The beginning for the vegetable garden

My previous experience with vegetable gardens has been more fun than productive. Over the years I've incorporated vegetables into my landscape in any space that looked likely to grow them, never knowing anything about what I was doing other then the information that came with the plant. My son, now 13, planted a garden with me in our first home when he was nearly 2 years old. We had a great time growing mint because it smelled good, butternut squash, and tomatoes. The mint spread everywhere. The tomatoes were unremarkable. In fact, I don't remember even one of them. But the squash was a huge success. It was so easy to grow and fun to watch. On top of all that the squash was delicious!

I've tried out a lot of different things just for fun and to find out whether they were easy or tasted good. If they grew, great! If they didn't, that was okay too. If they were pretty, I remembered to try that one again.

Here at my new house I have a real garden space, totally unlike the terraced small spaces I've carved out of my past yards. I haven't measured, but this space seems huge and it has a gentle slope. Neighbors have told me that Bob and Judy, the previous owners, had a great vegetable garden that was very productive while they were both in good health. When I moved in it was just a flat mowed space. It hadn't been planted or tilled in years. Here's a photo from last fall. You can just make out the somewhat square flat space.

Just before our last snowfall I rented a tiller and began thinking about how to make the space into a vegetable garden I can use. I decided to leave a grass path approximately 4 feet wide down the middle with narrow tilled garden plots on either side. Each of the narrow plots is separated by a 1 foot wide path that will be mulched for walking. My intention when I tilled was to roughly turn under the grass before things began growing in earnest, giving the weather some time to work moisture and nutrients into the tilled spaces. Here's how it looked after I tilled.

The day after I did my work we got over 8 inches of snow which was perfect for my plan. The snow melted away in about 3 days, slowly watering in the rough soil. There's a lot to do before I can plant anything and that's a good thing. As I mentioned, I'm not used to so much space. So I'll be working with my step-dad to figure out what to plant. Of course, I will have to plant butternut squash and also the other successes I've encountered over the years like Swiss chard and collard greens, tomatoes, green beans, and peppers. There is also a trellis on the west side of the garden made of two halves of an iron wagon wheel that I think will be perfect for berries. I've already planted two blueberry bushes I brought from my old house. They are just north and west of the trellis. My raspberry canes were too large to move, but I will certainly plant more. Some of my most relaxing times last summer were evenings after work spent picking berries with Skylr and often one of his friends. I loved the quiet time exploring the canes to find the ripest, sweetest ones.

I'm excited to get started breaking up the soil and working in some compost. Since this space is about 3 times as much space as I'm used to, I'll give myself a couple of weekends to ready the space for plants and seeds. I think I have that much time before we are frost-free here.

Maybe I can get my not-so-little-anymore son to help. It'll be a lot different than having a two-year-old help. He's bigger than me now. As much as he complains about being asked to help (he's a teenager, of course he complains), there's no mistaking the pride he takes in letting friends and relatives know what he's done and showing off the "fruits" of his labors. And I think he likes the time with me at least as much as I like the time with him. The truth is there's nothing I'm more thankful for these days than time like that. :-)

Happy Easter!