Polyculture bed

Here is a photo of the polyculture bed in my yard. this was taken at the same time as the volunteer tomatoes, some time in June. The bed is 12' x 4' and raised about 6".

Pictured is mostly lettuce, a few remaining radishes and calendula. We also planted dill, beans, and parsnips. As of today, pretty much all of the lettuce has bolted. It looks nice towering over the garden, but it is almost too bitter for me to eat.

More than the food value, I’m amazed at the variety of insects that now inhabit my yard. It is a mix of good and bad, there seems to be a balance. Of course I still have more slugs than I would prefer, but I’ve found several species of lady bug beetle. The least familiar is a redish pink one, Coleomegilla maculata.

I must go to work.

volunteers

Pictured here is the colony of volunteer tomato plants. I believe they are either small roma or large grape tomatos which have sprung forth from my first compost pile. This photo is a month or two old, we now have a decent crop, in various states of ripeness.

I shall try to post a more recent photo, trouble is clarity. Everything in that corner of the yard is starting to grow together.

There is now an unidentitied squash colony to the left, or possibly just a sprawling plant with 3 different shapes of leaves and two types of flowers stalks. I'm guessing spaghetti squash. To the right (lower right corner of photo), I have my first attempt at a poly-culture garden based on the first “recipe” in Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden. We’ve eaten a lot of lettuce and radishes, dill and now wait for the beans. Serving as a back drop we have what I figure to be an arborvitea.

Alright enough rambling. My original goal here was to post a photo.

Good night.