We let 4 ladies each have a large plot for gardens each year. Here is what theirs looked like

[shraby]

last year.
(http://www.1969supersport.com/01gardenaug2011.html)

there are 4 pages of pics and the last couple of pages were taken from the top of the garage to get a bird's eye view.

[zeemike]

1. that looks like a very productive garden

thanks for sharing it..
the one thing I like more than anything is eating an ear of sweet corn right on the spot where it grew and raw.

[shraby]

2. They like to plant early, so the area is already tilled up for them (and also on our side)

We don't plant ours till late in May. The bottom of one side of the compost bins has been uncovered (the stuff that hasn't composted yet has been removed) and they can share it..each can take 1/4 of it and spread it on their plot. One has already done it for her space. We've had a spell of cold weather so I expect the others to do it when it warms back up.

You can see the compost bins in the pics from the roof..it has a large (humongous) squash growing out of one side.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. Woah! Way cool! kr

[Curmudgeoness]

4. It is very kind of you to share land for gardens

with these ladies. Looks like you will have to learn how to speak some Hmong (Vietnamese?) so you can learn from these ladies. Beautiful gardens.

[shraby]

5. They know enough English and they sometimes bring a daughter with them and the

daughters translate.
They also try to give us some veggies for letting them garden there, but we won't take anything for it. We wouldn't feel right about it. They did go into my garden and weeded it pretty good for me, but I didn't see them do it, so when I found it all clean, I thanked them for saving me a lot of work.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. Good people always find a way to pay you back.

This sounds like such a great set-up for all involved.

[shraby]

7. We're just hoping the well point will give enough water this year..we had a pretty dry winter with

not much snow..maybe we'll get a bunch of rain soon..we got 2 inches the other day. Without the point, we'll be hardpressed to water that much garden space. City water would be too expensive.

[tru]

8. drip irrigation and mulching. n/t

[shraby]

9. Hard to do when they broadcast most of their seeds, then tend to plant in between what comes up.

Only one plants stuff in rows. I'm going to advise them to plant the tall stuff on the ends of their plots so the tall stuff won't keep the water from the smaller plants on the other side of them.

[HopeHoops]

10. Soil looks like S.E. coastal area.

[shraby]

11. It's Manitowoc Wisconsin area right about a block from Lake Michigan.

[HopeHoops]

12. Oh yeah. I got a rental car stuck in that kind of sand.

Damn was that stupid.

[shraby]

13. Sand is a bad thing to get stuck in. Easy to dig your way in deeper instead of out.

[HopeHoops]

14. Yeah and it was a LOOONNNGGG walk back to civilization to look for a tow truck.

The driver never said a word about how fucking stupid I was, so I guess it isn't that unusual.