Easy Garden Anyone Can Make
(Page 2 of 6)
April/May 2008
By Lee Reich
Next, Andrew shoveled a 2-inch-deep layer of wood chips — free from a local arborist — into the paths, which I suggested making 18 inches wide. One path runs down the middle of the garden perpendicular to the other paths and is wider to accommodate a garden cart. In the 36-inch wide planting beds, he slathered on a 2-inch layer of weed-free compost (see “How to Buy the Best Compost,” below). Compost provides the nutrient- and humus-rich medium needed by intensively grown vegetables.
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To eke out maximum production from this little plot of land, I also suggested installing drip irrigation. The drip system brings water directly to the vegetables, which conserves water and discourages weed growth along paths. A timer at a nearby hose spigot turns the water on six times a day at a slow drip, but for only five minutes each time. After running through the timer, the water runs through a pressure reducer, a filter, and then out to the garden via inexpensive, half-inch black plastic tubing. At each bed, Andrew plugged in a valve followed by a quarter-inch dripperline that runs the length of the bed and periodically drips water to replace what the plants slowly use.
The beauty of this system for beginning a garden is that your vegetable transplants and seeds can go into the ground just as soon as you’ve covered the newspaper with compost and wood chips. Viewing the quick change in Andrew’s yard, his neighbors thought he was a vegetable magician. Where one day there had been an expanse of grass, the next day there was a garden with plants already in the ground!
Contrast creating this instant garden with the conventional way of starting a garden: The first step would be to turn over the soil with a shovel or a rototiller, something that needs to be delayed until the soil is moist but not overly so. Next you’d have to wait a couple of weeks for the burst of biological activity associated with the decomposition of tilled-in grasses and weeds to subside. New ground usually needs a second tilling to chop up any plants and roots that survived the first round, followed by another waiting period. Only then can you go ahead and plant — and get ready to deal with all the weeds that will sprout from newly awakened seeds.
Design Considerations
Andrew’s vegetable garden was in his front yard, but there was no reason it had to look like a jumble of tomato, lettuce and pea plants had been dropped onto that patch of lawn. Over the years, the vegetable garden has cozied itself into the overall landscape.
From the start, Andrew designed and built a wooden fence to enclose the garden and fend off the occasional rabbit. Painted white, the fence made the whole garden look right at home against the backdrop of his white clapboard house. Various plantings on the outside of the fence have softened the transition between the flat lawn and the vertical fence. Andrew’s wife, Jen, wanted a sunny spot in which to grow flowers — the bit of lawn that remained between the driveway and the south and east sides of the vegetable garden was perfect. Outside the fence along the north side of the garden, they planted a few gooseberry and currant bushes I’d shared with them. Both crops thrive in the bit of shade there, and the family enjoys the berries fresh or in Jen’s homemade jams.
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