Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Garden Updates

The Herb Garden plants are filling in. The back is still empty, we've decided to try another round of Kabocha Pumpkins. (we actually didn't plant much towards the back in the first batch.) THe pumpkins will be planted there along with Corn and Beans(Native American "3 Sisters" companion planting) The 3 Sisters methods uses the unique characteristics of the 3 plants to aid eachother. The Pumpkin vines keeps the soil shaded for the Corn which requires a lot of moisture in the roots, the Corn helps the climbing Beans as support, and the Beans nourish the Corn and Pumpkin by fixing Nitrogen into the roots. The Corn gives some shade to the Pumpkins during the hottest times. Symbiotic relationships are everywhere in Nature. We humans cover acres and acres of field with one crop (monocropping) which requires more resource input: more water, more fertilizer, and pesticides)
Figs in full swing
Meet the new member of our Garden family: the Celosia. (It's the bright hot pink one, it's not edible tho) It was a gift from our next door neighbor, she grew it from seed. We planted it amoung the Broccoli & Jack-o-lantern Pumpkin to give that area a splash of color.
Zucchini growing fast!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A good post on garden updates.

I found this website useful for Herb Gardening tips http://www.herbgardeningtoday.com. I think you guys will find it interesting too.

Thanks,
Jack - Herb garden plants