Growing Challenge: Garden Plan v2
Feb 21st, 2008 by Laura
I missed last week for the growing challenge - not sure what happened there. I thought I’d use this week to talk some more about our garden plan.
Trying to arrive at an actual layout, now that we’ve got seeds and starts coming, is intimidating! I grew up with my grandfather and my mother both keeping big gardens. But my involvement was as harvest help, not planning or planting help. So it’s a whole new language and concept to me to plan a garden.
On the one hand I feel like I could, and maybe should, start with a smaller plot than I’m going to. But on the other hand, I know myself well enough to understand that I need to go big to make it a real commitment for myself. If I invest my time, sweat and tears into digging out and preparing a 1200+ sf garden, you can bet your ass that I’ll make sure it gets planted, watered and weeded. A smaller garden, not so much.
So all of you, my friends and family, that are telling me I’m nuts - you’re right and you’re wrong. Can we just agree to disagree on it?
Meanwhile, Steve Solomon and I have been spending a lot of late night time together this week. He’s been giving me advice on preparing the soil, composting, seed starting and watering. And it’s slowly starting to make me feel less overwhelmed.
In order to tuck that knowledge into my brain I’ve had to do a more detailed garden plan. And there’s an even more complicated spreadsheet coming together to go with it that shows when to start seeds, when to move them outside to harden off and when to transplant them.
There are a few things I’d like to grow that aren’t in the plans for this year - garlic, corn and cabbage among them. You’ll also note that the herbs are no longer in the plot - that’s because they’re going to get their own bed, or pots, up closer to the house. I also really want strawberries, but I think I’ll likely end up putting them in their own separate bed, or in some big pots up by the house as well.
I’ve abandoned the idea of wood raised beds for this year. If I’m going to build them I want to do it right. But the expense of the cedar is a bit more than I want to bite off this spring. Plus, if my friend Steve is right I might be able to get away without them by doing double-dug beds bounded by pathways instead. So that’s what we’re going to try this year.
The garden below is 46′ wide by 32′ deep. The rows run north / south. There’s a 3′ wheelbarrow path all the way around the outside and 2′ paths between each row or section. The sections are generally 4′ wide, or will be once the plants are grown in.
Thoughts? Comments? Snide remarks?
click for readable version
Laura, I don’t know if you’ve ever checked out the TinyFarmBlog.com site, but there was a post not long ago about garden mapping that you may like. From that post you can link to another post about how the writer organizes using calendars. I really liked it, and it made the point that less is more. I think you may find it interesting.
Sounds like your well on your way to a good start. Good Luck!
P~
I’m impressed. I still think you should do corn. It is very easy, plus you wouldn’t have to build teepees for your green beans. They even nutritionally feed each other.
Hi Laura: I’m a new reader and I just wanted to offer my best wishes for a stress-free, manageable move. I’m jealous of the size of your garden (!) but I wish you all the best and look forward to hearing of the fruits of it all.
Laura, I just want to give you a vote of confidence! We started our plot just after moving last year. We moved to a completely different climate and soil, we’d never ever done any real gardening before, and we didn’t move until May. You’ve seen how much we eat from the garden, so I think you’re going to be just fine!!
Plus, we also decided against the cost and work of creating wood-bound raised beds. The costs of moving and building a good garden were plenty enough. So we did pretty much exactly what you describe. We did have to amend our soil quite a bit, as it was really really dead. We also brought in some worms, and I sprinkled microbes where I planted.
If your garden is half as pretty as your garden plan you’re set. I’m totally impressed. You’re doing great and I don’t think you’re nuts at all.
Thanks all!
P~, thanks for giving me another great blog to read! I’m trying not to make it too complicated, but if I don’t have a schedule to refer to about what seeds to start when and then what to do, I’m seriously going to melt down. BTW, your new chicks are amazingly cute. I can’t wait to hear more about your adventures with them!
Crystal - I’d like to do corn, but I think it’s going to have to wait until next year when I can hopefully expand the garden even more. As it is I’d only have room for 3 or 4 stalks and that seems silly…
Peg - thanks!
Melinda - I can only hope that my garden does as well as yours! You’re truly one of my inspirations in this whole garden adventure. Can’t wait to see what else you grow this year.
Katrina - thank you! I might even have to try writing a haiku or two about the experience
That is a gorgeous plan, and I’m with you, jump in headfirst and grow for it! Two suggestions, though — 1) check with neighbors to see if there have been pest issues, like groundhogs, and if so, be prepared. Our first year was heartbreaking due to the huge colony of groundhogs living next door, and dining out at my place. 2) If fruit trees (or other woody plants) are in your future plans, don’t put off planting soon. Putting off planting fruit trees and my holly hedge is one of my biggest regrets. If I’d done it even my second year, I’d be eating fruit now
Good luck!!
I think it looks great! One concern I do have, though, are your green onions between rows of broccoli. I’m worried the wide, thick broccoli leaves will shade and squeeze them out before they get big enough to eat. Is there another place you could put them? A better companion for the broccolis might be something very fast and somewhat shade tolerant, like succession plantings of another lettuce or some other salad green.
Anyway, just two cents worth there, but I’d like to say that I also don’t think you are nuts! I think you’re gonna have a blast!
I’m adding 3 raised, double dug beds this year, too. One for corn/beans/squash and one for strawberries, and one.. because I think I need more room for stuff since I ran out of space last year and I’m doing more this year. 1200 sq feet sounds ambitious, but fun! (but I have to say, I’m glad it’s not me doing the digging.. 300 sq ft is going to be enough).
I’m reading How to grow more vegetables (than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine) by John Jeavons. It’s about mini farming in 100 sq foot beds. It’s been an interesting read, and it suggests planting things closer together (for various reasons). You might find that you do have room for that corn after all.
Oh.. and the offer for tomatoes or other starts still stands, if you need it. I moved them up a pot size this weekend, and it looks like I will have lots of extras.
I love your plan, I love your flexibility given this years budget constraints. You’ve worked really hard on your plan and you have come up with a good one. I only have one suggestion. I know I sound like a broken record but I learned this the hard way. More space between rows (where you’ll walk). 2 reasons come to mind- one, air circulation in a garden is super important for disease control and two, if the garden grows well it will crowd those 2 foot walking paths (especially near the tomatoes and brusselsprouts) and it will be a pain to weed and harvest. I only tell you this to save you trouble later. I didn’t listen to a very wise man and I ended up having to crawl through the tomatoes to harvest, I didn’t get alot picked because I couldnt get to them without hurting the plants. The tomato plants ended up spreading and taking over several rows of other veggies we had planted. It was our tomato nightmare year.
But otherwise YEAH for you! Did you figure out how you are going to start your seeds?
Ali - I’m planning to put a short (24″) fence around the whole thing to keep out the hens and the woodchucks/opposum/etc. Hopefully that will help. There are some older apple trees on the property that need pruning, in the fall we’re planning to add a couple of pear and cherry.
Idaho Locavore - I’m sure you’re right, I’m just hoping that the green onion will have a chance as I’m planning to plant the broccoli pretty late. If it doesn’t work, I’ll start another row somewhere else.
Denise - I emailed you back about the starts - thanks! How are the girls settling in?
Beecharmer - good thought. I dunno though, I think I’m going to keep it as is for this year as I don’t want to have to dig up any more sod than I have to. If it doesn’t work, we’ll adjust for next year. I’m going to order a light set-up and start them on my desk at home.