A slow garden under four old pines
Acid soil, dry shade and needles everywhere. A notebook of experiments, failures and the few plants that decided to stay.
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Planting garlic along the sunny fence, drying bean and marigold seed, and the list for next year.
Tomatoes in the only sunny corner
Six plants, one patch of afternoon sun, and a harvest that was better than it had any right to be.
Rainwater: two butts and a gutter diverter
Blueberries want soft water and August wants to be dry. A small, cheap setup that nearly keeps up.
Blueberries in a raised bed, second summer
The one crop that actually likes what the pines do to the soil.
Pine needle mulch: six months in
Does it really make the soil more acidic? My pH readings, before and after.
What finally grew under my pines
Three seasons of failures, and the short list of plants that survived dry shade.
The moss I stopped fighting
Four years of reseeding grass in the shade. Then I let the moss win, and the garden got better.
A compost heap that can handle needles
Needles take forever to rot on their own. A winter plan for a heap that can actually digest them.
Why this notebook exists
No ads, no newsletter, no comments. Just a record of what worked here.