“What are you doing this weekend?” Everyone seemed to ask me that today; the admin at work, the chiropractor, the mailman, the teller at the bank today. Quite frankly, I wasn’t really too sure. Mom and dad sent a vacuum (that works) home with me; I could do housework, there are still seeds that I want to plant, we’re supposed to be getting berry bushes that need to get into ground, we need to finish painting the chicken coop before the monsoon season starts, we also need to work on the circle garden. I wish I had started this blog yesterday so that I could say, “We’re making Stonehenge.” Now, after researching a bit for this blog, and having a discussion with Sue, I think that’s where the focus is going to lie- our own little Stonehenge, otherwise known as the circle garden.

Circle garden? Well yes, like everything we do here, it’s an idea that’s been co-opted into something that we think will work for us.  We’re very intent on re-nourishing the soil, and covering it with mulch, composted manure, etc., will be the best way to do that. So, Sue came up with this idea to use a key-hole garden, of sorts, in different areas of the “yard” to get that going.  I was all, “Sure! Sounds great!” Sue said, “I want to do it bigger than 6 feet though; that sounds really small, and I don’t want to have little polka dots all around.” Taking after my fathers maxim that “bigger is better”, I was all for larger. Who wants a little six foot garden? We have much more space – let’s make it bigger! We thought that maybe eight feet would be good. Thursday morning she started working on it. By the time I came home yesterday, she had a 20 foot diameter garden laid out.  WOW! I love it!!! It’s like our own little Stonehenge.

You know, the circle has long been a symbol or physical element used in many types of ancient energy work; to me it has a calming effect and represents a wonderful flow from self to God and back again. There is something prayerful about the circle and I especially like the idea of using it to raise food that will be sustaining our bodies and those of our little co-workers and friends. Since I took the above photo, Sue and I had some layout and design conversations; tomorrow we will change the design a bit and it will end up being completely circular, without the walkway – which is no longer needed in our new design. That will feel more complete to me, maybe the energy flow will be more smooth that way. I know it sounds like a bit of hocus-pocus, but I truly find that we are attuned to energies, both good and bad. If you want an example, ask me to tell you the house hunting story the next time we get together. (For some fun and/or odd information, google “energy circles” or “healing circles”.)

As I alluded to in the second paragraph, this isn’t the traditional key-hole garden, for which I’ve given you a link to check out; our final design will be without the keyhole that is traditionally placed in the center. We will have walkways to create quadrants – they will almost run exactly to compass points, or maybe over ley lines. (Come on~ I’m kidding about that.) Under those walkways we will have the longitudinal “troughs” for the compost material to be deposited. We want to use these as earthworm farms, for they are sorely lacking in our soil. The boards over the walkways, held up by cinder blocks, will allow the worms to be in a safe, moist area with access to the compost. When we water, the compost juice will run out along the walkways and disperse the nutrients through out the garden. It is, like most of what we do here, an experiment.  Granted, it’ll be on a greater scale, but how can you go wrong with adding good things to poor soil? We’ve talked about lining the garden with welded wire mesh so that we can keep out those dang gophers that are cropping up everywhere! Then we’ll put down a layer of cardboard that will help hold moisture and also decompose over time (much like what is happening in the reverse Hügelkulture bed), then add composted horse manure on top with maybe some mulch stolen from the defunct depression garden. I have a feeling it’ll be great and maybe we’ll be able to grow some corn still! We’ll keep you posted on the progress and let you know how it goes. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

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Today’s Weather: It was a beautiful 79° today, with very little wind. Right now (7:42 p.m.) it’s only down to 66°, low is only supposed to be 50°.  The weekend holds more of the same and then climbing to the low 90°’s in the week.

Egg Report: Yesterday we had eight eggs, but only 5 today. We’ve started stealing them from those broody hens. They just are not consistent enough to bring any eggs through to hatching.  We’re thinking about getting an incubator relatively soon.