Momma's 2017 garden!

[ChickenMomma91]

i know I know "you're already planning next years garden?!?! Are you nuts?" My mother actually said that . My SBG was kind of a bust thanks to the huge rain fall we had in the kcmo area this summer. My peppers didn't produce till literally a couple weeks ago and got no taller than a foot. My tomatoes are about to topple despite heavy trimming. And I don't even want to discuss my failure with the bush beans @Bluejay77 was kind enough to send. My pole beans were the only thing I would call a success.

So I've wiped the board and drew up a new garden layout. Next weekend I'm going to attempt to scoot the bales a bit then dismantle them with whatever vegetation remains and till it in with my new to me tiller that my frugal and free veggie minded FIL found for $40 (I know! Score!) then dump my compost barrel on top, clean out the coop and put that on, till it again then cover with black garden fabric to sit all winter. Till again in the spring and this is what I've got.

It's in pencil so I can revise if necessary, it's in square foot measurements. Feel free to gimme so input. DH is lost when it comes to gardening and falls back on what I've told him lol

 

[Blue-Jay]

So glad that your beans did well enough to be classified as a success. A summer without beans would truely be a disaster to the highest degree.

 

[digitS']

Until about 10 years ago, when nearly unlimited ground became available for my gardening, I carefully mapped every square foot. Really, I have too much garden to manage well. I don't like that. Gardening within limits means one has a history on each square foot and can recognize time resource limits.

Here's an example of where so very many people have problems. Me too! ---- With rototillers, hired tractor guys, enthusiastic volunteers, and weeds suppressed by cold weather - spring cultivation can be done, and overly done! Before those pesky weeds have a chance to emerge, the gardener can drill in many feet of rows, from here to the horizon.

Many gardeners seem only restrained by the limits within their seed envelopes. Then, they cannot bring themselves to thin the seedlings. Kind-heartedness does not include consigning our plants to a cramped existence where they cannot fully develop.

The warm growing season advances, weeds emerge, water requirements must be met, enthusiasm wanes, volunteers vanish. Instead of the pleasant environment of a well-managed garden, a dreadful sight greets us when we venture into the garden. Faced with hours of work to put things right, self-motivation is about all we have to rely on. We might begin to feel that we are embarrassing ourselves in front of our neighbors. Summer heat has arrived. Burdens, real and imagined, weigh us down and make everything more difficult.

I am setting all the priorities because of having so much growing space. I'll do this, that can wait, and I will ignore the others! Doing what I want to do has been overwhelmed by doing what I must do!

I know what I am getting myself into because this isn't new to me. I don't have any real excuses other than that there are benefits to being a marketing gardener. The priorities are recognized beforehand and self-imposed. At this time of the year, I feel somewhat accomplished, certainly tired. I'd rather feel frolicsome but there will be time for that.

Frolic during the planning and planting stages. Yeah! Keep things in control and the enjoyment can continue right thru the season .

Steve

 

[ChickenMomma91]

It's relatively small actually. 6'x9' and it loses space for my paths. The. Eds turn out to be about 2.5'x4.5'

 

[majorcatfish]

love a well planned out garden......

 

[baymule]

It's relatively small actually. 6'x9' and it loses space for my paths. The. Eds turn out to be about 2.5'x4.5'

At 6'x9' the only path you need should be right down the middle, giving you almost 3' on each side. you can reach in from the middle and the outside to weed, care for and pick the garden.

 

[digitS']

~ I see .

Well, my ""ideal" garden would be stepping off my deck and finding all the food I want to eat, whenever I want to eat it.



Steve

 

[ChickenMomma91]

At 6'x9' the only path you need should be right down the middle, giving you almost 3' on each side. you can reach in from the middle and the outside to weed, care for and pick the garden.

I have it divided so I can rotate crops. Four separate beds will make it easier to keep track

 

[ChickenMomma91]

Ok so update on the garden. DH convinced me to make it a bit bigger, the garden is now 6’x12’ and has room for more herbs and such. I’m being kind of OCD about it and have an excel document I’ve been playing with. I’ve color coded and sized the cells just right, it’s not done being transferred onto the document but DH is laughing at me pretty much. “it took me getting you a computer for you to do this stuff?” so yes join him in his revelry as I play with a program I haven’t touched on years (since about 09). I’ll upload it once its done

 

[digitS']

I'd like to see it.

Not only might I have to change my gardening from the commute that it but I might have ever higher expectations from it. That's a fun part .

About the only digital things I've done out there, beyond my yearly taxes, is using the Evernote cloud. That doesn't work all that well for me beyond being a "note in my pocket."

Steve