Case in point – our garden. Last fall we decided to grow enough vegetables to provide at least 30% of our food. We planned all winter. What did we want to plant, where could we get organic seeds? When do we start everything? There is a LOT to learn.
Of course we had our issues
- Where would we find space?
- How could we grow in our heavy clay soil.
- How could we water efficiently?
- Where were we going to get enough plants at a reasonable price?
- Where could we find non GMO seeds?
- Could we find seeds that would make plants we could save seeds from?
- How were we going to work in all of this with our work with Kingfisher Designs business?
So we came up with a plan:
We bought a tiny greenhouse (about 18″ x 28″ x 72″ to raise our seedlings for the garden. Following our carefully laid out spreadsheet (When you have an engineer in the house you have spread sheets) we planted hundreds of tiny seeds in little plastic bathroom cups. The greenhouse was inside the porch and kept warm even in single digit temperatures. It has been fun to watch these tiny plants grow all spring, but the time has arrived to plant them.
We decided on raised beds to avoid our own clay soil and make the most of our space. We are building them out of salvaged sea wall material. The
We built them out of some salvaged sea wall material. They should last for many years and retain moisture well for the plants. We used pipe on the sides so we can actually put in frames and use plastic for mini hoop houses to extend our growing season.
We are right on the river, so we have a pump to water out of the river itself. Each bed takes abut a cubic yard of soil, which is top soil, black cow compost and loam. We nearly have the beds done, but the rain is going to get us and our supplier is out of top soil. Hoping to get the plants in next week.
Meanwhile we have been invited to show in the Adoring the Table exhibition at the National Ornamental Metal Museum so we will be preparing for that.
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Kingfisher Designs and Beyond 