Planning next years back yard food garden.....

Mulch made from shredded yard waste in a municipal recycling program, showing compost bins in the background and gloves in the foreground. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is a bit too much shade in my garden area due to the elephantine trees that are covering the yard.  I have seen a 32 foot pole saw on Ebay that looks like it might just be the ticket to prune these monsters and let a little light in. Hope the branches don't fall on my head. Need to hook up the water hose next year and actually water my new plants rather than experimenting with what dies in drought conditions.

Ruth Stout is to be my new model as a gardener even though she is long since deceased.  I greatly enjoyed her book "Gardening Without Work".  I am not totally opposed to all types of work rather I just like to work smarter rather than harder.  Her extreme mulch gardening methods look like they just may be the ticket to food gardening for someone with my attitude and general disposition.  I may have to modify some of her recommendations to avoid alarming my neighbors.  The front yard is off limits to an eight inch layer of mulch for food gardening per my wife's instructions.  Also, I believe that Ruth said she occasionally gardened nude in her isolated country garden which would not go over so well with the Hartford police.

I plan to start with a small area that I can handle easily and then gradually expand if I can do so in a way that is attractive to any onlookers.  One gardening neighbor gave me some raspberries this year which was very kind.  Her next door garden is sharp looking and she appeared to have a good harvest this year.  She is Native American and has led a very active life with many tales to tell.  It appears to me that a person or large animal may have pushed down her wire fence to get at some of her tempting produce however.  We have many small animals but I have not seen any deer in either yard so I suspect the culprit is a two legged variety of animal.  I am locking up my fence to avoid any similar occurrences in my yard.

Just need to wait for spring to start planting now.  Plan to get some free mulch from the city to try the Ruth Stout method as soon as possible.  At least in a small part of the back yard.

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