The long process of building the Octagon is done! (Well, mostly.) We have been watching it come together for months. This amazing, one-of-a-kind structure was built by Hippos Landscaping in our orchard.
Why the “Octagon”? Well, it has eight sides. And it’s not a greenhouse, because greenhouses are temperature-controlled and enclosed. It is, in essence, an extremely over-engineered set of raised beds. The Octagon is meant to be an outdoor space, not an indoor space. Sunlight, rain, and pollinators are welcome. Maybe even some birds, though they are usually not very interested in my garden, because they prefer to eat the fruit off my fruit trees! It is built to keep deer, rabbits, and similar critters away from my vegetables.
Here is how I started the day, Farmer Heather, bright eyed and bushy-tailed in my new gardening apron. I was expecting to get it all done in the morning. (Ha, ha. That did not happen.)
I foolishly decided to harvest some compost from one of my bins, first thing in the morning. This was foolish because I didn’t really need it, and it was tiring work that set me back at least half an hour as the day grew warm. I’m the first to admit I am not good at composting. But I am content with my modest skills. There is a balance between effort and benefit. I just throw stuff in the bin and let it rot. No messing with thermometers and moisture measurements. As a consequence, about a quarter of it does usually not break down, and so I just throw it back in for another cycle. (The avocado skins and fruit pits take forever to break down.) But the rest is black gold.
Here are “before” pictures of the Octagon. It is a thing of beauty! All the windows open up on pistons so I can reach the beds from both sides. The structure is not quite done: the sink and bench are still in progress, and there will be wood chips on the ground later, but it’s ready for planting.
Here are some pictures of the planting in progress. I had to lay out all the plants and install the cages and trellises.
Today I filled in most of the planter space. Tomatoes with towers in one bed, cucumbers with trellises in another. In the largest bed, I planted peppers (jalapeno, tam jalapeno, shishito, and one wild card from last year due to my failure to label it–as I didn’t expect it to survive the winter). Also a few other random things like some herbs and a cassis bush.
If you are wondering why there are random onions and marigolds in the planting beds, those are–allegedly–natural bug repellents. I used them last year and it seemed to work. But I am still skeptical. There is a lot of nonsense–or at least, over-optimism–out there on the Internet about natural pest control.
The irrigation drip lines will be put in tomorrow. They will be placed by each of the plants.
This was a tremendous amount of work and I was exhausted by the end. But I’m looking forward to the summer!