garden layout facelift

[johno]

I've been dismantling the beds in my semi-formal layout little by little since summer. I finally finished by pulling up the pond a couple days ago. Have now plowed up the entire area in long, level rows. It's about two discs wide, then a step down and a wider path, repeat, for three sections. It should hold water better, and will be easier for me to navigate. Today I'm seeding it with cover crops, tomorrow it should rain.

[mnjrutherford]

Sounds like a pretty interesting plan. You have a grade I take it? We have a friend back in the Bay Area who lives on a couple acres in Los Altos Hills. He grows everything you can imagine and he does it in terraces he built himself all around the property. It's a most amazing layout down to the home, garage, and patio areas.

Have you considered what sort of planting you will have and what purposes they will serve in each location? What about trees and shrubs in ratio to annuals?

[lavandulagirl]

Are you cover-cropping for soil nutrient building, soil retention during the wet months, or both? What are you using?

[johno]

Jo: It's hard to find level land in this area. All of ours is sloped - fortunately, facing the south/southeast, mostly. I have had the idea of terracing the entire property for a long time. I experimented with following the natural curves in the adjacent field, and found it impractical when I set up low tunnels; it was then that I realized, if I want to use any modern materials, I need straight lines. I also found that the tractor tends to even out the difference if the natural variation isn't too great. So now, instead of setting level points to follow along the distance, I simply set one at each end. But that's for cultivated space. In the future, I'd like to terrace the rest of the yard/lawn in natural curves.

The area I plowed will be primarily for rotation of annual crops. Next to it, I've been cultivating circles on about a 15' grid. When I think the soil has been improved enough, I intend to plant dwarf fruit trees there (but I'm tempted to go with semi-dwarves on some of them). I think there are ten of these. The next area over, there is a wide ditch along our driveway. Last year I started building little dams in such a way as to keep/direct water at each of the nearest circles. behind each dam I'm building up the soil. I'd like to plant a berry hedge here eventually. As far as ratios, I'd have do do some measuring.

To the north there is a section of the old garden left. I'll most likely use that for perennials. It's adjacent to some trees, where I've already started an herb bed. I'll probably relocate the pond somewhere in that area.

Lav: Both. I used roughly even amounts of rye grass, hairy vetch, and winter wildlife mix (mostly winter wheat, brassicas, and vetch), to which I added a wide assortment of more brassicas (nativized mustards, turnips, kales, etc.)

[johno]

No rain, so I have a sprinkler going... in November lol.