Yesterday, we began moving one of our gardens that contains many raised beds which we set up a year ago. We had a lot of really good reasons for changing our minds. The new area drains better, but besides that, we decided that we’d like to widen our drive way and plant grapes in the old location. In addition, when we “rebuild” the garden, we are going to make the beds twelve inches high rather than six as we’ve had better luck with beds that are twelve inches high.
We’ve had a garden there for a long time, but just put the raised beds in last year. We would put the chickens in there over the winter with a chicken tractor for shelter to make the dirt more fertile. One lady actually asked me if we had a “bird cage” beside our house because she’d seen it when she was driving by. She made it clear that she thought we were weird even after I explained that our chickens were fertilizing our garden. I promise it was only 5 chickens and the space was fairly large. I suppose that the next time she passes our house in her car, she will be happy to see it gone.
The current bed that is 6 inches high. This bed has been weeded so that we don't move a lot of weeds to the new location.
When it came time to move the beds, we were sure that we wanted to save the dirt that was in them. For these particular beds, we followed the instructions in the book All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew and that was some expensive dirt! If you read the book and purchase the materials, you will understand. Below is a picture of MrLivingOurWay with one of the pickle barrels we used to store the dirt.
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Good luck with the new garden location. I know what you mean by expensive dirt!
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I decided to try gardening one year. We spent over $250 setting up a 30 by 10 foot garden and ended up yielding maybe $15 worth of green beans. Everything else either died before we could pick it or eaten by deer.
Oh well!
Does northern NC's climate support the growth of grapes?
Yes, our climate supports the growth of grapes very well. I see a lot of grapes in yards around here as well vinyards that support our local wine industry.
ReplyDeleteWe did have more luck with our raised beds last year than we had planting directly in the ground. I think the key is probably what you plant in it. Unfortunately you never know what is going to be successful until it grows! We grew peas last year successfully and they are growing again. We added a large variety to our garden this year and will likely change things around for next year depending on what grows well.
Thanks for stopping by!