Recap; Above you can see I've a typical backyard. Mostly grass. Unhappy grass I should say. I marked my food forest beds with orange paint. Then I had a company come out and deep till in amendments and my grass into my clay soil in April. The garden beds are a little over 2000 square feet combined total.
Picture left to right in a circle. Local Utah amendments; Azomite (brown granular), Ute-Lite (grey), manure blend mulch. This will get my food forest off to a good healthy start. I did put a good deal of Dino-Mite in with my plantings.
I got 8-10 yards of manure/compost. Then I used cardboard and newspaper for my sheet mulching layer as my weed suppressant. Check out my other post for complete details on sheet mulching. This was a huge undertaking. I needed a little help. My neighbors both Tyra and April, my little ones, husband and husbands brother Doug helped me get the whole space put together. Thank you my friends I am so greatful for your help. This could not have been finished without you! Sheet mulching done!
What when in? Everything that I mentioned in my earlier post. These numbers are updated and varieties as well are included. Quick recap;
- 3 diffrent autmn olives [Ruby, Garnet and Amber]
- 1 self-fertle peach
- 1 four in one plum
- 3 twigs that they call hazelnut bushes
- 1 goji
- 1 blueberry [patriot]
- 3 almond bushes [Dwarf Russian, Prunus Tenella]
- 25 strawberry plants (Hood variety June baring)
- Siberian Pea Shrub
- Powells Wormwood
- Pink Lupine
- Corel Bells
- Grapes [Black seedless monnuka, green seedless thompson, black seedless mars, concord (heirloom from family), and tickled pink]
I am still putting in swales. I have been redoing my secondary water sprinklers. I have a filter on the water and am putting in drip irrigation for my new beds. I've heavily mulched and am building swales to utilize as much rainwater as possible. My drip is almost complete I will then put another layer of much down to retain the water and keep it from the hot summer sun.
Soil Costs and where I got them
- Azomite (Steve Regan $24 per 44lb bag [2])
- Dyno-Mite (IFA $29.99 per 3.5 gallon bucket [1])
- Ironite (Costco $20 per 50 lb. bag [1])
- Ute-Lite (IFA 4.99 per bag [8]).
- Manure blend mulch 8-10 yards (from Tony Mascara Trucking $100)
- Master Tillage. ($35 an hour [2 hours])
- Cardboard Roll $10
- Newspaper FREE.
- Straw bales FREE.
Update. The free straw bales had rye seeds. Which has been both good and bad fore me. The rye grows faster than my clover. And as the clover starts to fill in I have been pulling the rye and leaving it on the soil for organic matter.
Oh so sad. As my food forest beds where being prepped for the first and last time I had them deeply tilled. My wonderful amendments were mixed in. My sweet tilling master Kevin was very thurough, and since my grape vines were relatively new (planted last season) they now are part of my organic matter enriching my soil!
I've already begun plopping my baby plants into this new food forest bed over the sheet mulch. I've added more mini-fruit trees and shrubs as well. That I will talk about in my next post.
Happy growing cheers.
