After prying myself away from the laptop yesterday, I headed into the great outdoors to begin Project Garden. My dad, in a rare show of fatherly involvement, hauled his tiller over this past Saturday and tilled a patch of earth for me. Last year’s garden was relatively small (about 9ft wide x 5ft long). Since it was my first foray into gardening, I wanted to start small… realized quickly that I had a crammed a few too many plants into a too-small space.
So when Daddy got his tiller out and asked me for measurements, I told him “bigger than last year.” And oh my, did he comply. He got till-happy — he started and didn’t stop for 4 hours — thus resulting in a substantially larger space. This year’s plot is 9ft wide (again) x 27ft long. Yep, about 5 times longer than last year’s.
When I headed out yesterday, I grabbed a hoe and immediately started viciously hacking away at the earth, serial killer style. This lasted approximately 20 minutes before black spots started appearing, head started swimming, and I had to plunk myself in the dirt to avoid passing right the heck out. Lesson of the day: massive amounts of cold medicine and wild hoeing don’t mix.
Dusted myself off after a while, and decided to try a different, less violent approach. Collected a notepad from the house and copied down all the spacing requirements for my little plants. Any veteran gardeners out there, I know your eyeballs probably just melted… yes, I bought plants and tilled without any pre-planning. Happy, random gardener, that’s me. Then sat on the front porch and began methodically plotting my attack.
So here’s where the debate begins. Should I:
A) Proceed with the traditional, basic ground-level garden with rows? This is what I did last year and it was easy-peasy.
Pros: Short-term, it’s the easiest approach. I can just dig holes, pop my plants in, and water like I did last year.
Cons: But last year, the garden was only 5ft wide, so I could reach all the plants for picking and weeding without walking into the plot — this year, that won’t be the case. And last year, I noticed that yard has poor drainage, which is (I think) why my watermelons, cucumbers, and cantaloupes rotted on their vines.
or should I:
B) Try a raised-bed garden? This is apparently the not-so-new fad in gardening, which I discovered yesterday in my quest for the perfect garden plan.
Pros: Eliminates poor drainage problem. Also allows easy access to all plants without actually walking into the plot. Reduces weeds. Plus, I think it just looks nice and neat.
Cons: Decisions – do we buy premade beds or build our own? Cost – the beds aren’t cheap. Short-term inconvenience – I can’t just plant and water right this minute. And then there’s the permanence factor — what if I don’t like having raised beds? What if my raised beds are ugly? Then I’m stuck with them. And what do you do with them during the winter? Do they just sit there emptily?
So yeah, my garden is still unplanted as of today, but I still feel that a bit of progress was made.
This is random, but have you thought about a compost pile too? Even if you don’t use the boxes you might want to get some wood and box in a place for one. It’s green friendly and supposedly has lots of uses (though in my opinion, it would smell bad…ew… ;-) )
I would want the pretty raised ones, but right away. So, I guess I’m not much help. The raised ones are empty during the winter… I have a friend here with a massive amount of them in her backyard.
You could put (eventually) arbor kind of things over them… not full coverage obviously b/c then the poor plants would not get any sun… but it might help make them prettier in the winter.
I dunno.
A garderner I am not.
I admire those who are.
I have no advice, but I am so STINKIN jealous that you are working outside and not dying of heat stroke like I would here. Also, the very fact that you have a garden and a backyard that is bigger than a sandbox…. I want to move back to the country!
I personally love the leveled look you get with the raised beds, but I think it’s a very personal decision. As long as you’re happy, and the garden functions the way you want it to, I don’t think it matters which way you set it up. I love the new size, and the “happy random gardener” comment. I do the same thing, and that’s a lovely way of describing the habit! :)
Good luck with all your growing, I’m SO happy spring is here again!!
Melba
The raised bed idea looks great in picture, yet in reality, they look like child sized coffins you see in many third wold countries, right after a genocide. I tried it, just don’t know how to cover up that ugly look.
Should I stain them, paint them, break them up… i dunno.
try making the beds triangular instead.