Hello again Lawn to Food participants (and to those who just want to see how we grow)!
We had a long winter and now we are planting early crops and planning for the heat lovers.
Last fall, we smothered an area in our front yard for a future vegetable patch. At that point we weren't planning on raised beds. In the meantime WEC and Lawn to Food have made raised beds available so we are joining in. Ours is located in that front yard seen in a previous entry. Raised bed gardening is a completely new experience for us. We'll all learn together!
Speaking of learning - be sure to keep Dorothy and Fran's Lawn to Food brochure handy. There's a wealth of very practical information in there.
For more detailed reading our standbys are The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith, Rodale's All New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, and The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch. All three offer a good common sense approach to gardening issues. A new addition to our list is All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. This is another practical gardening book written specifically for the raised bed gardener.
There is always something new to learn as we garden. Enjoy the excitement and experience of growing some of your own food!
TwoGardeners
(aka Merrie and Paul)
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6 comments:
We have high hopes for the raised beds as New Jersey clay makes it just about impossible to grow things like carrots and beets. We're putting the kale, collards, tomatoes, and other things that aren't picky into the in-ground beds and saving the space in the raised beds for carrots, etc. We'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for doing this. Dorothy at Riverside
The Riverside Garden Club will be setting up 6 model beds at our first meeting on Monday, April 27, and the kids are wildly enthusiastic about the possibilities. New raised bed frames are in place -- thanks to the help of 4th-grade-teacher Mr. McGovern, Roger and his miracle drill, and 7 members of our Garden Club, all Riverside students from 2nd through 5th grade (and a former student at Riverside came back to help us, from J.W. Middle School). The garden looks wonderful, ready and waiting for the students to begin the season.
We've sold almost 70 raised beds at Whole Earth, many to beginning gardeners. Having resources like this available helped encourage beginners to give it a try. We (I am one of those beginning gardeners) are looking forward to following your progress and adding our own observations as we go through the gardening season together.
After bringing home my raised bed, the first decision to be made was... "WHERE to put the garden!" I had been told that you need at least 6 hours and preferably 8 hours of full sunlight to get decent food production from a garden, especially for things like greens. My property has many shade trees and I had never figured out anywhere that received that much full sun in a day. So I made up a chart of the day time hours and selected 3 spots to keep my eye on- 2 in the back yard and 1 in the front yard. During the course of the next week I checked off whether there was sun on each spot throughout the day... conclusion... the backyard is just too shady... the best spot is right smack in the middle of the front yard. So now I am in negotiations with my husband who, in the past, has always liked a tidy front yard.
My next gardening concern is what to do about all the critters who reside in and pass thorough my yard. We have lots of deer, bunny rabbits, squirrels, and a family of groundhogs. I consulted the Riverside Garden experts on my fencing options and went over to look at the examples installed there. I will need to lay chicken wire fencing under the garden plus sink the fencing vertically down a foot or so all around, and finally install posts with fencing around all sides to a height of 6 feet to keep out the ground hogs and the deer. As I contemplated all this... I came across a perfect article from an experienced FENCING expert in this past Sunday's NY Times (4/16/09), THE ART OF FENCING: EN GARDE! It really tells all... enjoy! Here is the link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/nyregion/long-island/19Rhome.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=fencing&st=cse
Nathaniel W. is a 5th grade student at Riverside School, and interviewed some of the kids working at garden club in June. Here is his report:
We watered the vegetables. It was fun to water. The spinach was yummy! We made Lawn to Food signs. Sanding was entertaining but the noise was amazing! Screwing was enjoyable because we like working with wood. Painting was fun because it was art and gardening at the same time. We gathered the vegetables, it was exhausting We raked the straw off the raspberry plants. It was worth the treats we will get!
Thanks, Nathaniel!
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