your dream organic garden

[Marge]

If you could have the organic garden of your dreams what would you have?

[Grey]

EVERYTHING! lol!
A giant 3-bin compost bin... make that two 3-bin compost bins... I'd need them for a garden my size.

And a greenhouse.

[grandpasrose]

I already have what Grey wants, so I guess I would have to say easy, affordable access to all the wonderful organic stuff to add to my garden that are difficult to get - kelp, seaweed, manure, green sand, etc. Because of where I live, these things are often hard and expensive to obtain.
Way more ladybugs, and more water. This would be my dream.
Oh, and the time to do all the things I want to do in my garden!!
This would be my dream!
Val

[The Helpful Gardener]

Ooh, and a tank for making tea, with an aerator and everything...

Three bin, cement floored, composting area, a huge, motor drive tumbler for fast composting, a Skdsteer to turn REALLY big compost heaps, a convenient supply of cow poop (hold the cows; that's a LOT more work).

And an acre more than I have now to really go to town...

THAT was fun...

Scott

[Grey]

OOOH! I want a tank for making tea too! Right now I have several 5-gal buckets.

I'd like a cow too. And some chickens. Fresh milk and eggs, and the plants get composted manure!

Alas, for the moment I live in town and have 1/2 acre divvied up by a 1,300 sq ft house, a 400 sq. foot mother in law suite, and a huge driveway (I'm working on convincing hubby the drive does NOT need to comfortably hold 15 cars...)

[opabinia51]

I could type pages.... (sigh)..... At least an acre so that I can do a food forest. Yes, a couple of three bin systems would be nice. The ladies that have (what is it called?) Nature's Elixir (I think) (compost tea company hear) have a really nice compost tea system. I'd like that.

Some chickens that are able to just wander around but had a little house that they would roost in (it's possible a local farm has it). I still can't figure out why those beautiful chickens don't get hit by cars but, it works.

Hmmm, the food forest would be a super guild with Goumi, apple, nectarine, peach, pear, walnut, tomatoes, hazelnut, almond and all the rest of it all wound up into their lovely guilds.

[grandpasrose]

Grey, I use those green garbage cans to make my tea in. It makes alot more at a time, and then I just dip when I want it.
Scott, you're right, concrete under your compost is wonderful! Ross put my compost bins, I actually have four, on concrete a couple of years ago, and they are so much easier to use!! He put my manure pile on concrete too so the grass, etc doesn't grow into it before it all gets used.
I would love to be able to buy the empty acre behind us so that we had more to grow on than our one acre - that's a big dream! Ain't gonna happen unless those lottery tickets Ross keeps pretending he doesn't buy win big!
Val

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yeah, any surface that collects heat and is impervious would make composting that much easier...

[Marge]

In my dream organic garden I would have:

1) A superb kitchen garden - slug free of course
2) A wood - so I could collect leaves to make leaf mould, go for little walks, maybe even have a tree house
3) A more formal flower garden leading to a Japanese garden.
4) A separate compost area that doesn't smell and looks good too.
5) The ulimate combined shed & greenhouse & pub!

and not forgetting ... absolutely no decking, or so called 'water features'!

[opabinia51]

Hi Marge, the key to having compost that doesn't smell is to balance out your greens and browns. To many greens (grass, food scraps, etc.) and your compost will smell. Also, if the compost does not get enough oxygen, the anaerobic bacteria will take over and... the compost will smell.

So, to keep your compost smelling nice and earthy:

1) Add some leaves or other browns each time that you add some greens (collect the leaves now and store them somewhere in the yard)

2) Turn your compost each week (at least)

[The Helpful Gardener]

Just built a new pile a month ago; a layer of grass, a layer of leaves and a sprinkle from the pile that had cooked already. Stuck a hand in the other day and it's half way there! Once you get the right stuff happening, it's easy! The missus was stunned...

A little old compost goes a long way in a new compost pile; think of it like a sourdough starter...

HG

[Marge]

I didn't know that - a handy tip, thanks

[opabinia51]

You are more than welcome.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Ta!

[opabinia51]

My sourdough starter was started my stepgrandmother in 1960 no less. I keep it in the cupboard.

[The Helpful Gardener]

There is a great example of biological counter culture. Any other food stuff would have rotted out years ago, but sourdough starter has cultures that preclude the start of any detrimental strains. Dr. Kellogg (yep, the cereal guy) kept a steak in a bucket of yogurt for over a decade, as pink and fresh as the day he put it in. That's why organic works so well; the bad guys got no where to live...

Scott

[opabinia51]

Actually, the bad guys are always there but, the good guys keep them in check.

The compost tea ladies in my area surveyed the microfauna on the leaves of plants sprayed with compost tea and those with pesticides. You'll never guess what they found....

The compost tea sprayed leaves had a diverse array of micro and macro-organisms growing on them and pesticide sprayed leaves had (you guessed it) very few organisms living on them and the organisms that were there were: pathogens.

[The Helpful Gardener]

NOT suprised...

[garden_mom]

My dream garden would be, on a small scale, about 100 acres. First of all, there would be no chemicals in my garden.
I would have a wood large enough for the animals to feel safe in, and that held every sort of woodland plant (ferns, mosses, bulbs, etc.) EXCEPT poisonous things--they would not exsist in my wood. That would be about 50 acres.
Also I would have a large victorian greenhouse filled with the tender tropical fruits and plants that I can't grow in my area in one half, and the other half for my seed starting and potting, and occasional hybridizing for fun.
Just outside my house would be a large kitchen garden and herb garden, growing all of the herbs one could possibly conceive of, and a variety of heirloom (and some newer) veggies for canning, pickeling, freezing, and of course, eating fresh, so that I would never, ever have to buy non-organic produce from a store again. That would have to be at least a half-acre to an acre.
I would have every kind of fruit and nut tree in at least duplicate. I would have a formal rose garden with every possible variety, a knot garden just because I can, and the biggest cottage garden with a gazebo here, a trellis there, a paths and benches everywhere!
I would have a secret garden with a tall brick wall and a solid oak door, and this would be at least 2 acres large. It would be a fairytale place with a large playhouse in it, because every kid should get to have that.
And since this is my dream, I have all the time in the world to study everything about gardening one could ever want to know, learn how to cook all of the things I'm growing in an endless variety of ways, work in my various gardens at my leisure, and hire a multitude of helpers for when I want to just enjoy it all, like playing in the secret garden.
That's my small scale dream. The large scale dream would be to take the small scale dream and spread it all over the earth the way the earth was meant to be.

[opabinia51]

Remind me to come for a visit..... Sounds scrumptious.

[garden_mom]

Oh, my, how could I? I forgot all about the swimming/fishing pond with waterfall! Fully stocked, and at least two acres, with a dock and a floating raft, and a few Willow trees. I think I should put in an area for all types of berries as well. A cutting flower garden near the greenhouse, too, I think. A different tree in every available space to round it all out (except black walnut, it poisons the soil I hear). Everyone is invited, and when you walk through the woods, notice all of the streams and even a footbridge or two!

[FairyDust]

My dream garden would be, on a small scale, about 100 acres. First of all, there would be no chemicals in my garden.
I would have a wood large enough for the animals to feel safe in, and that held every sort of woodland plant (ferns, mosses, bulbs, etc.) EXCEPT poisonous things--they would not exsist in my wood. That would be about 50 acres.
Also I would have a large victorian greenhouse filled with the tender tropical fruits and plants that I can't grow in my area in one half, and the other half for my seed starting and potting, and occasional hybridizing for fun.
Just outside my house would be a large kitchen garden and herb garden, growing all of the herbs one could possibly conceive of, and a variety of heirloom (and some newer) veggies for canning, pickeling, freezing, and of course, eating fresh, so that I would never, ever have to buy non-organic produce from a store again. That would have to be at least a half-acre to an acre.
I would have every kind of fruit and nut tree in at least duplicate. I would have a formal rose garden with every possible variety, a knot garden just because I can, and the biggest cottage garden with a gazebo here, a trellis there, a paths and benches everywhere!
I would have a secret garden with a tall brick wall and a solid oak door, and this would be at least 2 acres large. It would be a fairytale place with a large playhouse in it, because every kid should get to have that.
And since this is my dream, I have all the time in the world to study everything about gardening one could ever want to know, learn how to cook all of the things I'm growing in an endless variety of ways, work in my various gardens at my leisure, and hire a multitude of helpers for when I want to just enjoy it all, like playing in the secret garden.
That's my small scale dream. The large scale dream would be to take the small scale dream and spread it all over the earth the way the earth was meant to be.

Oh, my, how could I? I forgot all about the swimming/fishing pond with waterfall! Fully stocked, and at least two acres, with a dock and a floating raft, and a few Willow trees. I think I should put in an area for all types of berries as well. A cutting flower garden near the greenhouse, too, I think. A different tree in every available space to round it all out (except black walnut, it poisons the soil I hear). Everyone is invited, and when you walk through the woods, notice all of the streams and even a footbridge or two!

I want to live in your dream garden!

[garden_mom]

I want to live in your dream garden!

So do I!!