Rachel put to work on our mosaic cinder block garden bed
When it comes to horticulture , my wife likes order and I like chaos . She likes raise beds and neat rows – I like hacking holes in the earth and discombobulate seeds around . I likemixing everything together – she likes preserve things impound .
Our styles are very different but between the two of us , our plots are much more productive than they would be with either of us alone . Her preferences dial me back a bit … and my experimentation stretches her . As I’veposted on before , I built Rachel some raised square metrical unit beds in the Mel Bartholomew mould . One of the first of those was made from cinder blocks but I never care the undecided industrial look or the weeds that came out of the kettle of fish in the auction block . Another thing I did n’t care was the amount of water we had to give the plants in it . We went with 6″ of Mel ’s Mix over weed cloth . The plants did well but ask quite a chip of water .
That ’s all changed now . I discover an aesthetically pleasing and H2O - retentive way to re - invent this bed by melding the wisdom of Sepp Holzer with the spruceness and club of Mel Bartholomew . This is alike to myMelon Pits , but contained by adorable Bauhaus - manner concrete . Well … at least they WERE Bauhaus before I break out the tiles and mortar.Amazon.com doodad
Behold ! The Hugelfoot Bed Of Mosaic Cinderblock Incredibleness !
A mosaic clinker pulley garden layer is prettier than a ho-hum cyder occlusion layer .
Rachel works on our mosaic cinder block garden bed
Is n’t that coolheaded ? And it ’s not just pretty … it ’s a first-rate - duper raised bed – now with hugelkultur good .
What puddle this seam particular ? Let me show you : Here ’s the base . I put substantial crownwork blocks on top of stock hollow cinderblocks . After I leveled everything , it looked gracious , fresh and solid . I then prod down about 2′ further .
After that , it was time to make in waste paper , junk mail service , old paper plates , reefer , moss , corncobs and other carboniferous dust .
Rachel works on our mosaic cinder block garden bed
Yeah , that needs a stomping !
Ah , that ’s better . Now time to irrigate everything in .
Then I put in a heaping freight of mostly finished compost .
Rachel works on our mosaic cinder block garden bed
That completed , I topped it off again with the original 6″ of Mel ’s Mix .
And voila ! Magnifico !
That reckon right enough for most masses . But I ’ve been itch to do more mosaic oeuvre , so the tike and Rachel and I had a mosaic day . I assigned each of the older children a square cinderblock and let them have at it . The next day , I did a few , then the twenty-four hours after that , Rachel and I did the rest and grouted everything .
Rachel works on our mosaic cinder block garden bed
Here are a few shots of the mosaic :
As it is , this bottom has about 36″ of depth , plus rafts of compost and a wood reservoir in the bottom . My hope is that this marriage of hugelkultur and substantial understructure horticulture will meld the strengths of both .
Here in Florida it ’s hard to keep things irrigate and happy in the heat of recent spring … we shall see how this bottom performs .
If it works importantly comfortably than my other beds , I ’ll do the same with them ( though I ’m not indisputable I ’ll have sentence to mosaic everything ! ) .
For mosaic inspiration , I extremely recommendthis book :
For Square Foot Gardening , get a copy ofthis book :
A mosaic cinder block garden bed is prettier than a boring cider block bed.
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A mosaic cinder block garden bed is prettier than a boring cider block bed.
