Visiting the Engineered Garden
Yesterday, some friends and I had the opportunity to visit Jeff's garden in my hometown of Russellville (about 25 minutes south of Florence). I've been reading Jeff's blog, Our Engineered Garden for some time now and I'm constantly amazed at his inventive ways of growing vegetables. He truly takes the art of square foot gardening to another level.
Jeff grows many vegetables on trellises. In this photo, tomatoes grow on one side of the trellis and watermelons grow on the opposite side. I didn't realize that you could grow different plants so close to each other but Jeff says that it is not a problem.
Here is a wider shot of the bed. Okra (one of my favorites) grows in the middle. Beans are planted on the trellises. The beds are fenced in to keep the deer out.
And some yummy squash -
The tomatoes growing in this bed are all "Cherokee Purple", a variety he recommends highly.
Tomatoes growing on a compost pile!
And speaking of that, Jeff is the master of compost -
Turning the compost piles can be back breaking work so he built a contraption that turns it for him -
He also grows many plants in self-watering containers. Here he is demonstrating how he builds one (see his blog for instructions).
These are sweet potato plants growing in self-watering containers.
And more containers made from cat litter buckets. Hmmm, I have a basment full of these...
Another highlight of the trip was meeting the star of Jeff's blog, Jude. What a sweetheart!
We all enjoyed the visit and learned a lot. If you want to learn more about these techniques and more, be sure to visit Our Engineered Garden. Thanks Jeff!
Speaking of vegetables, we had fried squash (from Michael's customers), butter peas (from the Farmer's Market), cornbread, and peppers from our own garden tonight. Delicious, but if I keep this up, I will have to renew my gym membership soon.
Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
Jeff grows many vegetables on trellises. In this photo, tomatoes grow on one side of the trellis and watermelons grow on the opposite side. I didn't realize that you could grow different plants so close to each other but Jeff says that it is not a problem.
Here is a wider shot of the bed. Okra (one of my favorites) grows in the middle. Beans are planted on the trellises. The beds are fenced in to keep the deer out.
And some yummy squash -
The tomatoes growing in this bed are all "Cherokee Purple", a variety he recommends highly.
Tomatoes growing on a compost pile!
And speaking of that, Jeff is the master of compost -
Turning the compost piles can be back breaking work so he built a contraption that turns it for him -
He also grows many plants in self-watering containers. Here he is demonstrating how he builds one (see his blog for instructions).
These are sweet potato plants growing in self-watering containers.
And more containers made from cat litter buckets. Hmmm, I have a basment full of these...
Another highlight of the trip was meeting the star of Jeff's blog, Jude. What a sweetheart!
We all enjoyed the visit and learned a lot. If you want to learn more about these techniques and more, be sure to visit Our Engineered Garden. Thanks Jeff!
Speaking of vegetables, we had fried squash (from Michael's customers), butter peas (from the Farmer's Market), cornbread, and peppers from our own garden tonight. Delicious, but if I keep this up, I will have to renew my gym membership soon.
Comments
Frances
Marnie
Hello! I stopped by to see your photos of Jeff's Engineered Garden. You have some nice garden posts too. I'll be back. Have a good week.
You are the first one I've heard of speaking about butter peas. I love them but can't find the seeds. Will have to research further.
Oh, you're eating well. It's healthy stuff. I think you already have a membership to that gym called a garden! :-)
I've just be checking the construction posts on his blog.
I'll bet Alabama gets hot enough for tomato volunteers to produce fruit. They're just start to come up in my garden right now, but there won't be enough regular heat to ripen any fruit, so they're weeds.