Preparing the Melon Patch

Last week, four of the kids and I took the better part of a day to prepare the melon patch.  We plant this area Three Sisters style each summer.  In the winter, we put the chicken tractors on it.  It’s doubly great because we don’t have to move the chicken tractors around the lawn, and the chickens prepare the soil for the next planting.  This is how the area looked when we began.

We started by watering the area.  I mean a serious watering.  It hasn’t been watered in months other than the pathetic California rain we get.  So, we used the jet setting on the sprayer to stir the dirt, wet it and loosen it up all at the same time. 

Then we started weeding the area.

Before too long, the mud became irresistible J

Once the irresistible mud play was over, we worked on making the mounds for planting.  I raked the soil to loosen it and get it ready to be moved to the mounds. Before we formed each mound, we put down a layer of steer manure.  Then I raked the piles of dirt on top of it.  Hannah formed the mounds with a slight indentation on the top to help hold water.  And, Lucas covered each one with mulch.  I added more mounds this year, so we have a total of 11.

We also prepared to plant potatoes.  These are the bins we used for potatoes.

And, these are the seed potatoes ready for planting.

The littlest ones planted corn on top of each mound. 

Lucas planted onions all around the edge of the patch.  And, Hannah planted potatoes in the buckets.  She put about 6 inches of garden soil in the bottom, then she spaced the seed potatoes around the bucket.  After that, she covered them with a couple of inches of soil.  As the plants grow, we will slowly continue to cover them with soil.  The ultimate goal is to have buckets full of potatoes.  We’ll see how it works.  We haven’t tried this technique before.

I put the buckets in the melon patch because I can’t seem to keep anything alive if it’s not planted in the garden.  So, I’m hoping that if I put the buckets in the garden, the potatoes will do well.

And, here is the final product.  Actually, it’s missing the white potato bucket.  But, since this was taken, Jim drilled drainage holes in the bottom and planted potatoes in it also.  So, we’re ready to see how our harvest turns out.