Update on the Moir’s Garden – by Kay Faught

The Moir Family

My Neighbor’s Garden – by Kay Faught

Last summer, I wrote about Rick and Michelle Moir’s garden—they had decided to sterilize their garden soil and take a year off from vegetable gardening— here’s a follow-up!

The Moir’s have a large 1.5-acre yard. A huge portion of it used for their “country family environment.” Rick, a Master Gardener, loves to till the soil and grow while Michelle loves to harvest everything for freezer jams and mountains of frozen treasures for the winter months. What I found interesting last year is that they’d decided to kill a large portion of the veggie garden since it had become laden with bugs and weeds.

The fenced garden has an herb section in the center, surrounded by a major harvest area, (primarily Rick’s portion) and another set of beds along the outside packed with sunflowers and berries. To recover their once-healthy soil, they covered the entire area last June with huge plastic sheets, weighed-down with rocks. For sterilizing the ground, they took advantage of solar heat for 7-10 days when the temperatures were 100+ degrees. As it turned-out, they actually left it on for a full month in order to benefit from all the 100+ degree days. Once the plastic was removed, Rick let the soil rest until February. Then, they tested the soil, added their own compost, did another test, added nitrogen, and then tilled the entire area and let it sit again. Planting resumed in late May, this year.

This year, a change they made to their normal planting habits was using far more seed plantings—Michelle’s only regret. The gardeners say they were not happy with the yield from the seeded areas and blame the seeds. Even in some of the non-sterilized areas, seeds for flowers did not do well for them. Michelle will use seeds again but says she’s going to use a better seed line next time. Michelle says she was amazed that they had no bugs or insects this year—absolutely no earwigs—and credits soil sterilization for the result. For Rick, the huge decrease in invasive weeds was another successful part of the soil experiment.

A change in the Moir garden this year is the addition of four, large, raised planting beds. Michelle had always wanted raised beds, but admitted that her plan never materialized because of Rick’s love of tilling soil! One of the benefits of the “rest year” was that Rick realized how much more time Michelle had with a year of no weeding! The ergonomically-designed boxes got new soil and their own compost. They’re both so pleased with the boxes that another box is going-in this fall, dedicated to growing strawberries! Three varieties of tomatoes, beans, lettuce, herbs, onions, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes and carrots, went into the boxes, leaving the main planting area for Rick’s squashes, melons, corn and zucchini. Although the box yield was less-than hoped-for, the boxes were a wonderful addition and produced enough for Michelle to make her roasted and pureed tomato paste, which should be great!

After a successful soil experiment, Rick and Michelle’s advice to gardeners is to “go for it”…with zero weeds and no bugs!

Kay is the owner of Blue Door Garden Store, located at 155 N Third St. Specializing in paraphernalia for the home gardener, she carries garden gifts, decor and a wide variety of pots, tools, gloves, and organic product.

Posted October 16, 2013