Bear’s Den is home to friends Geri, Donna, and Peter. For thirty years they have been growing their own food. Two large areas on Bear’s Den are set aside for vegetable and fruit gardens where they grow everything from rhubarb and berries to garlic and potatoes.
In early June, Geri gave us a tour of their cumulative work. She pointed out what was growing and what worked best for them. She didn’t promote the “right” way to do things, but simply shared what has worked for them. Her message was to know your own land, your own garden, your own soil, your own resources and experiment with what you have. Gardening is a dynamic relationship between people and the soil and plants, and we will all develop that unique relationship with our own place.
Following are some pictures and tidbits of wisdom gathered from this tour.
- Seaweed (rockweed) is the only soil amendment they use (other than their own compost of chicken manure, grass clippings and kitchen waste), gathered from local beaches and applied in the fall.
- They have tomatoes in two different gardens, quite a distance from each other. When blight hit one garden, the few weeks it took for the disease to travel across the drive to the other garden was long enough to give the tomatoes there a jump start.
- Rather than using tomato cages, they’ve built a wood framework. Their tomato structures are an effort to avoid having to use 40 (or so) individual trellising structures.
- Pepper plants are planted with gallon milk carton or vinegar jugs around it to protect from wind.
- Garlic is mulched with old leaves and then topped with straw to keep leaves in place.
They don’t till! It’s one less machine that needs fixing, and good exercise to work the soil by hand. - They enjoy “volunteers” that come back – like lettuce and cilantro. It gives them an early source of greens in the spring
- The squash family plants are placed where they have plenty of room to sprawl.
- Know your pests (theirs are racoons and porcupines) and figure out ways to deal with them.
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- A beautiful handmade gate provides entry into the chicken run.
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- Screens cover beds with very young seedlings to reduce damage done by flea beetles and other pests.
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- Seaweed is gathered in late fall to cover beds for the winter, enriching the soil and protecting beds from erosion.
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- Rhubarb – a prolific springtime fruit.
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- Kiwi plants growing in Maine.
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- Garden beds side dressed with rockweed.
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- Branches with the bark removed as supports for growing tomatoes.
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- Pepper seedling protected from wind, and kept warm, by plastic jugs side dressed with seaweed.
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- Garlic galore mulched with maple leaves and straw.
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- Comfrey plants bordering the seaweed-covered spring garden.
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- Seedlings protected from pests with a screen.
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- Garlic growing in the foreground with grapes lining the back of the garden.
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- You’ll find whimsical art throughout the gardens.
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- Structures to support tomato plants. More layers of support will be added as tomato plants get taller.
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- The fundamentals of some great meals – garlic, peppers and tomatoes!
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- A perennial flower garden tucked among the boulders.
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- Perennial Rock Garden
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- Geri Valentine and WHRL executive director, Chris Kuhni, enjoying a chat about gardens.
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- Tour participants “talking gardens”.
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- Bear’s Den Garden Tour in June
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- One of many compost piles located throughout the gardens.
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- A shed used for tools and drying plants.
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- Nettle plants drying in the drying shed.
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- Nettle plants drying on racks.
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- The roof of a chicken coop collects rain water.