It’s Time – Garden’s Growing

By Anais on June 30, 2016 • ( 0 )

Finally…I’ve got my garden planted! Whew. I was feeling pressed about it since in our area, June is the designated month for getting your garden in and here it is, the last day of that one!

I had a bit of prep to do this year. It’s our first growing season in the new digs. Landscaping was mostly done last fall – I also did some soil prep in the food garden space.

I ordered corners from Gardeners Supply and did some research on type of material to use for the box walls. My criteria was mainly durability, then appearance – since I live in a spot where this is a factor. I talked to local building supply people. One of them tipped me to something new which turned out to be the winner, produced locally, moderately priced (between the most and least expensive), almost immediately available, and they cut the boards to my specs. The material is thermally modified white pine. I understand that they heat the wood, which hardens natural resins, and makes the product greatly resistant to both bugs and rot! Perfect, right?!

Our great landscape/lawn/snow guy, Chris Ellenwood, has been a wonderful help! He brought in mulch last fall and tilled the ground. We used that material, and tossed what was in the walkways, into the boxes – we didn’t have to bring soil in to fill them. The boxes are 36″ tall so we needed quite a lot of soil.

I generally soak the seeds that need sprouting prior to planting. The only seeds I did that with this year were my snow peas. We have a local Farmer’s Market every Friday, and several great greenhouses – I like pre-fab plants, and I buy organically grown units. My tomatoes, cucumbers, and snow peas in 2′ x 4′ boxes are trellised.

I’m watering by hand now, but we’re going to install very small sprayers in two corners of each box – then lay down bark in the walkways. I have an 8′ x 2′ raspberry box on its way.

Another item of garden interest is our permaculture Herb Spiral. What fun!

I’m tracking my steps in a spreadsheet. The last time I did a garden like this was in 2009. That year I also constructed my own square foot boxes, and put it all together. Those records have been helpful.

So, grow on! I’m thankful for all the help that’s been there for me for this 2016 garden, and very happy to be messing around with my soil. I’m loving it all.

~ Anais