Spring 2017 is here! Time for garden planning and rotation

3-21-17

Progress year 3 and Garden planning

Well folks, we are now in year three and the progress is wonderful!  As you can see, we added fence posts to raise the beds. I had considered various methods but this is the new attempt. So here was the reasoning:   Most regular wood only lasts a season or two. Cedar is expensive. Block or brick is expensive.  On sale these only cost $2 each for 8 foot lengths.  It's possible they won't last long either but I'm hoping that the size/width will help. Because they have 2 sides that are flat they are easy to stack and I used plumber tape (metal strips that can be cut to length and screwed to stabilize the stacking and attack the beds together on the inside).   I will, of course, have to replace them at some point and purists may suggest that the staining isn't good for the garden but I haven't found any scientific evidence one way or another regarding anything besides weather treated wood so I forge ahead!  

As of today (march 27, 2017), various seeds have gone in the ground and the following are starting to sprout: sugar snap peas, leeks, radish, garlic, onion. I have also seeded  spinach, broccoli, and carrots.  Celery is a hold over from last year that I replanted and I'm trying a new layout this year based on the following: 

Grapic from http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/

 Each year you would rotate one quadrant so the plants have the nutrients that work best. In other words, legumes fix nitrogen in the soil and leaf plants love nitrogen and so on.  Some plants must be rotated every year or on a three year cycle to reduce pests and disease and these include potatoes and tomatoes.  Therefore, I have to make sure in my planning that I not only rotate the plants but make sure that as companions go, I don't put plants where they are more likely to fail.  An example is that potatoes and raspberries are not good companions and neither are strawberries and cabbage though I have a bed that is likely to have them relatively nearby.

 Here is the graphic roughly adapted for the central round garden bed: 

After creating this basic adaption I then went outside and began the actual planning based on location of current plants, bed size, plant location from last year etc.  The blue lines are the pathways and the pink circles are thornless rasberry plants planted in ground called : http://www.brazelberries.com/varieties/raspberry-shortcake 
(As a side note these have been a wonderful producer but if you don't want them to spread, be sure to plant in a large container instead of in the ground.)

There are amazing amounts of information on garden planning on the internet.  The trick seems to be figuring out what works for your garden.  I'm also doing companion planting which requires a bit of extra work since some companions re-seed and others are more permanent (such as some herbs like sage)  

My garden plan

Here is my layout for this year

I have large beds around the main circular bed that I rotate for other crops and some beds that are permanent such as berries, asparagus and kiwi fruit. This is not to scale but it gives a basic idea of position.

 While the planning does take time, it is much easier for me to plant knowing exactly where it is going in the garden this year.  I have other plants I'll be adding including marigolds, basil etc as the year goes on. 
I'll keep you updated on how it goes! 


  

Burlap for seed starting and groundcover - Excellent!

Burlap

I love to walk out into the garden every day wandering around and watching the plant growth. Is it small, large, a sudden burst? How did the weather affect it? what about the techniques I'm trying?  I recently experimented with loosely woven burlap to cover a mammoth crimson clover ground cover group.  it worked wonderfully!  The next step is to determine how much will get eaten by garden pests.  I have sprinkled a layer of straw over it as well as slug bait and finally some diatomaceous earth (but with the rain heading my way the last isn't likely to last long.)  I've had to re-apply the slug bait once more since the original planting back in March and have added other areas of clover.

Mammoth Crimson Clover as cover crop

 These tiny seeds were simply scattered rather randomly over the barely worked earth that had been partially prepped last year (see previous blog re: no till earth prep)  You can see that it has taken well.  I wet down it down after planting, it rained about 36 hours later and a nice green carpet has emerged.  The burlap I have has a tighter weave unsuited once the seeds are up. The Burlap should be pulled up once sprouting has begun to prevent damaging seedlings by either crushing them underneath or pulling them out when it's removed.

 Wonderful!  Not only will the clover add Nitrogen to the soil but it will be lovely when it blooms. As you can see from the photos below, there have been been big changes since last year and the the clover is coming in well.

Now that the clover is in, I'm re-using the Burlap as a basic mulch and for Basil seedling germination. It worked very well with annual/perennial flower seeds now starting to bloom. Basically,  I highly recommend Burlap as a starter for seed!