Backyard Garden Part 1

As you may have read in my previous posts, I am currently looking to buy land for a permaculture/restoration agriculture project. I wanted to give you an idea of how I express that dream while living in suburbia.

Currently, I have tiny 40' by 35' backyard which is planted to Pears, Plums, Peaches, Fig, Blackberries and a 16' by 4' raised-bed which itself is planted to sow peas, onions, strawberries, peppers and tomatoes.

Above you can see the raised-bed, half is garden soil bought at a big box store and half is leaves collected for free from the curb of neighbors' yards. The two were not mixed together, but rather the store bought soil was placed in the background (behind the onions) and the leaves were placed (about 18 inches thick) in the foreground. The leaves were given about a month to start decomposition before planting. As you can see the results are fairly similar between the two, the peas are nearly 4' tall and are currently producing.

Last year the onions struggled in the store bought soil, but all indications are good this year, they are thriving. This year they were planted in the compost pile from last year.

Strawberries on the right were planted last year and the ones on the left (shaded by the snow peas) were planted this year.

The peppers and tomatoes are planted quite close together if you have more space than I do use it! They will grow planted close, but they will crowd each other and it becomes difficult to harvest. They are looking great for having been frozen back a week after planting.

Let me know if you have any ideas or like somthing you saw!