2013 Update: We are in the process of reconfiguring our Compass Garden. We are following a bio-dynamic and permaculture model. Pictures and updates will be coming.

Compass Gardens and Raised Beds...

Raised bed gardening has always been our choice of garden beds, so we decided to do something a little different. We created a Compass Garden which is a series of circular raised beds, with pathways at each four compass points. The purpose of this was:

• to create something unique
• to give flow to the garden by using rounded shapes instead of just straight pathways and beds
• to amend the soil in a controlled way by adding collected grass on top of the raised beds.
• and to create mulched pathways for ease of harvest, weed control and clean garden practices.

Variegated Sage

A beautiful herbal addition to the companion planted Compass Garden.

Not just another field...

Ed started this garden design idea by picking a good southern sloped field. In the middle of where he wanted the innermost circle of the bed. He hammered a wooden stake there and attached & stretched a rope to reach the diameter of the outermost circle. He hammered wooden stakes every 15 feet or so to give the general outline of the outer circle by measuring with his rope. He mowed the grass and weeds to see if the shape and size pleased him.

Then he attached his rototiller to his handy-dandy Simplicity 7116 garden tractor and started tilling up the entire area of the circle. Kids pulled clumps of grass, weeds and rocks out and we were finally left with a tilled piece of "round ground", perfect for digging into raised bed gardens.

The digging begins...

Starting in March of 2008, myself and our 11 year old, who desperately needed some "mom time" began this venture with a pointed spade, a square-headed shovel, two pairs of gloves, and two pairs of hands.

We started on the outer ring, 11 yo digging the grass out in a trench so the mower could get right up to the trench and hopefully eliminate the need for grass creeping into the bed as the season progressed.

I started piling the soil out of the first pathway, constructing the outer raised bed. I'd measure every few feet while digging, with the shovel handle, which is approx. 3 feet long. I made each bed and each pathway 3 ft wide. Simple to measure, easy to plant, weed and harvest a 3 foot raised bed. We made open pathways at each compass point, north, south, east & west to allow for easy entrance & exits as well as getting a garden tractor & trailer in for maintenance of the whole garden.

TREASURE!!!

As we dug, we continued to remove clumps of grass and rocks and any other unwanted debris. Among the treasures found were old horseshoes, some pottery shards, and an arrowhead. Perfect training ground for amateur archaeologists!

Inspiration in a Compass Garden...

Each ring became more inspiring as we got closer to the center of the garden. Much conversation was had over the shovelfuls of soil and the comparison of our lives to the work involved in making a garden which would produce something good.

Compass Garden theory, pointing the way to True North...

Each day, we'd stand back and survey the work, feeling good about accomplishing something so promising. Going to bed tired, waking up sore, hands blistered & calloused but going back out to continue the necessary work side by side. Fighting the good fight.

As you can see by this picture, not all beds were planted this year. We mulched with newspaper and then wood chips in the pathways. The beds are covered with grass cuttings and leaves to decompose for next year's nutrients. This year they mainly serve as mulch on the beds. The upper beds were already more fertile because of years of piling grass clippings, sawdust and other compost materials on the ground which were tilled in.

Water, sunlight, weed control...

We've been experiencing a drought for the past two years in East Tennessee and up until this summer of 2008, we had high hopes that our springs would carry us through. As they started barely trickling by June, we became quite concerned that water was not as plentiful in these hills as we'd once thought. Ed has a pump hooked up to our large pond and tapped into the underground irrigation system. For more on that project, go to our Irrigation page .

July 2008 Compass Garden

Remember, we really didn't expect anything to come out of these raised bed gardens this year. It was merely an experiment to work out the logistics of water, plant spacing, mulching technique, and to amend the soil for next year.So we were pleasantly surprised to see abundant produce ready for harvest in July. The nasturtiums were especially prolific. There is a new variety we tried called variegated coral that is beautiful in salads as well as the garden.

Beautiful coral color and variegated leaf Nasturtium

The taste of a Nasturtium flower has a "peppery" flavor to it, but isn't hot. A variety of colorful Nasturtium blooms make a beautiful salad adornment. Nasturtiums provide many benefits to a garden for insect control and lures beneficial insects and pollinators.

Harvesting Purple Bush Beans

Note the Horseradish and Beans growing together in the first raised bed, companion planting was researched for this combination. Garlic Chives and Nasturtiums are also inter-planted here. Further down the row are Asparagus, Nasturtiums, Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Petite Marigold, and Cilantro, all inter-planted for insect control. It's worked beautifully in this Compass Garden!

The east quadrant of the Compass Garden

Note the Red Current bush that ended up in one of the rings. We just worked around it rather than kill or try to re-plant that large bush! Echinacea, Purple Coneflower and White Coneflower are on the outer ring.

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