John Kranker and Sherry Ellexson
It is very green at Shady Creek Farm. We will post several pictures to show all of you our progress. Check out our Custom Built raised planting beds. Now available in 12'x38", 4'x4', 8'x2', 4'x18". We are open to build the size you may need. Shady Creek Farm is dedicated to growing vegetables, herbs and other decorative plants in what we consider the best method f
or the small grower. My wife and I both grew up on country living. Our Fathers and Grand Fathers had gardens, grew and harvested wheat, raised turkeys, raised chickens, hatched chicks and collected eggs to sustain their food supply. There was always more than enough to share with friends and neighbors. It was normal to find aluminum pie plates or a scarecrow lurking in our gardens, it was believed it would work for discouraging possible predator birds. For a long time we used their ideas and techniques to grow our gardens. Oh yes, we were very interested in aquaponics but after extensive research we found aquaponics to be more work to set up and daily maintenance for fish and a balanced echo system. Gardening can be fun but when you are continually bending and stressing your back to plant and trim one might consider giving up and heading to HEB for your edibles, how boring would that be? After years of research we chose to use the wicking technique. You may have read about or heard about wicking planters. This process really works, saves on water because of less evaporation during the watering process. Watering is made simple, you fill the bed through the inlet pipe till the water exits the overflow pipe. This eliminates the calculation of how much water you put in the bed as moisture is kept a constant level. Our plants are doing great! We have found that the market doesn't supply many wicking alternatives, so now we are here to fill the void. We are building our own raised wicking beds. Our beds are all raised to the height most comfortable for you. Once the beds are installed it is not recommended that they be moved. These beds are built with dimensional lumber and will withstand the weather in all temperatures. We advise a cover in heavy rain to protect the plants and not to over water the bed. The purpose for wicking is watering below the soil. The water then is transferred upward into the soil by a process called wicking. Similar to a glass of water with a cloth in the glass and hanging over the edge. Eventually the glass will empty from the wicking action of the cloth. A fantastic benefit to these beds is water is added roughly once per week. There is practically no evaporation other than the natural evaporation from the top of the soil. We consider any other method as time consuming or excessive maintenance. Plant nutrients are always the most important consideration. At Shady Creek Farm we will not only build your wicking bed but fill it with the most natural fertilizers and compost to maintain the proper amount of PH. Call us for a time to visit our system of growing.
