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This is a new area for the garden (the old one is now in the shade of the new shed) and we didn't do the shed until April, so I didn't have time to do the "winter garden prep" I normally would have on a new patch. Someone here mentioned Lasagna gardening, so back in February or March I checked a book on it out of the library and got the general idea, then promptly forgot about it.
So May comes and I realize I want my garden, but have done absolutely nothing to get it ready and I can't get a community garden plot. (Next year, I have friends who have a gorgeous back yard that is just aching for a garden, and they have happily granted me permission to do as I please in their space... I'll be feeding several extra people with it, so it will be quite fun, and a good prep for when the Zombies come.) I vaguely remember the lasagna method, but the book now has a huge waiting list, so I made it up as I went along. Remember, we have adobe for soil, so the very idea of actually planting things in it is laughable.
I started by laying out the space with old two by fours from our former front path (we were going to lay concrete, but drought restrictions turned it into a permanent wooden path until I managed to find 6x6 pavers really cheap) and some other salvaged two by fours. I built the frame up to about 12 inches tall, with two by fours and some plastic garden edging and big old half-dollar nails to hold everything in place. The frame is 3 feet wide by 15 feet long, and isn't something very pretty, but it is serviceable. Then I started layering.
Our city gives away mulch every spring and fall, so DH and I took a some trash compactor bags over and loaded up my tiny Hyundai Accent with about 300 pounds of the stuff, twice. I also found a great sale on bagged top soil and compost at our Ace hardware ($.50 for a cubic yard bag, limit ten per customer) so I convinced my friends who have the land I'll use next year to come with me, and all five of us bought ten bags of top soil and compost. So the first layer was a layer of newspaper six sheets deep inside the frame, and I wetted it down. Next came 2-3 bags of mulch, then 2-3 bags of compost, then the contents of my own compost heap, then 2-3 bags of top soil, wetting down between each layer. Then I started over with newspaper and just continued until the frame was full. I think I had about ten layers all told. (only one layer of my own compost, though; compost is really slow to form here in Colorado because the conditions are just too dry.) Before I put down the last layers of compost and top soil, I buried a soaker hose snaked through the soil with the ends exposed. It's pretty snakey. Then I planted.
I had to cover the garden once when we had a threat of frost (in May) and I've watered about three times a week for an hour each time (according to the water meter, this is about 300 gallons a week total).
Total cost, not including seeds or water was: $10 for the 2x4s from the local salvage yard, $25 for the soil and a month's subscription to the newspaper. We already had the soaker hose, but those run about $10 for 50 feet. The nails were $6 for a big box. So... from scratch, I'd say $60? I probably spend $85 a year in seeds. I also bought some bamboo hoops and stakes for supports and jammed them in where I thought the plants would need them. (For the modt part, the plants have had to be coaxed to use them, though.) I garden by benign neglect - once the plant is established, I ignore it until the weeds threaten to demand voting rights or I can't discover what's ready to pick. I am Goth enough in most ways to want to not get dirty, sunburnt, or deal with bugs. So I don't weed and I don't double dig. Also, I don't care what it looks like; if the garden is a riot of interwoven vines and leaves, that's okay. It doesn't seem to hurt the yield and my neighbors and I have an agreement - they get some of the produce and I don't complain about their cats or kids or parties if they don't complain about my riot of a garden.
I plant plants that are bushy, dwarfy or will use each other for support. We like cherry tomatoes, so I try to grow only cherries or pears. I don't do beefsteaks usually. I prefer cukes that don't mind being on the ground (thus, the lemon and japanese cukes) and squash that deal well on their own. Now that I know how potatoes grow, I'll be looking for used tires over the winter and I'll grow the taters in stacks of tires. I also try to time things - the spinach and lettuce were done before the zukes started taking over and plotting world domination, and the radishes and carrots were done before the tomatoes decided to form a union.
I'll post pictures and full descriptions when I can get photobucket and Safari on speaking terms again.
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