Laying out the Garden

May is almost over, and we haven't done any work in the garden yet! Due to its elevation (1700'), our place in Trout Lake has a relatively short growing season, so getting things in at the right time is important. Oh well, I guess we blew that one. ;)

Last year we took an entirely "experimental" approach to the garden; we tried different things to find out what worked and what didn't, and tried (unsuccessfully) not to be too disappointed when things didn't work. We used less than half of the garden space available and got a fairly small harvest.

This year we have big plans for the garden: more than twice the tomatoes (all quick-ripening cherry/grape/plum varieties), lots of low maintenance and pest resistant squashes, and a host of other new crops to fill the entire garden space. The plans call for a total of 16 beds of 10' x 4'. Like I said, big plans.

I'm sure that every year will have an experimental nature to it in some way. This year I built inexpensive raised beds for the 2 beds of tomatoes, using simple 2x8 untreated pine lumber. The hope is that the raised beds will help the soil to heat up faster, which in turn should help the tomatoes to ripen faster. The remainder of the beds will be slightly raised by simply mounding soil from the paths onto the beds.

All of the beds are now staked out, but not yet mounded. We got a lead on a compost source from a friend at work, so hopefully we'll be able to get lots of compost to add in the next week.

 

- Mike (& Corinne)