Winter prep time

Winter time is a great time to prep the garden. In some areas I'm starting with sheet mulching. I use palm leaf and cardboard as the base layer. Sometimes I will put a layer of grass or something like that under the initial cardboard layer. 

Here you can see bits of palm trunk cut up. When the inner layer is more exposed it is more likely to soak up water. This is an important feature of my irrigation system. 

Larger rotting out branches can be used to hold cardboard down. On a windy day it doesn't take long to realize that chasing cardboard around isn't near as easy as just putting a thin layer of soil and or a few branches. 

During the making of these garden beds I throw a lot of compost from the kitchen in. My first layer of mulch over the cardboard is what I call rough mulch. It's mulch with a lot of twigs, branches, pine cones, and other such biomass. 

These banana trees were planted before I got here. Once the sheet mulching is done they should really grow well. You can see bits of egg shell and peppers as compost here. Some people don't add citrus, garlic, onion, and such to their compost on account of the fact that the worms don't like them. The way I see it I'm working with a larger area so I imagine the citrus and other things will have long since decomposed before the worms run out of citrus free areas and other things to eat.  If I have a more focused compost pile to make potting soil I don't normally mix in the citrus and such. 

This is my cat, Tarzan. He is adjusting to this new home fairly well. Still the coolest cat around. 

Just behind the fire pit you can see my friends ingenuity. 

Back on the sheet mulching topic. I am taking a lot of the water weeds from the local canal and putting them as a layer in the sheet mulching. I find them to be a worthwhile addition so far.

So 3 to 6 months is a fairly standard wait time on building soil. It's ideal to do this step first. Planting and being with plants is fun but if the framework is built first it's a lot less work in the end. 

You can plant immediately after sheet mulching but I prefer to wait. Just makes it a bit easier, particularly if you started with poor soil. 

Winters also a great time to learn more cooking skills. I'm learning to cook more things and yes the above was a great meal. 

Fish soup! I don't typically like fish soup too much but I think I finally got it right this time. 

I've also been making bean burgers a lot. For those low income people out there bean burgers are a great way to save money.  Each of the burger patties come out to be roughly 20 cents each. You can make them for less I'm sure. I don't have any pictures of the bean burgers as they have all been devoured. 

Word of wisdom. 

Clean your mind and put good things in it. 

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