Garden Planning Decisions

This morning I started telling hubby my thoughts and concerns about the garden.

After listening to me rattle on for a while he said, "I thought we were going to do a raised bed garden."

Um, what?

He want on to agree that we have poor soil and will have to add top soil to make the garden viable.

This all sounded very familiar. In fact, it was what I had decided to do after we nixed the greenhouse idea.

The books had led me astray! All my angst, research, and comparison shopping last night were unnecessary because we'd already decided on raised beds weeks ago.

::sigh::

We then went on to discuss what we would use for the frame (sides) of the raised bed. I had read online that wood will rot, although that seemed to be mainly in Florida, and the pre-fab frames I saw online were a little pricey. (In fact, the cost of the pre-fab frames was a factor in leading me to the idea of buying a bunch of Earth Boxes.)

After tossing around a few ideas, we settled on....cinder blocks. That came as quite a surprise to me. I figured hubby wouldn't want them because he would think it was ugly. He did say I should paint them to dress them up.

Hubby is very concerned that the garden doesn't turn into an eyesore. That is one of the reasons the promise of easy maintenance with Square Foot Gardening idea caught my eye.

But cinder blocks seem the easiest since we shouldn't have to dig trenches to sink them or put in supports. We're thinking we can just plunk them on the ground where we want them and move on. (We could be wrong.)

With all that settled, I can now move onto the fun of deciding just what I'm going to plant and when!
I think I will still use the principles of SFG to organize my garden.

Despite the fact that I'm supposed to start small, I think I will still want to start with two 4' x 4' beds. I really want to try growing asparagus, since it is our go-to green veggie, and it takes several years for it to get established. Therefore, I want to plant it right away.

In the mean time, I might use my current Earth Box for the herb garden. That might allow me to extend the life of the plants by bringing it into either the shed or the garage next winter.

Mint is the other random plant I know for sure I want to grow. I'm concerned about it being invasive. I think I will plant that in the big red pot I bought last year.

There are high expectations for the red pot. It has to be attractive, keep the mint contained, and also have enough room for a big, bushy mint plant.

I have to get mint for my cocktails from somewhere!

Garden Planning Angst

For the first time in five years we have a private yarn, with which we can do whatever we want.

As far as I'm concerned, one activity will be a garden.

It has been longer than five years since I had an in-ground garden, as a result of Samson's antics when he was a puppy. (One year he ate all my tomatoes. The following year he peed on my plants.)

I'm hoping that now that he is older he won't get up to any mischief. Besides, any animal deterrent measures we put in place should keep out a puppy, too!

The problem is deciding which gardening method I want to employ.

Originally, we had discussed getting me a greenhouse. While it might have extended my growing season, and been an easy way to protect my plants from critters, it would have also kept me confined to containers. I wanted to get away from containers and allow my roots to run free!

The greenhouse idea was eliminated when we realized the area we were planning to place it at the end of the driveway is essential to maneuvering the car in and out of the garage.

With the prospect of an in-ground garden before me, I started excitedly making a list of "all the vegetables we eat on a regular enough basis to be worthwhile growing."

That list quickly expanded to 16 items.

I then added herbs, which were another 9 types.

Hubby, knowing what I'm like, suggested maybe I should start small with a few key plants and expand in subsequent years. He made an excellent point, although I haven't actually scaled down my list yet.

Regardless of the number of varieties I was going to plant, I had to plan my garden before we broke ground. To that end, I went to the library (so old-fashioned) and borrowed three books that seemed like they would be good for garden planning.

One of the books was "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. Within 10 pages I was totally drinking the Kool-Aid on this system. The combination of built in size restrictions and purported ease of maintenance sounded right up my alley.

But then I read about the construction in the book, read a few blogs, and now I'm not so sure. You are supposed to put down a barrier—either fabric or cardboard, from what I can tell—which helps block weeds. However, that will also prevent the roots from running free.

Suddenly it sounds like glorified container gardening, which wasn't what I wanted.

If I was going to stick with containers, I might as well get additional Earth Boxes. My dad sent me one for my birthday two years ago.

That first year I used established seedlings I bought at Lowe's and they grew very well.

The second year (summer 2015), things didn't go as well.

I decided to be clever and start my own plants from seeds. 

But I did not thin them, which resulted in puny plants that never really recovered. The cold, wet weather at the start of the growing season didn't help either.


The combination led to a very pathetic harvest.

If I stick with the Earth Boxes I'll have to be much more careful. Especially if I start from seeds again, which I prefer.

The poor performance of this year's plants is what made me want to get out of containers in the first place, although I think the mistakes are easy to avoid.

But, as I said earlier, I've circled around to the idea of getting more Earth Boxes because they might be a good compromise between a traditional garden and the Square Foot Garden.

I'm not sure what the soil is like in our new yard. The first place we lived down here had predominantly clay soil. It's possible the soil here at the new how will have a lot of clay as well.

I know it will probably be very rocky. We have several large outcroppings around the yard. I'm not looking forward to trying to prep an area for a garden if I'm going to be digging up rocks in the process. For all I know, the top soil isn't very deep.

I'm hesitating over the Earth Boxes because of the cost. On the other hand, it is far less than the green house would have been. Especially when you consider the green house would have required the purchase of containers.

In theory, we could create a Square Foot Garden for less, unless we bought a kit, which is getting into the range of the three Earth Boxes I'm considering.

Another issue is that, really, I can already sense that if I don't go full in-ground, I'm going to end up with a combination. There are crops I want to plant (asparagus) that have to be in the ground. I could buy my three Earth Boxes (for a total of four) and still end up digging up rocky, clay soil to plant asparagus and strawberry.

I suppose I should go run these ideas by hubby to see what he thinks. This blog post didn't clarify my mind as much as I was hoping.

Hanging Row Counter

Not the most exciting post title, but it is terribly accurate. 

I guess I would have to say hanging row counters are my favorite. However, I must be in a minority because they aren't easy to find anymore. 

I have some barrel counters I converted with a piece of yarn and a bead. 

Like so

The problem is the yarn wears out. It can also get caught in the knitting. 

It occurred to me I could use wire instead!

So I fished out the wire I bought during my brief fascination with making stitch markers a few years ago. 

A little fumbling around and Voilà!

A more secure hanging row counter is mine!

I didn't even have to wrap the lower part of the wire. After feeding it through the bead I just jammed the wire up inside the row counter.  

For the next one I convert I'll have to consider putting a bead at the top, too. As it is, the wire ring slips out. However, that could be good if I want to put the row counter on the needle, which I rarely do. 

And here it is in action. 

Yep, feeling mighty pleased with myself.