This morning, amongst doing the washing and tidying up at the old house, and having a ton of things to do like finish the taxes, call the carpet guy, deal with the electrician, paint the house, and so on, I weeded the garlic bed, putting the fresh, unseeded and lovely grass to a big bucket to take down to the new house. Why this madness, you ask?

Soil.

The soil at the new place is sandy - stands to reason, because we're by the sea. It's not sand sand, but sandy dirt, if that makes sense. I don't know the official name. I'm just glad it's not clay. Like at my old place, it just needs a lot of organic matter to come good. Hence my desperation at starting compost, though I've got the house to paint, the floor to lay, and three million other reno jobs.

But. Soil.

Good soil means healthy, strong and tasty vegetables. Though we haven't established the bigger vegetable beds yet, I have them in my sight, so I have to get compost started as soon as possible. Compost is simple really - layers of brown and green, with maybe some veggie scraps thrown in, ash from the fire, broad leaf weeds, leaves, nothing too big. Big leaves like rhubarb and artichoke are green as they provide green matter and help create air pockets which is good, as air flow helps everything break down.

So I'm adding the grass, which has lots of good soil attached to it, and I'll layer that with the pea mulch that's dried out from their stupid cactus and daisy garden at the side of the house. Cactus has also gone in the bottom. It'll rot down before it takes root.

The big compost bins aren't ideal but until I have time to build bays, they'll be good enough. I've been taking chicken manure from the coop and the half finished compost down from the house as well, and I'll take some bags of cow manure as well and layer it through. Lots of bugs and worms will get it going faster, and comfrey as well - comfrey and borage helps break it down faster. Actually writing this post helps me think about what I need to dig up and take down!

I've also transported the worm farm.

Meantime, I've got two raised beds that I put in that I've managed to fill without getting garden soil from the garden centre. The bottom is filled with the succulents I pulled out, rotten logs, and branches that we had chopped down, plus compost and chicken litter from the old place. The top layer is a thin layer of compost, but I'll get some bags of soil from the garden centre and plant things in little pockets for now so I have a kitchen garden all ready to go.

I've also started a fertiliser 'tea' in a big black bucket, containing broad leaf weeds (I have no comfrey growing yet - it's still dormant), well rotted manure, and worm castings. I'll add some seaweed to that next time I'm at the beach.

The buckets in the background are wicking buckets for tomatoes and chilli - I have about eight of them still to go. Basically it's one bucket inside the other, with a plastic plant pot that sits down inside a cut hole to the six inch water reservoir below. The soil fills the bucket and the plant pot, and the water 'wicks' into the soil, providing the plants with water as needed. It works brilliantly for tomatoes and chilli. I've been gradually filling them with a blend of cheap garden soil and compost, ready for planting in about a months time. For the tomatoes, I'll put an egg and a banana in the base as well, providing what the tomato will need nutrient wise.

Jamie has called me mad for all of this, but soil is so important, and if I don't do it now, I won't have prepared for late spring and early summer when the bulk of seedlings are planted and things start really growing.

And it's pretty impressive really, for only having been in the house for ten days.

If you need me, I'll be hauling compost, green waste and chicken straw and manure down the road...

THis was in response to the Hive Garden QOTW which was about soil, and is a few weeks later because I've been silly busy! And I also nearly missed the one about herbs, so here goes the 'herb' themed question!

Whilst Jamie was busy painting, I dug out a herb garden along the side of the shed. I can't live without herbs. They are so nourishing and add pizzazz to all meals.

As I said, the soil above is so sandy, so I have layered seaweed and straw and horse manure and plants the herbs in little pockets of compost. I transplanted thyme, oregano and garlic chives from the old house, because they grow in nice clumps. They also don't mind poor soil. That's enough to get started at least.

I also planted a white sage I had in a pot but I'll pick up a culinary sage soon.

This summer I'll plant basil in a pot on the balcony I think as I don't think I'll have enough growing space as yet. Coriander is my favourite but it's past the season - coriander dries out quickly so it'll have to wait til I have some better soil.

Mint will go in a pot, as I'm not making that mistake again... It grows wild and you need a lot of space to let it spread!

I was also really really chuffed to discover what I thought was a non culinary native rosemary was actually a genuine rosemary when I was weeding out the front today. I think I was talking to @holoz0r and @beelzael about how I wasn't going to plant one as it's easy enough to get from other people's gardens as it's so common, but I was super excited to find one already here! As it looks like coastal rosemary it blends well with the natives in the front so it can stay! Stoked!

Right, now I've written this post I have to get outside to take some photos for this post but it's absolutely pissing down rain! Hope your own gardens are doing well.

With Love,

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