The vegetable garden of the lazy Breton

[Carl]

Hello everybody

"Lazy Breton is looking for a low-maintenance vegetable garden."
I'm looking for an answer to this announcement ...

After the discovery of the Youtube videos of Did67, I'm lucky to know someone who will allow me to use his non constructible terrain of 900m2, by the sea (the sleeve).

I would like if possible, to know your opinions, on the following subjects:

1. What do you think to start with 300 or 400m2 to start? (avoidance of potential discouragement)

2. I try to determine the nature of the soil at first and I also look for more information on the phenoculture on these different types of soil.
To determine it, I tried the test of the jar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qozbuabbqY4
But here are their demarcations:

And here is a picture of my result ...

I have trouble placing the different layers ....

3. To conclude, two questions for Didier that I think are important but for which, I still have no answer:
How much time per week do you spend in your kitchen garden? and how long would you spend there, if you were trying to reduce it to the maximum?

Thanks in advance ;-)

[jpg43]

Hello, 300 or 400m2 to start and avoid discouragement? In my opinion can be a little too much. But if it is possible to cover this surface with sufficient thickness of hay, it is now possible to envisage, from the spring or the end of winter, to start planting especially at the sea-shore, and then to cultivate progressively according to these possibilities.
the covered and uncultivated part can wait and be put into cultivation according to its needs and possibilities. However, it is necessary to extract the weeds that would have managed to survive and especially the bindweed which will always survive.

JP

[olivier75]

Hello,
If you are not yet a gardener, 200 to 300 m2 should be ideal, time to integrate the. Ulture of each vegetable, to understand your needs, your desires, cooking time.
You can also just start with the surface that you can cover with the hay of the rest.
Olivier.

[Did67]

2. I try to determine the nature of the soil at first and I also look for more information on the phenoculture on these different types of soil.
To determine it, I tried the test of the jar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qozbuabbqY4
But here are their demarcations:

And here is a picture of my result ...

I have trouble placing the different layers ....

This method is not satisfactory. Curious. The video is very well done. But technically, it's very very approximate.

1) The texture is only made on the fine particles: this starts with sieving through a mesh screen of 2 mm (otherwise the texture triangle is distorted).

2) It is then necessary to treat with oxygenated water, to destroy the ties that can form the organic matter ... The principle is based on the speed of sedimentation, and therefore the size of the particles. Some particles of silt glued together by humic substances pass into the category of sands.

3) The clays must be dispersed. In time, the calgon consisted of the dispersant used by the labs: sodium hexametaphosphate. This is no longer the case. I looked at different formulas in supermarkets. And I do not know if the new Calgon fit.

Rather than differentiate the layers, you mark according to a chrono - I can not remember the normal durations ...

But you know that an approach to the touch already allows you to know a lot, compared to what needs:

a) when the soil is wet, can we form small sausages that can be twisted into a "pretzel"? If so, the character of the clays dominates.

b) Does it crush under the fingers and crushing and rubbing: then the sand gives its character.

c) in an old strainer, you fill, you pour water: does it pass, and ironing, and ironing ... Or very quickly, it breaks down and the water stagnates?

[sicetaitsimple]

Hello and welcome,
quite agree with the two previous opinions, if you start in gardening what you understand without really specifying, 300 to 400m2 the first year is maybe a lot.
Now it depends on you and the time you have to devote to it, and especially (see recent exchanges but I do not know if it is on the main thread or a parallel thread) of your goals..
One point also: if it is a land that is lent to you, perhaps it is not directly next to you? I think (I say I think because personally I am in my garden only the WE and not all) that the proximity and therefore the ability to pass without constraint of trip 1 / 4h, 1 / 2h or one hour a day regularly in season (if only to harvest!) should help a lot if you start to have a significant surface.

[Did67]

3. To conclude, two questions for Didier that I think are important but for which, I still have no answer:
How much time per week do you spend in your kitchen garden? and how long would you spend there, if you were trying to reduce it to the maximum?

Thanks in advance ;-)

Very variable. At the time of planting, planting is sometimes one or two days in a row ...

In "routine": one turn in the morning, one in the evening. To breathe and smell. Arm a trap. Fill a beer trap.

There were ten days of hunting slugs, in the evening, at night - 15 mn every night, a dozen days spread over a fortnight

Sometimes harvest: at this moment, a basin of tomatoes, it takes a little time ... Strawberries, I do not tell you. Or the raspberries!

This summer, it happened several weeks without having been otherwise than to pluck! (work on the shower, travel)

I reduce to the maximum, so to make the minimum. Hence corners that sometimes leave in what looks like wilderness ... but I catch up when I need it, with a roll of hay! It does not bother me.

But planting, sowing, making buckets, and now, from time to time, plug drip into the greenhouse and tunnel, it takes a little time ... There are incompressible ...

[sicetaitsimple]

Warning!

Didier often says that he is "a very bad market gardener" or something like that! Let him have that opinion!

But despite everything, some videos show it, years of gardening including conventional gardening means that he masters the subject well and that it "deposits" when it comes to work, sowing, transplanting, etc ...

So be careful, when we start we are a little less efficient! As a result, on the one hand, because you have to learn well and it is rare that you do "everything right" the first time, but also in the past.

[Carl]

Hello everyone and a big thank you for these rewarding returns!

I do not have a great experience for the moment and it is conventional (mocultant even! Arf the horror ). A 15m2 outdoor vegetable garden followed by a 12m2 greenhouse all over a period of 4mXNUMX ...

Indeed, for having seen the 38 first videos of Didier, the most consistent work seems to be potted planting and transplanting ... I put aside the crops which, although they take time, represent the moments more pleasant.

The land in question is not very close to my home, but not far either (<10mn by car). However, this means that in winter it will be difficult for me to go on weekdays.

My reasonable estimate:
- 30 / 45mn on Tuesdays and Thursdays from April to October
- 4h per weekend from April to October
- 2h per weekend from November to March

This land of 900m2 is not fenced and I found there rabbit droppings. So I will not be able to do without a wire mesh.

At the sight of your advice, I think therefore to close 500m2 and to use that half to begin. The rest remains grassed and mowed from time to time.

Concerning the type of soil, the proximity of the land with the sea (about 200m) made me believe in a very sandy soil. But when it was still wet, I could make a pudding with that did not break directly. Without being able to make a pretzel for as much (clayey). So I think it's pretty silty.
Here is what it looks like, once dry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVOY0ZcBEvw
And here is the ground in question:
In images, in pictures :





Or in video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_i-ycf3FcM

[sicetaitsimple]

At the sight of your advice, I think therefore to close 500m2 and to use that half to begin. The rest remains grassed and mowed from time to time.

C

Very good resolution! And if around June / July you feel cramped, nothing will prevent you from punctually spreading your 250m2!

But hey, first think about your goals! From my point of view, this is really the most important.

[Did67]

Didier often says that he is "a very bad market gardener" or something like that! Let him have that opinion!
.

I just describe myself as "mediocre"!

And you're right, my technical gestures are good. Learned very young. My father was a professional gardener, trained by the Germans, a producer of seedlings (vegetables and vegetables) which he sold in the surrounding villages. So I bathed in it.

I am ironically an exceptional digger. If I had so bad back, I could win contests so the result is nickel ...

My mediocrity concerns among other things certain vegetables, knowledge of varieties, dates, porridge, etc ...