The reason for my absence from ATS.....

Thanks for answering - now its making more sense.
I was originally picturing you with a washtub full of bubbles, scrubbing away at the seaweed. a reply to: purplemer

a reply to: purplemer

Wow, im quite impressed. Your just learning, yeah right you sure seem to know what your doing.
Your garden looks awesome, it makes me just wanna sit in it and just listen to nature.

You have done a lot with the place. I like to see people doing that type of stuff. Just because your soils aren't great, doesn't mean you can't build them to make nutritious foods.

I see that you grow Rhodiola, I was thinking of planting that here, but I was wondering about the cold winters here.

I feel highly jealous of that garden.

In London a garden like that would be an absolute godsend and little paradise.
You have inspired me, I want your garden!

Well done

A+, S&F, Kudos, for going green. I started out with a 'victory garden' about 10+ years ago that has now grown to about 1/4 acre and supplies virtually all the vegetables my family ever needs. I've even managed to incorporate fruit-bearing trees, the bees and birds love it. Heck, when I started out just a small patch of potatoes produced more potatoes than I or my family could ever eat in a single season.

a reply to: purplemer

This is absolutely beautiful. It is incredible how much food can be produced so yes canning and pickling is essential and also delicious.

I love that you have used things that can be found on site or close by. It gives it the look of a garden that has sprung up in the natural landscape even though moving and placing all those rocks must have taken a lot of hard work.

Are you amending the available soil or did you have to purchase top soil and add to that as you go? I was also curious if you have put in any worm boxes for the castings?

As I said before, all your hard work is simply beautiful, you have done a very impressive job. Thank you for sharing.

Penny

Looks amazing, welcome back

love your pictures ... looks like lots of happy plants ... thanx for sharing

I've heard hemp is useful in a great number of ways. and I can take all those pesky, useless buds off your hands... I won't even charge you much for the service! Just have them cut and dried and I'll come by at the end of the season to pick them up and haul them to "the dump". That's what all the neighbors call my house. The Dump. At least that's what they call it when they're in a good mood and feel like being respectful... I can't repeat the other nicknames here due to tnc...

All joking aside, that is impressive! You MADE your own SOIL? My God, man... I like the photos showing wide open spaces. sounds nice there

a reply to: purplemer

Your absence has been missed but the triumph to which you return is awesome.

I've bookmarked this as it has many tips I believe I could use. Thanks!

Wow Purp!

I am incredibly impressed . . . honestly, great job. I am not very familiar with growing in your climate, but it seems you have done a fair bit of planning which has produced ( Ha!) some nice results.

Keep it up.

-FBB

Purp, S&F for you, what an awesome garden! It's amazing what you have done, considering the type of land where you live. Wonderful pictures. You've put a tremendous amount of work into it, a labor of love.

What a wonderful way to spend your time and it was very nice of you to share what you're doing with everyone.

a reply to: purplemer

Well at least you have been spending your time well, I quess. I myself sort of grew up on a farm though I cant grow anything, never learned, my grandfather the dude could grow anything anywhere, he tried to teach me but I never picked up, even my mom she freaking has tomato plants and other variety of plants growing out of the cracks in the cement in our driveway.

The house we live in was bulldozed over a swampy marsh area. No really! I think the developers got the land cheap and built right over it. When we were putting up brick planters around the house some years ago for my mom, the ground was hard as cement, it was nothing but small rocks and clay the construction workers must have bulldozed or brought over trucks full of gravel and just duped it there to give hard ground for the base of the houses they were building. It took me hours do dig a foot into it with a pickaxe, I even dulled the sharp end of it, and the destroyed a shovel.

I found cigarette cartons under there, old tarps they use in construction, and plastic bags the workers used to bring there lunch in and all kinds of trash, even what looked like could have been the remains of a old boot, man it sucked. But somehow those small trees my mom planted and all kinds of things still grow there. Now a days planting things is an artform that few know or have the skill at.

Welcome back .. its good to see you back again .. fantastic garden you built there especially under the conditions and lack of soil .. will be interesting seeing what you grow once you get the greenhouse built...

Wow what great gardens!

I really enjoyed your post and the description of what you have gone through to make / build your soil. I live in SE Alaska on an island and building the soil here is much the same, we use Kelp, compost, rabbit poo and lots of peat. My first garden bed, 12 years ago we stared this rock bed:



Last year I stared these raised beds and the skiff was a sinker so we made it into a planter:



You might notice the nets and chicken wire, the deer are nasty pests in the garden!

Thanks so much for sharing your garden!

Was wondering where you disappeared to. Nice start on that growing

Excellent work, Purp. Really like the "feel" of your gardening spaces, as well as the functionality.

You can make your own 'miracle grow' from seaweed. Seaweed has all the minerals plants need, including the trace minerals -- molybdenum, boron, etc. If you dry it and grind or crush it into a meal, it's an excellent soil amendment, especially with the peat. Meal/powder with water added to it becomes an excellent liquid nutrient, and you'll never burn the roots of plants as one might with conventional fertilizer.

Where I live are similar conditions, except being mostly warm where you are mostly cooler/cold. I use cocopeat where you use peat.

Really impressed with your work. That's something that nobody else has done in that way, in that place. It's good to live close to the land, isn't it? There is an inherent beauty to your organization..... edible art. Well done!

a reply to: purplemer

Nice touch with the goats head on the fence.....

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: Sparta

No not Dartmoor. I live on an X Ministry of Defense base on a Scottish island.. Moors, rocks and sea... :-)

And on that note, kudos to you, for you've created soil, and grown what you needed from it…..amazing.
Truly, kudos to you. Everyday, I say to myself (a much different situation than yours, unfortunately) be grateful for what you have, for it could be worse, different, etc…..

You define the human drive to survive in a very good way.. And if this is the reason for your absence, this work, it is good work…and thanks for keeping us abreast of it….
Tetra50