D E S I G N /// ck

horse poop

The good weather this weekend really helped us get some work done on the garden. I'm going to start reporting here the progress of our first garden. Hopefully I can help pass along the tricks we learn and the warn against mistakes made.


Laurence and I went up to a horse farm for manure. Luckily, we got some of the old stuff that had already composted some. That will help speed up the process in the garden, and it smelled a little less (a MAJOR benefit).


Horse poop on site. There's nothing like standing ankle high in a pickup truck load of poop, shoveling it out. Nothing like it.


We got the base of our beds leveled out and tilled. Rather than try to grow stuff in the so-so dirt of our yard, we're building up terraces to hold 6" thick plant beds on top of the existing soil. The picture above shows it with most of the bed material in, a pungent mix of organic topsoil, horse poop, and bit of soil conditioner.


In the meantime, we've started getting some seedlings to grow in our peat moss tray. These are pea plants, which Mr. Davis says should always be planted by Valentine's Day. We'll transplant them in a few weeks and put some new seeds. The tray is a great way to start from seeds, as you can control what the growth conditions better. If it gets too cold, move 'em inside. You can get a tray like this and peat moss discs at any Home Depot.

Next up, I'm building a three zone composting bin out of old delivery pallets. Stay tuned!