Well, I have to admit that last fall I made my first colossal screw up in my application of the 100 Mile Diet, what I call the 100 Foot Diet Garden. The worst part of my screw up is that it didn’t show up until this spring.
So just what was my screw up?
Well, as I have discussed in the past, I do not believe in turning the soil in my garden boxes. My thoughts are that nature does not turn the soil, so why should I? Besides, it is really tough work turning the soil.
Typically in the fall I build more soil on top of the existing soil. I try to replicate nature, in an expedited way.
First thing after harvest is done, I empty the composter into the garden box. I just make a small trench down the middle of each garden bed and shovel the compost from the composter into that trench. I then cover up the compost (which can be quite stinky).
Next I collect leaves from the local area and heap them on the soil. I then leave that for the winter.
In the spring I may add a bag or two of garden soil to cover the leaves and then we begin planting.
My screw up? Last fall I collected the bags of leaves from the neighbourhood and heaped them onto the garden beds as usual.
What I didn’t notice was that the bags of chestnut tree leaves were also filled with chestnuts. And just in case you didn’t know this, chestnut trees grow from chestnuts.
So if I “planted” a hundred chestnuts in the garden boxes, I should have expected a hundred chestnut trees to sprout up in the spring.
Therefore, this spring I changed my practice a bit. I dug and turned over the soil in the garden boxes.