Harvest Time

The vegetables on your individual mounds will most probably be harvested at different times. Produce that is picked early, like spinach or salad, can be sown several times in one season. Sowing radishes and carrots together, close to the salad preferrably, would be a good example of how to use the space that you have available well: The radishes are harvested at a time when the carrots have not yet begun to produce fruit, and once picked, the radishes make room for the carrots to grow properly.

If you want to save seed for next year, make sure to buy only heirloom seed, and to let some of your vegetables go to seed. Save seed from healthy plants and fruit only.
Just like fruits and vegetables demand a little work to make them last through the winter, so seed requires a little bit of attention in order to yield fruit the following season. Seed can best be stored in labelled envelopes in a dry yet airy place.

For legumes like pole beans or peas, leave pods on the plant until they are leathery, and don't pick them all as green peas or green beans.
Tomato, pepper, eggplant, zucchini and other plants that carry their seed in the fruit should be picked when ripe, and their seed dried before stored away.
Other plants like salad, radishes or spinach carry their seed in seed pods that only appear after blossoming, so some of your crop you should not pic before it goes to seed. Carrots only go to seed in the second year, so it is a good idea to leave a few carrots in the ground and wait for next year's seeds.

After the harvest, make sure to deep spade your mound again and to measure the pH level of your soil again, so that you can prepare your soil well for the next season before the winter rest.

Simple Living at Joshuah's House

Technorati Tags: harvest, seed saving, simple living, heirloom seeds, ph level, soil tester kit

Soil Quality

If you are unsure about the quality of your soil, use a soil tester kit to test the pH level and take proper steps if your soil is too acidic or too alcaline. Once you have done that and deep spaded one more time, make sure that you do not step on the soil anymore, or, if you have dug a big mound, that you only step on the stepping stones or areas. Compacted soil stunts growth and is easy to avoid.

If you want to keep your soil nourishing to your plants, add organic material to your mound as you go just like you would do to any other vegetable bed. Grass clippings, for example, keep the soil from drying out and prevent excessive weed growth.

It is also a good idea to pull weeds as they appear, as they compete with your vegetable for the nutrients in the soil. A good rule of the thumb is to pull weeds after every rain, as they are easy to pull from the wet soil and won't take the fresh nourishment from your vegetables.

Simple Living at Joshuah's House

Technorati Tags: mound gardening, edible landscape, simple living, soil quality, soil tester kit