5. Weed suppression: Cardboard between the rows. Start saving it now! Start ordering from Chewy for pet supplies and you’ll have all the cardboard you need! ;)
6. Trellises - Do you have a set pattern you’re using? Let me know and I’ll ask my ‘MacGyver’ if he has any ideas for you to simplify things! He needs projects this winter; maybe he could build some for you? He’s already making a fireplace mantle for a friend, so all of his woodworking stuff is readily available!
(Ellendra and I live near one another in Real Life.)
That would be a LOT of cardboard! And keeping it in place would be tricky, there are some strong winds on that hill. But, now that the driveway reaches to the edge of the field, hauling stuff like that became a possibility. I doubt I’ll be able to collect enough for the whole garden, but it should help for part of it.
I’ve also figured out a way to make smaller lightweight chicken tractors, so those will help clear some space early in the season. After planting, I’ll use them to prepare more land for next year’s garden.
That assumes I can camp out on my land all summer like I tried to do before. It didn’t work last time, but I know what I did wrong, and I’ll be ready by spring. Although if your “MacGyver” would like to try making small sheds disguised as round hay bales, I doubt I’d be his only customer!
I think that’s the only way I’ll be able to store stuff out there, at least until the house is built. Long story about why, but for the moment at least, I need my stuff to be as invisible as possible.
For my trellis, I’m making arches out of PVC pipe, with wire mesh across it. I tried this last summer, in the form of a long tunnel, but somebody called up the county and said it was a secret building project. I had to take it down or be fined. This time I’m doing narrow sections, 4-5 feet wide, with space between each one. As long as the ground covered by each arch is less than 100 square feet, it won’t count as a “structure”. I’ll also paint the pipes themselves so the color doesn’t stand out as much.
They should be fairly simple to put together, I just need a whole lot of them. At least 2000 row-feet of trellis space, just for legumes. Then I can start on the trellises for permanent crops, like grapes and kiwi. Those will probably follow the same model, just with slightly bigger pipes.
I also snarf sale ads from Kroger/Walmart, newspapers, junk mail, etc for mulching. Cover all that with hay, water it in and wait. We also use cardboard for the walkways. It works!
I’ve got 2 trays full of rooted citrus cuttings that need a home this spring. LOL.
And I’m giving thought to ordering a ‘cocktail’ grapefruit and a tahitian pumello along with a couple more mandarins (to extend the harvest season for those).
Grapefruits (red) on the tree in my living room are allllllmost ripe now.