Who else needs a bigger garden?

[897tgigvib]

Man oh man, I'm finding myself tucking in seeds, (appropriate to the place), practically everywhere between things. Scrounging for wood to lengthen a bed or two, even helping a friend make a garden, just to plant more seeds!

I know I'm not the lone ranger here.

 

[catjac1975]

Never enough room. I use a Mantis tiller and "Edge" each garden and somehow they get a little bigger every year. Less grass to mow.

 

[homewardbound]

When I was a very young child my grandmother had a garden that must have been at least an acre. My gardens as a teenager were maybe 800 square feet. Then living in another part of town (and where I am at now) I had less than half that because the yard is so much smaller. But for a few years I was living on property that my mother inherited from her brother and I had about 1600 square feet. The property flooded anytime it rained hard so I made planting beds by digging trenches about 4 feet by 8 feet and piled the dirt up in the pathways and the perimeter of the garden. I ended up with 14 planting beds about 18 inches deep and I filled them in with a dump truck load of compost. Once all that was done it only took me about an hour a day on average to look after everything. With only my mother and me to feed I had to find extra people to give produce away to- but I still thought about making the garden bigger.

 

[desertlady]

I like to think big every year !! But I find it costs me money to get better dirt for my garden, My place is desert soil. My first year I had to put all kinds of cheap mulch ,straws and chicken poop in my garden, it took time to make this work !! :watering

 

[digitS']

For those of you without enough square feet in your yard, I'd like you to think about GOOPP. That is, Gardening On Other People's Property.

Have you ever taken a drive out in the "exurbs?" Of course you have, some of you probably live where lots are measured in acres. I'm not talking about rural areas. There may be farms in amongst the mix but folks who work in the urban areas commute home to, often, a big house on a big piece of land. Not surprisingly, they spend an awful lot of their time (!!) mowing their lawn .

Let me tell you about a couple neighbors to my large veggie garden. One guy lays out field sprinklers every spring - lots of them. They stay in 1 place for 6 months and he is out there with his lawn mower covering about 2 acres. Another guy has about the same size field. Here in the Wild West, irrigation is essential if you are going to grow much of anything. I know full well he PAYS for water because he lives in one of those quasi-governmental irrigation districts but he tries to get by with no water and just mowing twice a year. Yeah, he grows weeds and that little field looks pretty bad. The guy across the road took a different route. He sprays his little field with Round-up every year - couple of times. Yep, bare ground! Thank Heavens this is a little down hill from me so that I can't see it! I wonder how delighted he is with his view from his front windows . . ?

Yeah, some of them buy a horse or 2. I think the reasoning behind this is just to try to deal with whatever grows on the ground. From my perspective, a horse isn't a very good answer for weed-control. There for awhile - I thought the trend was moving towards the llama!

Besides a beast or two working as hay-burners and the guy on his mower covering 2 acres and the idiot who lays bare his land year after year - there are those who pay others to "farm" their land. They ain't makin' any money, I can assure you. Heck, I know people who have inherited 100's of acres who don't know what the contract farmer is growing on their land! But, that's another story. One guy has about 10 acres of wheat. Oh yeah, the wheat belongs to a neighboring farmer. He farms those 10 acres for free - takes the entire crop. Unfortunately, his equipment is so large he can't get into one area of about 1/2 acre.

♪ ♫ Oh, give me forty acres and I'll turn this rig around. ♪ ♫

The property owner tried to give that half acre to me to garden. One of a number of offers I've had like that. Some folks try to be farmers but pay for the field work. They are just trying to hold onto their land, keep it looking fairly nice and defray some (but not all) of the costs.

You may say, "I don't want to be in 'property management' and take over mowing & trimming and all that!" Don't do it! You are only responsible for your garden - period. I don't care how old & frail the property owner is, taking care of a 2 acre lawn AND 1/2 acre of garden are 2 very separate things.

You may say, "I don't want to be a share cropper!" Don't do it! What, you are going to grow food for your family AND the property owner's family? He will be giving your produce away to the neighbors! No! You are relieving him of the labor and expense of caring for ground that is home for YOUR garden. If there is additional $ expense, like water, you can pay for that. Your job is to make your garden pleasant to look at. Maybe you can help the property owner have his own garden by supplying plants in the spring or running his sprinklers when he takes vacations . . .

First thing you do out there in your GOOPP is find a nice comfortable place in the shade to sit down with your picnic basket. Then, get to work!

. . . just my 2 on the topic of wishing and hoping for a large garden.

Steve

 

[leolady]

I need more gardening space too, but I am conflicted about whether to add another bed or to extend two of the beds I already have.

And I am having trouble finding old railroad ties to extend the beds with. A friend of mine is supposed to have some, and I have not heard from him yet.

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh, what to do for compost in the desert!

I think I'd have a huge compost pile, and tell the neighbors to bring their grass clippings, or offer to go get the grass clippings. I think I'd go to nearby restaurants and talk to the dishwashing folks there, and have garbage cans at their dishwashing sink and kitchen set up for things like egg shells and good scraps, but no meat or oils. I think I'd have a major worm bin setup.

It has to be difficult to get enough compost in the desert!

 

[ninnymary]

Well Marshall, my first reaction of course! DUHH. With my postage size garden who wouldn't? But then Steve, like always made me think. Even though my garden is small there is plenty for me and my family. Now, I'm not sure I would want a bigger garden because of the extra work. OK, maybe it would be nice to have a "tiny" orchard? :/

Mary

 

[897tgigvib]

GOOPP

I never put it into an acronym, but that is kind of what I am starting to do this year. My friend who lives a mile away south, also next to the lake, is letting me help him make his garden more serious this year. I'll be putting seeds into it in a week or two.

Next year, or the year after, I'm asking a local rich person, one who own hundreds of, (or is it thousands), of acres up here, if I can put in a 100 by 100, almost a quarter acre, sized garden on their property. GOOPP, hmmm

Just think all the stuff I can grow on a quarter acre! That'd be almost big enough to start my own seed company!!!