Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Elizabeth B. <spacecitydx@webtv.net>]

I agree Birdwalk, 4 blocks high would be easier on your back. Like you, I haven't found anything cheaper or better than old carpet, as opposed to cement, to use as pathways between the garden beds.

Originally, I made a bubbler watering system using PVC that I had drilled with small holes. It worked for knocking some worms down but not all of them. Then I began looking at different sprayers and settled on the rainbird. The bubbler system has since been moved out into my pasture, with more holes drilled into it.

I used sand, goat berries and compost in the block holes; they do dry out but not as fast as using just compost. Like you, I also add my barn leavings to my garden.

Cattle panels are great to work with. When I first set my garden up, money wouldn't stretch to cattle panels. I used hilled soil with t-posts and strung wire between each post. I had more questions regarding the strings I had hanging from each wire. Some folks borrowed my idea and let the vining tendrils attach themselves to the string; then the wind kicked up and uprooted the entire seedling. Boy, did I hear about that! For those who don't know, the strings aren't used for the plants, they're used as a visual warning so you can see that wire or something, is stretched between t-posts; so you or the kids don't go running between posts. As the vines grew upwards, I removed the strings.

I've started a small vineyard this year. I'm planting both table and wine grapes along the sides of my driveway, which is over 200 ft long. So far, they look pretty planted within the cinder blocks and the white geraniums I planted with each vine, are really setting it all off.

Elizabeth