STARTING A GARDEN
Hungry Gnome will come to your home and help determine appropriate growing areas, considering such factors as sunlight, water flow on the property, water availability, and proximity to the kitchen. We will discuss what your food needs and desires are, what kind of time commitment you are willing to make, compare all this with available growing space, and come up with a plan for you and your garden. This plan can include the location a vegetable garden, locations of perennial food plants like berries and fruit trees, as well as rainwater harvesting and irrigation. Vegetable gardens can as detailed as exactly what to plant where and when, or structured more loosely, according to the client's desires. The emphasis here is on moving the client forward so they can confidently and successfully grow food. We will design into the plan pest-management and soil fertility management with recommendations for companion plants and crop rotation.
Installation of the garden can proceed in many different ways. Hungry Gnome can do all of the labor involved in creating the garden area, or we can give you ideas and let you do it all yourself. Creating the garden will likely involve importing materials (compost, manure, other soil amendments, and mulch) to improve the life and structure of the soil. It also may involve building some type of structure to raise the soil level (a "raised bed"), trellises, and drip irrigation. Garden design and layout is dependent on the site and the customer. A surprising amount of food can be grown in a small space; your garden can be as large as your whole yard, as small as 4 feet by 10 feet, or even containers on your patio or porch.
Once the space is established, it's time to plant, and Hungry Gnome can do all of the initial planting, or we can plant together with the customer. This is a tremendous educational opportunity for clients - it is the first time to work with the plants and learn about their specific habits.
MAINTAINING YOUR GARDEN
Maintaining your garden doesn't necessarily take a whole lot of effort, but it does take quite a bit of know-how, so Hungry Gnome's maintenance programs are tailored to your desire to learn and to do your own gardening. A vegetable garden requires some maintenance attention every week. Depending on your level of comfort, Hungry Gnome can make a weekly visit to your garden and perform all the maintenance, or we can come less frequently to help you and to teach you about gardening for yourself and to perform bigger projects like building trellises and planting successive crops. We'll endeavor to teach you everything you need to know about weeding, mulching, planting, building trellises, encouraging your plants, discouraging pests, harvesting, and soil fertility...your education is built into our maintenance visits and you can learn as quickly, or as slowly, as you want to. Many clients who are wanting to learn to garden for themselves will want to schedule visits every other week for a couple months, then less frequently as they become more knowledgeable and comfortable in the garden.
PERENNIALS
Perennials are plants that persist year after year, like a shrub or a tree, and are generally best planted in the Spring or the Fall. Planting perennials is a wonderful and intelligent way to invest in future food and medicine. Some of our most coveted foods and most of the things we consider fruit come from perennials (think berries, apples, peaches, figs...), as well as nuts. After planting, perennials take a year or more to begin producing food. Once they are established, perennials require much less effort by both the gardener and the soil to continue to be productive, but they do require careful consideration in their placement on the landscape. Consider planting a few blueberries or a whole orchard and gorge yourself on fruit and berries for years to come. Hungry Gnome can help you design and install your own berry patches, fruit and nut orchards, or vineyards. Many things can be grown in our climate, from apples and peaches to kiwis and pomegranate.