Sometimes rightsizing feels like giving up or in or something. This year’s garden will be 50% of the size of the one I had the last 2 years. I’m keeping the center rows, those with the best dirt, and growing only the things we love to have homegrown. There’s an additional section of garden with a 30′ row of raspberries and 7 very young blueberry bushes as well as a perennial herb garden.
I don’t expect we’ll starve, at least not with the area’s fantastic farmer’s markets around. And we’ll still eat zucchini, tomatillos, parsnips, etc, but instead of having a glut that we’re constantly trying to give away, we’ll buy what we need from local farmers.
Even with the downsized garden I’m behind. Only the 3 right hand rows are cleared of the winter weeds, tilled and mostly planted with seeds and starts. The left three rows are on the slate for this weekend, assuming the weather cooperates and I can find the time. I’m sure that it seems crazy to be putting in onions, garlic, peas and potatoes on Memorial Day weekend, but we had frost here just 8 days ago! I figure that since I’m putting in seed that I’ve already long ago purchased (or saved myself) all I’ll be out if something doesn’t work (like the garlic) is a little sweat and some seed. And if it works out? Well then I’ve learned something and I’ll be glad that I took the chance.
Even now, the night time temps are in the forties. The tomatoes and peppers will need to be in the plastic tunnels and the cucumber, pumpkin and melon are just being seeded in pots this weekend.
ETA: The squares in the garden plan are each 1 square foot. My rows are roughly 4′ x 33′ and I usually double plant them for row crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, bush beans, etc. – meaning that I put two rows in the row. This year I’m planting fewer plants in each row, spacing them further apart in hopes that I won’t need to water anything except the lettuce/radish/basil and the onions/garlic/carrots.
So, how’s your garden growing?