I once have the vegetable garden bug. I had a little veggie garden I think two years ago, but got maybe 6 cherry tomatoes and a single miniature, deformed bell pepper out of the experiment. Colorado dirt just doesn't have anything on rich Midwestern soil for growing things. Perhaps why people ranch instead of farm out here. Hmm.
Anyway, I knew I'd have to do things differently this year. For starters, water the darn thing. In my defense, I got pregnant mid-summer two years ago and was reeeeeally tired/sick feeling for the last part of July, all of August, and most of September. Like I would get home from work at 5:45, take a nap til 6:30 or 7, eat a little something that didn't contain meat, then back to bed at 9:30. This year, I don't anticipate that being a problem.
Back to my point, though, I knew I'd need to revamp my gardening plan this time around, actually work the soil with some nutrient rich stuff, etc. And pick a spot that gets good sunlight, which my initial area didn't. Looking around my yard, the spot that was standing out was our side yard ... 300 square feet of river rock, weeds that get waist high in the summer, and 40 year old weed barrier below a few inches of rock and dirt. Super. That side yard has irked us since we moved in, but we always had more pressing issues to deal with. Now that we have a walker, though, who passionately loves rocks (to eat) and was fascinated by the thorny thistles, we decided to go ahead and have it cleared - and that it would give me a garden spot was just icing on the cake!
I got that done for a fair price via Craigslist (and so glad I didn't try it on my own - it took two big guys two full days to get it cleared!), and then realized that the dirt under all of that was still pretty rocky. Some Googling, some plotting and planning ... and I discovered
Square Foot Gardening. Basically, the premise is that you build a raised bed - no more than 4' wide, so that you can reach the inside of the bed for harvesting while standing outside (you don't want to step on the soil to compact it), fill it with a super rich mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss, and create a grid on top so that you have a defined zone for each vegetable. You can allegedly grow a lot more plants closer quarters that they would be able to in the ground. As in, what was going to take probably 75 square feet on the ground because of rows and all that will be contained in 16 square feet. Not entirely sure why - maybe it's the rich soil? Creative pruning? But it seems to work, according to the book and a lot of blogs and forums.
So, I borrowed Scott's truck for a few days to get fill dirt (for the low spots), weed barrier, and mulch, put all of that in myself (so glad we bought a wheelbarrow last year!). Looked up a lot of plans and pictures of raised beds, went to Home Depot and bought some wood, and broke out the saw and drill and got it built! Installation was a little less than fun since I had to dig 6" holes to plant my bed supports into, but it went a lot more smoothly once I remembered that water + dirt = mud = easy digging. Thanks, Kindergarten!
This last weekend I got my compost mixture in place, and yesterday I created my square foot grid with nails and string. Today, Mats and I will hit up a garden center for some tomato and pepper plants (since I waited too long to get those started inside), and start planting! I'm so looking forward to a summer of garden fresh vegetables.
One down side: a 12" raised box is pretty much perfect height for my baby, who loves dirt. So far, he loves running his fingers through the soil (and trying to dump it outside the box, of course), and twice tried to climb into the box. Somehow, I think Mats is going to be my biggest garden pest this year.
