straw, I think this will be ready to harvest soon.

I also placed 30 strawberry runners in plant pots, I want to plant them in the bed shown once I have harvested the kohlrabi, brussel sprouts and other vegies.

May 24, 2018

The Battle of the Slugs and Birds

Last week I was on a business trip in Switzerland for a couple days and we also had several days of rain. These two factors left me scrambling to get the garden back in order on Saturday when the weather cleared.

I did reduce the slug population significantly during a couple of the rainy days. I use the time proven, but by some considered brutal, method of walking through the garden with shears and severing the life of the little beasts. On my first stroll, I found 219 slugs, the second day 53, last night only 14. I guess I won round one, but I’m sure they set out lots of eggs, so the battle is not over.

Last year I had very little problem with birds, but this year they are a real problem. The first time I sowed peas and spinach, only a couple seeds grew, the others are gone, highly likely from birds. The second time I sowed peas I covered them with fleece and almost all of them are growing. The cabbage, kohlrabi and other leafy plants that I planted were all eaten, I thought at first my slugs, but a watchful neighbor informed me the birds were eating the plants. The second time I set out the plants I put them in my minibed area and covered them with fleece, they are doing fine so far.

Our red currents, raspberries and strawberries are all starting to ripen, on Saturday I want to add bird nets over these areas, otherwise I think the birds won’t leave us any.

In our smaller L-Garden I have only lost one cucumber plant, everything else is growing fine. We have already begun eating radishes and claytonia, the kohlrabi should be ready in another week or two.

May 8, 2018May 8, 2018

Garden – First Week of May

It has been an extremely dry springtime, requiring almost daily water in many of the beds that aren’t mulched heavily. I also had to water the minibed test beds, which theoretically don’t require much water. I owe this to the fact that we have not had a good rain yet this year. In any case the plants are growing reasonably well, the biggest problem being slugs and snails.

Our potatoes are starting to appear, a couple weeks behind last year, again probably do to the lack of rain.

In our other garden the onions are also suffering from the fast drought conditions. Last weekend I added some zucchini and eggplant plants, so far the slugs have not been a problem in this garden.

April 23, 2018

The Battle of the Slugs

This weekend I focused on slug and snail hunting, as more than half of the vegetable plants that I set out last week have been eaten by the little beasts. My perferred method is to walk around early in the morning, just after the sun comes out and slash the litte pest with my garden knife, a very satisfying method.

I also thinned out the raspberry plants, adding a new row on the edge of the buckwheat patch.

I also planted three rows of peas among the bark mulch. I am hoping the slugs will have a hard time reaching the plants once they start to grow. Probably just wishful thinking, but we’ll see.

Today its finally raining, hopefully this will spur growth of what I have planted to date.

April 15, 2018April 15, 2018

Update on Espalier Trees and Minibed

This weekend I finished cleaning up the area around the new Espalier fruit trees. This involved removing the top layer of grass (and weeds) and digging up a large pile of roots from the many bushes that were located here. The result was quite pleasing, and hopefully I got rid of most of the weeds. Afterwards I seeded it down with some buckwheat, I find this a good way of building up the soil after removing the sod.

I also replenished the bark mulch in the two beds next to this area. Wood chips are not available in my area of Germany, so I have been trying bark mulch, which is similar. These beds will be used for cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale.

The garlic and red currents are looking very good. On the right under the fleece covering, is a row of peas, which are just starting to sprout.

I also set out some plants in my Minibed test garden. From front to rear, cauliflower, pointed cabbage, green cabbage and celeriac (celery root).

After planing I added some schredded leaves as a mulch, and covered them with fleece to keep the birds from eating the young plants.