Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Garden plans


It's hard to see... but this is my garden plan. The whole garden is 49ft long. Part of it is on a hill, so we have had to adjust what we can do for that. Each of these dark squares represent a 4X6 raised bed. The rotted stump in the lower left will be the spot for either a chicken coop, or the plum tree. I haven't decided yet, but since it is in the far southwest corner of the garden it won't make much difference with the sun to have a 10ft tree there. Although, if the tree gets much larger than that, it could cause trouble. And I didn't buy a dwarf plum. So at this second I am going with the chicken coop. This spot is ideal for chickens as it is far from the neighbors (it is on a street corner), but there are many other places in our yard the chickens can go... not many other places with enough sun for a plum.

Obviously, I am still in the planning phase. However, I am getting giddy about the prospect of setting this up and get the beds filled with dirt... glorious dirt.

If anyone is wondering why I don't just have my garden in the ground like I did at the last house, it is because under the dirt in this yard resides hundreds of human-head sized rocks. Not so much fun to dig in. Trying to dig the holes for the apple trees (2ft cubed) has been a huge hassle... so we have decided that for the time being, until we can rent a backhoe, the trees will just have to be in half-barrel pots. Sigh... But it has cemented quite a few of our yard and garden plans to know that we can't really dig in the ground.

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9 comments

ColorSlut said...

I normally wait until closer to spring to draw up my plans for re-working of the garden (seems like it is never PERFECT). Maybe I'll get my butt in gear early this year.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

I am starting to think about my gardens too. After a deep freeze, we are now experiencing a January thaw in the midwest and I have spring fever. I am planning some raised beds this year and am looking forward to getting started. I will be working on my plan this week!

Anna said...

We have to do raised beds also because the soil here is an awful clay that is difficult to turn and cultivate in. But it makes for a neat patch.

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

I read this post and thought, "I usually don't worry about this until like January." Then it hit me that it IS January. Durrr....

I have raised beds too. We have 8 4x4 boxes, but at the time being I'm using two of them for composting.

Shirley said...

Yeah, what is it with ginormous rocks around here?? I thought that GA clay was bad enough. Am jealous of all your space!

sarah in the woods said...

Garden, chickens . . . exciting! I'm getting ready for my garden too.

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

I was just looking through a great seed catalog earlier this week, and already I'm fantasizing about this year's garden too! You must be so excited to have all that space to plant. I'm sure yours will be a huge success (a lot of work, but totally worth it.) How exciting to have a plum tree, apple trees, garden, and chickens!!!

mandi said...

exciting! i'm getting potatoes in this weekend- hopefully a new crop of carrots too. i can't get over how many boxes you have!
we do raised beds too. our ground (and soil) is just awful.

Lauren said...

After digging up many rocks even larger than human heads (and LOL at the comparison) - we had a ton weighing at least 1000-1500 pounds, that the bucket of the front loader couldn't even lift - we too will be doing raised beds this year. That, and the drainage issues, and the poor quality of the soil anyway...I give up.

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