Before & After

About two, maybe two and a half months ago I posted this photo of a garden I created beside the house.....

The beans and radishes had recently popped up, and only a few potatoes had sprouted. Today, this is how it looks.........

Those beans have set plenty of pods......

I've already harvested the bean seed from the Black Valentine beans that were right along the house. And the seed from the purple podded variety will start drying down in two weeks. The early potatoes may start maturing by then too. 

Needless to say, I'm pleased how this garden area turned out. Once things are harvested, I plan to lightly till in some homemade compost & livestock manure, then replant. I still have a couple varieties of potatoes that I need to grow out for seed spuds and a waiting in paper bags to be planted, so I'll plant them where the beans had been. Those radishes in the middle of the bed will stay for awhile. They are for seed production, which takes a longer time in radishes. Back where the potatoes are right now, I plan to sow Rio Zape beans. 

So far I haven't seen any diseases or pests here. If they start up, then I will need to switch to some other unrelated crops. 

Just last year this area had been used to park vehicles, plus it was gravel with grass. So this is quite the transformation. The trick was to derock it, loosen up the compacted areas, and add organic material. As long as the crops I plant here do well, I won't send out a soil sample for testing. But I have added some lava sand, beach coral, and burnt bones for minerals. The moment things don't look right, I'll break down and get that comprehensive soil test. I've gotten to the point where I'm getting to know my soil well enough to get by without regular testing, other than home pH tests.