Building Beds and Soil

Springtime at Sweetwater is a busy time, to put it mildly. The effort we put in now determines the bounty we will reap in the fall and it’s a good thing we get to take it easy in the winter because there are often just not enough hours in the day come spring.
It has taken us several years to figure out how to make the land work for us out here in the mountains. Most people would have looked at our property and thought there was no way to grow an abundant harvest of veggies, fruit and grass. It was a dry, rocky desert when we first arrived and has taught us many valuable lessons since then. We learned that raised beds are the way to Eden’s garden if you are not blessed with fertile soil, and in our case it is often better than any native soil you can find. We piled layers upon layers of compost to create each garden bed and now, in our 4th year of gardening we have the most incredible, black soil which gives us very nutrient dense produce. We top each bed up in the fall with fresh compost so every year instead of depleting the nutrients we are continually increasing them. There is a beautiful cycle of nutrients here, everything gets used and we don’t need any outside inputs to keep the farm lush and bountiful. Grass clippings are fed to Ella, her calf, and the pigs and in turn they provide us with manure for the compost pile. All of the fruit and veggie scraps and weeds we pick are added to the pile along with anything we don’t put in the freezer when we process our animals on the farm. “Johnny” the tractor flips the pile once every two weeks in the spring and summer and by the end of the season we have more than enough compost for everything on the farm. The chickens and cows also provide us with a side benefit of spreading their manure across the grass all summer making the once barren pasture a lush, bountiful salad bar.

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Raised beds growing onions

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Raised Beds growing peas

Kale and cow

Grapevine growing over the main garden entrance

We created something called a hugelbed last year when we couldn’t figure out what to do with a large pile of rotting logs we needed to clear. With a little bit of research and a lot of talking to everyone we could, we figured out that piling the logs up and covering them with compost was a genius way to build a low maintenance garden bed that puts all others to shame! The rotting logs act like a sponge so the roots of plants grown in it are never too wet or dry. You don’t have to water it (it holds more than enough water for anything you might want to grow) and it is continually breaking down so more nutrients are made available each year. We grew the biggest squash any of us have ever seen last year and the corn was ready a full month ahead of schedule and it was mouthwatering too. This year we covered it in landscaping cloth and wood chips because we also had the biggest, most robust weeds you have ever seen!

Hugel bed sprouting garlic

Hugel bed has just been planted with squash, potatoes, cucumber, pumpkin and covered with mulch

Joce standing among the corn last year in the hugel bed on July 1st, 2015

As a result of working with nature and learning how to make the best of what we have out here, we are able to provide our family and the BnB with more than enough food all season. It is our goal this year to make that all year round as we are learning more about preservation techniques and how to be 100% self sustaining all 12 months. Last year we made it until February which is a great accomplishment in itself but this year we are going for the full year. There is something really beautiful and connecting about eating with the seasons and looking so forward to that first green salad in the spring. We do still supplement some fruit and oils as our trees are still maturing and we just can’t seem to give up the olive oil, but there is a balance in it all and we love to share that with everyone who comes down the driveway!

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