Thread by @EoinLenihan

A boring thread about how I got my garden beds ready for planting. Last year was my first year #gardening. I just built natural earthen beds. I didn't know much about amending soil etc. & the garden had been dormant for about 15 years. Here's how it looked prepped last spring.

Despite being a novice there were some real successes. Like 45kg of spuds, 15kg of onions - which we still use! Peas, tomatoes, beans were all winners. Carrots, parsnips and cabbage, not so much. Still, I learned a lot. #gardening

I built a nice 3 bed composter from pallets and scrap wood to start building up our own supply of compost for this year's beds.

We got chickens who haven't just produced all our eggs needs but also provide copious amounts of poop for composting.

This is what the garden looked like at the start of this week after its long winter nap. I left some of the unused crop from last season in as cover for the soil and the roots keep the soil loose.

I turned all of the soil to break down the natural earthen beds. Hard work but wanted to even out the earth before rebuilding.

I build frames for raised beds. I didn't like how the natural beds slumped last year after watering. They swallowed up the wood chip footpaths, allowed slugs in easily & I believe I lost some seeds from watering erosion. I decided to go with 7 framed beds this year, 3m x 1m.

To enrich and loosen the dense clay I dug out the clay, put in composted horse manure, put in the clay and topped with compost and horn & bone meal mixed.

Then it came time to add mulch but I hit a snag. The nice lady at the farm supply shop told me I should use peat moss as mulch. She was convincing but having put it on two beds I did my research & realised the ethical issues. I decided not to go with it.

I got some wood chip & put that down on top of the remaining beds. Research says that peat moss isn't great as a top mulch so it'll be interesting to compare the wood chip & moss as the season goes on. I just need to put wood chip between beds & let them marinate for a few weeks.