Each year we plant a large vegetable garden
that is maintained throughout the growing
season. It is an on-going experiment and
one year's garden rarely looks like the
next. It is an 80 x 30 area enclosed with
rabbit fence. The fence just keeps the dogs
from running through, all other animals
can get in just fine!
The garden always includes tomatoes, lettuce,
spinach, snow peas, corn, carrots, peppers,
beans, pumpkins, potatoes, radishes, and
onions. Some years we have also grown beets,
kohlrabi, watermelons, cucumbers, broccoli
and cauliflower. There are permanent wide
rows of gold raspberries, strawberries,
rhubarb, and herbs. A 20+ year old asparagus
bed is outside the garden at the edge of
the orchard. There is a bed of gold
raspberries from a friend who salvaged them from
behind an apartment building in Madison.
They always produce fruit twice a season,
once with the rest of the raspberries in
the spring, and again in mid-August through
September. The fields are full of red and
black raspberries, so we don't bother to
maintain any formal plantings of them.
The vegetable garden is laid out in "wide
rows" approximately 2.5'x6'. The aisles
are permanently mulched with recycled carpet,
which we scavenge from carpet store dumpsters
(with permission), from trash piles at the
side of the road, and from a neighbor who
is a carpet installer. It easily cuts to
size with a utility knife, and most carpet
is the same tan burlap texture on the back,
so blends fine with the landscape. Most
carpet lasts several years before deteriorating,
at which point we haul it off to the "transfer
station" (i.e. dump).
Make planting and re-potting a pleasure with this easy-to-build
potting bench.
Home Vegetable Gardening -
A Complete and Practical Guide to the Planting and Care of Vegetables, Fruits and Berries
Make planting and re-potting a pleasure with this easy-to-build