The Layered Garden So Far

Click to see the layered garden as we started it!

The layered garden I started in spring has been a wonder to watch!

These pics I took a few weeks ago...

Strawberries & peppers

See the large pieces of cardboard? I add paper or cardboard as I get it to control weeds and then begin throwing layers of straw & poultry litter or weeds on to it to begin a new layer.

Tomatoes basil & parsley

Peas, beans & bright lite Swiss Chard

shallots 

tomatoes & eggplant (under the cheese cloth)

my garden helpers cleaning up bugs from the turnips.

You do have to watch them and make sure they stick to bugs and not eat the plants too much.

Now for pics taken just this week...

Tomatoes, basil & parsley are really taking off!

The largest squash leaves on the largest squash plant I have ever grown

First picking

Time to fry blossoms 

Honestly the tomatoes are out of hand, I can not tie them up often enough.

They are up to my shoulders.I know what you are thinking..."But she is soo short!"

Cantaloupe are doing fantastic! Planted in a layered patch then under black plastic. Hope they all don't ripen at once.

Now for the strawberries that were little pathetic plants being thrown out at a local store, now a strawberry hedge.

Wow! They love the layered garden!

Marigolds are huge, over a foot wide from a single plant, but dwarfed by the tomatoes

These were left overs planted in a newly layered patch. The layers were shallow but the flowers have done well anyway.

The red raspberries sent to me from my Uncle & Aunt in Pa. are really doing well.

Thanks so much to them!

The ducks are mostly penned in the center of the garden now and chickens border the one side, so bugs are at a minimum. Plus we water the beds from the water from the duck pond, added fertilizer! Overall it is a very low maintenance garden and everything is linked together in support of each other. The most successful garden I have grown in the last several years of drought and bugs.

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A link to

A Duck Story!