This is year two of my garden. Last year was breaking ground/rototilling, surrounding it with deer fence (28x19 feet for the plot). Just after breaking ground, I also took on a trencher project, and ended up with about 6 or so wheelbarrows of extra dirt from the yard that became a mound in the garden space. I was late for creating the garden and planting (mid June) so it was all plants from nurseries, except for the corn. I added two feet of chicken wire to keep out the squirrels/small rabbits, which were making their way in through the wire gaps.

This year, I added a foot of chicken wire below the ground along the perimeter. I made two raised beds with landscaping timbers - four tiers high, 12 feet by 4 feet, so about 10-11 inches depth of soil. I was able to fill the beds with the mound of dirt that was left over, and that opened up level space for more planting. I added about 2/3 a wheelbarrow of aged manure to about 2/3 of the remaining bed space that I got from my cousin, who has a small working farm. I put about 15 asparagus roots into the raised beds, and in one corner of the fence I added five rhubarb root starts, and outside the garden I added 6 blueberries. So, all of those should be producing in another year or two. About half the asparagus have broken through the surface, and the rhubarb has started spreading out some green leaves.

I started a lot from seed this year in Jiffy peat pellet starters...about 6 or 7 varieties of heirloom tomato, zucchini and summer squash, kale, Swiss chard, eggplant, red peppers and jalapenos. I'm also trying green beans and some hard beans like Jacob's Cattle and Soldier bean, carrots, a couple kinds of beets. However, I started the seeds in early April/late March, and we didn't get into good, warm weather until about a week ago. Lots of the starts became overtall and wispy - unable to support themselves. Also, as I was doing a couple days worth of tempering outside during daylight hours, a windy day wind-whipped a lot of them - so I have some very healthy things in the ground and some that haven't made it, and I've had to restart a bunch of things because they won't make it.

So, hopefully this second batch of starts will be able to take off in a lot better shape.

I used black fabric "mulch" cover a bit last year, and this year I reused it over each row, two layers thick, cutting X's for each plant. THAT was a huge drag, and after I'd done it, I think I came up with a better idea - next year, I'll cover each row (the fabric's 3 feet wide) with a layer of fabric, then cut parallel lines at one feet and two feet, then cut a shorter perpendicular line at the end of each row to make it a tall, skinny capital I. Then, I can fold under the fabric as it goes along the row, and plant within that folded-back space as closely or as widely spaced as needed, with little worry about weed growth.

Anyway, should be interesting.

Dave


Edited by DaveT (05/05/09 03:40 PM)