More from the Garden

My garden is planted in a different manner from many. The most common garden configuration is one of rows and paths...lots of room for weeds to grow and a gardener to cuss the amount of work required.

Years ago, when I first met my exhusband Frank, I had a garden grown in rows. Well, it was actually growing an enormous weed patch by mid-summer, but the point is it was a garden of rows of veggies. It was the only way I knew to garden. Along came Frank, who took one glance at my garden and said, "you'll never want to garden like this again once I teach you how to grow a garden in beds." He was absolutely right. The one thing I constantly honor him for teaching me is how to garden using a style of raised beds and square-foot and/or scatter planting, as well as strategic placements of mulch. It is amazing at how the garden becomes an easy plat to manage when planted this way. The weeding is mostly an early garden necessity. Once the plants are large enough to create shade beneath, as well as to have mulch scattered around the base, then the chance of weeds becomes less. The walking paths are also mulched and as the summer progresses, the garden becomes an easy place to go to harvest the desired food items.


Although this picture (left) does not do my garden justice, what you are looking at is a tomato patch (closest to the fence) that is 3'x5' and holds 6 plants. Growing with the tomatoes are carrots and radishes. To the left of the tomatoes is a patch of tomatillos that are actually overgrowing the path and thus creating a big green clump of leafy stuff. The 4 plants of tomatillos are also in a 3'x5' bed, along with a section of 6 sweet banana pepper plants. Interspersed with the peppers are two varieties of basil. With all those plants, it is one green mass of food, with very few weeds having a chance to take over.


This picture shows more of the garden, looking at the beds that are just beyond the tomatoes and tomatillos. Here you see beds of potatoes and onions. The squash are growing in the rear on the far left, and rhubarb and raspberries are at the rear center and right. This picture was taken at the end of July, and you can see that my garden is well along into harvest. I've cleared one bed of pea vines and used them for mulch in the potato bed that is in the front right portion of this picture. I am currently eyeing that open space for a fall crop of something...Possibly lettuce, since we've eaten up nearly all I've grown thus far.

I have become a real fan of the magazines Mother Earth News, and this year I took a tip that may seem strange, but sure has been helpful. That tip? Carpeting my garden. Yes, my garden is carpeted this year. What I've done is taken old, beat-up, salvaged living room carpeting and cut it into strips the width of my walking paths. Each path is "carpeted". The carpet is my weed barrier. It is working marvelously, and I actually think a bit better than when I use weed barrier fabric and wood chip mulch. At first the garden did look a bit strange with gold carpet paths, but now that they are all taken on the color of dirt, the garden looks natural.

The harvest this year is really looking promising. I plan to give a portion of my produce to the local foodbank. One bed of potatoes was planted with them in mind.