Bohemian Bounty

Deep Eddy Organic Garden

Bohemian Bounty recently completed a new raised-bed, organic garden in the Deep Eddy neighborhood. If you are not familiar with Deep Eddy it’s west of Mopac and its namesake is Austin’s other amazing spring-fed swimming pool – Deep Eddy. In reality, Austin has a number of cool spring-fed swimming holes, some official some not, but all amazing in the hot summer. The other thing Austin has many of is hills – steep hills. Deep Eddy is no exception.

The yard in question is so steep from the front to back a raised-bed or container garden is almost required. As the family is new to gardening we started small with a raised-bed made of beautiful 2×12 cedar. The garden makes use of a portion of the yard that went unloved due to its small size and isolation of the rest of the backyard. As it is fenced on both side the planting scheme featured a number of climbing vegetables to take advantage of vertical space. We also incorporated a number of Middle Eastern vegetable varieties the family used often in their cooking including a small, tender okra Jen tracked down called “Star of David” and a cucumber called Persian.

The home owner is a new fan of Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew and wanted to try a number of his techniques. Bohemian Bounty mixed up a big batch of Mel’s Mix soil for one bed and filled the remain beds with a great soil mix from Garden-Ville. We’re excited to see if there will be any noticeable difference between the plants in each section as the garden matures. It’s a great experiment we are happy to be a part of.

Challenges on this garden installation included working around an existing in-ground irrigation system which was replaced with an above-ground drip system for the garden, working with shade from a ligustrium tree, and creating an attractive gardening space which enhances the yard and works well with the fencing already in place.

On the planting day the entire family got in to the act with all the children and both parents planting vegetables, herbs, flowers and seeds. The finished garden looks fabulous. The only down-side so far is the neighbor’s cat thinking Mel’s Mix makes for an awesome litter box. We’re working on that little problem…

Gardens Create A Community

Early this Spring, Bohemian Bounty and volunteers from Edible San Marcos hosted a seed starting workshop for the children who live at the C.M. Allen Housing Projects. The seeds have been flourishing in the Bohemian’s greenhouse under safe keeping since. Recently, the Bohemians joined forces again with Edible San Marcos volunteers and residents to build a fence for the garden.

Our work was cut out for us on this one. Materials were preordered and despite the mix up in the post sizing, we managed to get all the holes dug, posts in place, and fence lightly strung in one day. We also gave a few people a lesson in mixing and pouring cement, as well as leveling posts. By the end of the work day, the local kids were eager to put their plants in the ground…but that must wait for another weekend after we have tilled. Happy Gardening !

Gardens, Not Grass

On April Fools Day Bohemian Bounty installed a large garden for a client in Wells Branch who is living the mantra “Gardens, not grass”. Grass is great to eat – if you’re a cow. Non-bovines with grass lawns spend half their time making it grow and the other half cutting it down. If that’s not April-foolish, I don’t know what is.

So, in an effort to stop the insanity we designed, installed and planted four 16 foot long beds and converted two fence lines to gardens as well. Much of the back yard will now be growing vegetables. On the menu were blackberry bushes, asparagus, multiple varieties of tomatoes and peppers – both sweet and hot, cucumber, bay laurel, basil, thyme, oregano, giant sunflowers, okra, strawberries, salad greens, summer squash, bush beans, pole beans and lots of beautiful and beneficial flowers.

Herbs, Meet Vegetables

A few months back we installed a small organic herb garden in to a pre-existing, rock-tiered backyard bed in far southwest Austin. The landscaped area was a pretty, though underutilized, portion of the hilly yard. After breaking up the soil, adding compost and a layer of chicken wire to discourage the family’s dog the herbs took off. The family enjoyed the experience so much they decided to expand the garden and add a wide variety of organic vegetables and flowers.

Bohemian Bounty was more than happy to help expand the garden. Jen worked with them to created a planting design the kids would enjoy and a schedule that would keep the garden productive. We then came in and prepped the bed by spading, removing stone and cedar roots, adding compost, installing wire to discourage rabbits, adding pathways, planting seeds and laying out the plants for a family planting activity. It was a great day and we can’t wait to see the bounty!