I have almost completely closed down the garden. There is a bit of lettuce in the left half (as seen here) of bed #4. Leaves, straw and grass clippings are mulching most of the beds.
The land here is on an incline. The viewer’s perspective is the lowest point before stepping off into a creek. Beds 5 & 6 are about two or three feet higher up the hill than bed 1. The creek flooded several times this year, completely covering over beds 1 and 2 and sometimes infiltrating the edges of beds 3 and 4. That’s not so good for plants.
For the 2009 season:
- Bed 1 will be removed.
- The walls of bed 2 will be raised from 6 inches high to 18 inches high.
- Beds 3 and 4 will be raised from 6 inches high to 12 or 14 inches high, whatever my measurements tell me after I get a water level out there.
- Beds 5 and 6 will be raised a bit too…perhaps 4 or 6 inches higher.
- Beds 7 and 8 will be added farther up towards the house, (creating the issue of there being no bed numbered 1) constructed of 2x6s or 2x8s.
There’s not a whole lot left to do except plan next year.
This shot gives some idea of the gentle south-facing slope.
Posted by Farmgirl_dk on November 18, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I love posts like these. It’s so interesting to me to see your layout.
I do see an awful lot of grass that you could turn into beds 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15.
Regarding the numbering, I’m thinking with 2009 you could turn over a whole new leaf, so to speak, and re-number all your beds. You could even go a bit wild and letter them, instead. You know…A, B, C, D….
I love the planning part.
Regarding your creek, have you thought about maybe planting rice in bed #1? (hee, hee)
Posted by Jimmy Cracked-Corn on November 18, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Thanks for the comments Farmgirl_dk! I have to take baby steps to keep the rest of the family happy. My wife enjoyed the garden this year so much that the two beds I will be adding were her idea, but she doesn’t want me running wild and taking away all the lawn all at once.
We plan to add 4 small dwarf fruit trees to another part of the yard in the spring or next fall. Also probably going to do a row of 4 or 5 salad-planted straw bales against the low part of the fence. And I don’t know where we’re going to put in asparagus. 