HI Judith,
Although my techniques are my own, I have had great success with only 80sq
ft of gardening space (5 plots @ 4'x4'.)
Because my backyard is on a slight grade, one end of the garden (the lowest)
is a raised bed , where the other end is a bordered bed utilizing 4x4
untreated timber to create the border.
My first year, I dug up the grass and weeds that comprised my lawn and
placed them on a sheet of plastic to dry out so I could add them to a
compost pile, which was also new at the time.
I then turned the soil to a depth of about 9" to discover rocks, clay and a
smattering of rich topsoil. I mixed in (3) 40 lbs. bags of horse manure
compost, 2 bags of bat guano and a bag of limestone. I then judged the
height of my garden and layered timbers for the borders, so that at one end
the timber may be partially buried and with the descending grade it becomes
fully exposed. At the most extreme end I used repurposed 1/2" thick rough
hewn plywood from a shipping crate that created a raised bed of about 9". I
left a 2' path between each plot (to allow for a "push" lawn mower.) Those
paths are now covered with landscaping screen and a layer of river
jax.<http://www.thestonestore.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures…
Every year I layer the plant beds with newspaper to act as a weed
deterrent. I also cover the newspaper with mulch that I create from my own
tree and shrub clippings. I have an electric chipper that works great for
small branches and twigs. When the gardening season is over I pull the
plants and cover with mulch and let the ground sit fallow for the winter. In
April I just hoe in the newspaper/mulch and start again. I use fish
emulsion to get the seedlings stable and after about three weeks a one-time
only watering with 10-35-10 of the dreaded Miracle Grow (unpopular by many
opinions, but effective, and yes I know there are other subsitutes out
there, but this is *my* garden.) The biggest problem I have had is with the
boring worms. They absolutely devastated any squash or zuccini that I have
planted in recent years and since I don't want to use a pesticide I just
choose not to grow squash or zuccini. I will gladly trade my overstock of
cantaloupe for squash. Although I haven't seen a cantaloupe this year, I
have 4 plants that have started running and flowering like wildfire and I am
anticipating a cantaloupe "problem." Also, it's my first year growing
cantaloupe so most of those flowers could shrivel and die off leaving me
with cantaloupe deficit, but if the cucumbers are a harbinger of things to
come, I will be in the cantaloupe business very soon.
Good luck with greening up your thumb.
Ryan Parker
Drew St "Farms"
On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 11:00 PM, Judith Duke <dukejudith(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello.
Most of my gardening experience has been in southern California, the
majority in the Mojave desert. So my focus was largely on water
conservation, native plants, and xeriscaping (with the exception of
vegetables, of course).
I had some fairly large vegetable gardens back then, so here, I keep
thinking I should plow up some of my boring-to-mow backyard and grow
something I can eat. A few questions, though:
Can I just dig up existing 'lawn' (courtesy title), amend the soil, and go
for it? Or are raised beds a must? And speaking of raised beds, does that
mitigate the vole problem? I don't know about you-all, but my property
seems to be Vole Mecca. I Googled "raised bed" + "vole", and the
recommendations are insane: dig down 3', line the whole bed with hardware
cloth, etc. Anybody have problems with the critters?
BTW, tomato blossoms generally don't set when night temps are over 50°,
daytime over 90°. . .which would account for their slowness during this
blazing spring. Also, I'm curious about the various reports of planting
regular peppers with hot ones. I always heard they should be segregated, as
otherwise they cross-pollinate, giving some unexpected bite to sweet
peppers; I remember one source calling peppers "promiscuous". Is this not a
problem? It would certainly make garden planning easier not having to work
around that.
I've been reading this thread and saving up my comments, so here are a
couple of the plant sources that've occurred to me along the way. Major
focus on xeriscaping:
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/ I relied on them
quite a bit in the desert; I expect many of their plants would also work
well for eastern gardens. For heirloom and cottage garden seeds
http://www.reneesgarden.com/. I grew her Carmello tomatoes (yum!) for
years. And it's worth checking the website for the free recipes if nothing
else (I bought Cookbook #1 and am going back for Cookbook #2).
Pray for rain.
Judy
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