The final part in a series of posts about one method of easily building a vegetable garden.

You Got Dirty, Now Get Wet

The last shovelfuls of dirt have been thrown.  The fence is up and the tools are put away.  You stand there beholding your new garden like a proud parent when suddenly an alarming thought flashes into your mind, “So what now?”

Obviously at this point the garden is ready for planting.  But before you start setting in transplants and sowing seeds you might want to take a couple minutes to make sure you have your watering needs taken care of.

Hand watering a garden is therapeutic and highly encouraged if you have the desire and time to do so.  If your garden is large you might want to explore using a sprinkler or drip system.  I use a sprinkler to do the deep soaking of the entire garden, and supplement it with spot-watering by hand where necessary.

If you decide to follow my lead and use something like my famous Hillbilly Garden Sprinkler you are pretty much good to go.  But if you are going to set up a drip irrigation system of some sort it is a good idea to get all the hoses placed in the beds now while the ground is bare.  Don’t worry too much about exact placement in each bed, you can always make adjustments later.

Congratulations on your new vegetable garden!

Epilogue

About halfway into the writing of this series it occurred to me that I was writing an awful lot of words for such an “easy” system of building a garden.  My intention was to provide more information than anyone needed just to ensure that most questions would be answered ahead of time.  If you still have a question please leave a comment at the bottom of this page or submit one to me privately using the comment form on the right side of the page and I’ll get back to you.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Watering Wisdom, and What to do Next

Photo of Paths

Part 6 in a series of posts about one method of easily building a vegetable garden.

Lay the Groundwork and Get it Done!

This is where the shovel hits the soil, so to speak.  Preparing your garden site can take as little as a few minutes, or as long as a few hours depending on how you want to go about it.

Once the site is prepared you can start the process of making the raised beds.  After that you will fence it all in if necessary.

To begin with, you should… 

Clear the area. Remove any debris.  Pull any large weeds.  If the area is lawn you should mow it as low as your mower goes.  If you want to kill all the grass with some sort of herbicide that is up to you — personally I don’t want a lot of chemicals in the same area my food grows in so I passed on this option.

Mark the borders. Using your garden design for reference mark the outline of the entire garden and each bed within the garden.  You can use stakes or spray paint or string — whatever works best for you.  The layout doesn’t have to be perfect to the inch — you just need it to be reasonably accurate so you know where everything goes.

One tip — if you are fencing the garden make sure that the fencelines are parallel and even with each other.  You don’t want any gaps that will let critters inside!

Line the paths. If you are lining the pathways with landscape fabric you can place it now or wait until after the beds are constructed.  If you are going to use gravel or mulch to line the paths it is better to wait until after the beds are built.

Border the beds. If you are going to use wood or timbers or something to border the raised beds go ahead and get them all set up now.

Construct the raised beds. See that huge pile of dirt?  Grab a friend or ten and start shoveling!  No need to till the ground first.  No need to dig up the sod.  Just start piling the dirt right on the ground/grass until you get the beds filled in to an even depth (6 or 8 inches usually).

I can already see the questions forming in your mind — Is it really OK to just pile the dirt on the ground?  Shouldn’t we till it first?  What about double-digging it 12 inches deep?  Is he out of his mind?!?  My answer is this:  Meadowwood Garden was constructed in exactly this way.  As I write this I have 8 foot tall tomato plants and 25 foot long gourd vines growing in 6 inch deep raised beds.  In my opinion tilling or double-digging the ground under the raised bed isn’t necessary.

Finish up the pathways. If you are putting gravel or stone on top of the landscape fabric now is the time.  Double-check and make sure that the beds and pathways are exactly the way you want them before you go to the next step.

Fence it all in. Starting at one corner pound in the fenceposts every 8 feet.  Once all the fenceposts are in and everything is square attach the fence to the posts.  Don’t forget to leave room for your gate.

Now stand back, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself.  You have a vegetable garden!!!!

In the concluding post to this series we will talk about how to water your new garden, and where you can go from here.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Building the Garden

Shovel

Part 5 in a series of posts about one method of easily building a vegetable garden.

Gather Up Your Stuff!

At this point you should have your garden design in hand and are probably wondering when you get to start shoveling some dirt!  Patience Grasshopper, patience…

Before you can start shoveling dirt you need the shovel.  And the dirt.  And that is what this article is all about — making sure that you have everything you are going to need to get the job done right before you begin.  A small amount of preparation might prevent a trip or two to the garden center or hardware store later.

So print this list and head out to the garage or shed or barn and make sure you have the following items:

Tools:

• 

  Bow Rake

  Shovel – You probably already have a shovel or three hanging about.

• Rake — Not the flimsy leaf rake!  You will need the sturdy garden rake with short tines.  Known as a Bow Rake.
• Wheelbarrow — Unless the topsoil pile is right next to your garden site you will need a wheelbarrow or trailer of some sort to help move it.
• Gloves — Good leather work gloves will save your hands, especially if you put up a fence and use wire connectors!!!
• 

  Post Driver

  Pliers — Only need these if you are installing a fence and using wire connectors.

• Post Driver — If you are putting up fence and using metal fenceposts then spend the $25 for this!  Makes driving the posts so easy you won’t believe it.  A sledgehammer would work too, but I guarantee that money spent on a post driver is well-spent.
• Tarps — Optional.  Can be used to kill grass before you build the garden.  Also can be used to drag soil around or place under soil pile to make cleanup easier.
• Hammer and Nails — If you want to border your beds with lumber you need these.
• Twine and a Tape Measure — Use the tape measure for shorter distances, and the twine to measure long distances.

Materials:

• Topsoil — You can purchase topsoil or you can make it yourself.  The topsoil you use can make or break your garden, so it is hugely important.  More on topsoil at the end of this article.
• Landscape Fabric and Pins — This is optional — but I found it was the easiest way to line the paths between my beds.  Sam’s Club had the best price on this by far, but it is a seasonal item there so it isn’t available year-round.
• 

  Feedlot Panel

  Fence — If you need to fence in your garden I recommend something called a feedlot panel.  They come in 16-foot sections and the wire is much thicker than a chain-link fence.  In my area they are about $20 a panel.  There are many other types of fencing that could be used.  I’m convinced that feedlot panels are the way to go considering their reasonable cost, sturdiness and ease of use.  Quality Farm and Fleet is where I purchased mine.  If 16 feet is too long these can be cut down with bolt cutters.

  • If you use the feedlot panels you will also need to purchase some poultry netting if rabbits or groundhogs are a problem in your area.  Poultry netting comes in bundles and is inexpensive.  Attach this to the bottom of the feedlot panels with the cable ties and you are protected.
• Fence Posts — If you use feedlot panels then the best fencepost to use is called a T-post.  You want the posts to be 6 feet or 6.5 feet long.  Your garden plan tells you how many you need — 1 on each corner and 1 every 8 feet.
• 

  T-Post Clip

  Connectors — When I purchased the T-posts they gave me a bag of these wire fence clips that it takes a geometry genius to figure out how to use.  They work, but they also tend to poke holes in skin and cause bleeding and other unpleasant stuff!  So to connect the fence to the posts I used nylon cable ties — also known as zip ties.  They were cheap and easy.  Over time they will probably degrade from the sunlight and need to be replaced — but I’m OK with that because they were so darn cheap and easy!

• Lumber for Bed Border — Most of the raised beds I’ve seen are enclosed with lumber of some sort.  It makes the garden look neat and helps to ensure you don’t accidentally step into your beds.  The downsides are the high cost and the lumber will need to be periodically replaced as it ages.  I skipped this step when Meadowwood Garden was built because it would have cost as much for the bed borders as it did for the fencing!  But I am thinking about installing these retroactively just to neaten things up.
  • If you decide to use lumber to border your beds you will want 2in x 6in x 8ft boards at a minimum.  There is a lot of debate about pressure-treated wood possibly leaching chemicals into the soil.  Personally I would not use pressure-treated wood in my garden — just in case.  Regular pine boards will last for many years before they need to be replaced.  Regardless of what you choose to use, make sure your beds are a minimum 6 inches deep.
• Path Material — What you do here depends on your situation.  You could leave the garden paths natural and just mow them if you like.  That is how Meadowwood Garden started out.  What I didn’t like about having grass paths was the weeds that seemed to creep into the beds, the bugs they harbored, and the fact that it was really tough to mow in that small area.  So in the middle of the growing season I lined all the pathways with black landscape fabric.  At the end of the season I plan to put a layer of pea gravel  on top of the landscape fabric.
  • Another alternative would be to use straw to line your paths.  Or you could mulch them.  Or use pavers.  The possibilities are endless!

Some Words About Topsoil

The #1 key to a successful garden is having good topsoil.

I can’t stress that enough.  If your soil is rich and healthy then your plants will be vigorous and healthy.  The richer your soil is the more nutrients it holds, and the less fertilizer is needed.  Good soil tends to stay moist yet drain well.  Your soil is the connection between your plants and the Earth.  The better your soil, the better your garden.

OK, so does everyone understand how important soil is now?  If you learn nothing else from this website, I hope you go away with the understanding about how important it is to have good soil in a garden.

Normally I’d recommend mixing up your own garden topsoil so you can control what is in it and ensure quality.  But after seeing how large of a pile of soil it took to construct Meadowwood Garden I believe that purchasing a good-quality topsoil and having it delivered might be the best way to go.  Meadowwood Garden is just over 1000 sq. ft. and the pile of topsoil was almost as big as my car!!!!!

So how much topsoil do you need?  This website has a handy soil cubic yard calculator.  Use your garden design to add up the lengths and widths of your beds.  For height (depth) I used 8 inches to allow for some cushion.  Hit the button and it will tell you exactly how many cubic yards of topsoil to purchase for your garden.  Meadowwood Garden took about 7 cubic yards.

Ask around your local area for recommendations about where to purchase good topsoil — usually one company will stand out as the place of choice in your area.  You can also use Google — simply enter Topsoil and the name of your city into the searchbox.

When you call to place your order tell them that you are looking for the best grade of topsoil they sell for use in a garden.  In my case there were 2 grades of topsoil — the top grade had 20% compost mixed in already and didn’t cost too much more!  Good topsoil isn’t cheap, so don’t faint.  Much of what you pay is a delivery fee, so if you can go get it yourself you can save a substantial amount usually.

If you can’t get the soil yourself and it is going to be delivered consider ordering an extra 2 or 3 cubic yards.  You can always use good soil, it never goes bad, and you are paying the same delivery charge whether they deliver 5 yards or 50.  The extra I ordered is being used to expand a few beds and add a bed alongside my workshop, so I’m glad I ordered a little more than was originally needed.

Once the topsoil is delivered make sure you cover it if you can’t construct the garden right away and there is any chance of rain.  Wet soil is very heavy — enough said?

That about covers tools and materials.  Once you get everything gathered up and sorted out it will be time to start the real work — preparing the site and building the garden!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Tools and Material Checklist

The Meadowwood Garden Design

Part 4 in a series of posts about one method of easily building a vegetable garden.

A Very Important Step

Designing a vegetable garden?  What is there to design?  Don’t you just dig up a spot and start planting your seeds in it?  Why should I waste my time doing this?!?

All good questions.  Designing your garden (and by designing I mean drawing it up on graph paper like in the photo of Meadowwood Garden’s 2008 design on the right) will help you determine 3 critical things you need to know before you can build your garden…

How much soil will I need? When I first set about designing Meadowwood Garden I failed to take this into account!  Then I started calling around to get prices on topsoil and the first question they asked was, “How many cubic feet do you need?”  Yeah, they sell topsoil by the cubic yard — who knew?  Fortunately I had been smart enough to graph out my garden design so with a little thought it was pretty easy to figure out exactly how much topsoil the garden was going to require.  I’ll share how to determine this in the next article!

How much fencing material will I need to purchase? If you live in an urban or suburban area you might not need to fence your garden in at all.  Lucky you if that is the case!  The rest of us need to have some sort of barrier to protect our garden from pests like deer, rabbits, hungry neighbors, etc.  By designing your garden ahead of time you will easily be able to determine exactly how much fencing material you will need to purchase.  And in the next article in the series I’ll show you my recommendation for an inexpensive yet extremely sturdy fence that should last for decades!

Will I have room for everything I want to plant? Once the gardening bug bites you will never, ever have a large enough garden!  Having said that, in the beginning you will definitely want to think through what you want to plant just to make sure that your garden isn’t too cramped to even stand up in.  My experience this year is that the plants grew WAY larger than I had thought they would, and I planted WAY too many of each type.  For example, one zucchini plant will feed a small town, so I must have been high on compost when I planted 11 of them!!!  My advice to you is to err on the side of giving the plants more room than you think they will need, but plant a few less than you think you want.

So now that you know why it is so important to design your vegetable garden on paper let’s explore how easy it is to do.  First you will need some graph paper.  Since I’m cheap and it only takes 1 piece of graph paper for the design I did a quick search and found a couple websites you can visit to print your own!  The first will generate a .PDF file that you can save, edit and print. The second site is literally just a graph on the screen — use your browser print command and you are all set.

The Meadowwood Garden Design

Now grab a pen or pencil and get started!  One square on the graph paper represents one square foot in your garden.  So if you want to have a bed that is 3 feet wide by 10 feet long you would draw a rectangle that is 3 squares wide by 10 squares long.  Use the sample Meadowwood Garden design posted above to give you some idea of what you are looking to create.  See how easy it is?

A few hints that might help:

• Determine your reach. It doesn’t matter if your beds are square, rectangular, circular, triangular or whatever.  What does matter is you need to be able to reach into all parts of the bed without stepping in it.  An easy way to determine your comfortable reach is to put a yardstick on the floor, kneel down at one end and record how far you can comfortable reach out.  For me it is about a foot and a half, but everyone has their own comfort zone.  Multiply this number by 2 and this will give you the maximum width for your beds (in my case 3 feet).
• Give yourself room to move. You will want the beds to be about 2 or 3 feet apart to comfortably walk between them.  Leave 3 feet between the beds and the fence.  In the beginning when the vegetables are small this will seem like a huge distance, but after the vegetables mature you will thank me for this recommendation.
• Put your gate somewhere convenient. You will be entering your garden a lot over the years.  if you put the gate close to the house and close to where your tools are stored it will help a lot.  The gate for Meadowwood garden is as close to the outbuilding and water source as possible.
• If you need to fence it do it right. Unless you build fences for a living you probably know as much about them as I did when I started.  For a sturdy fence you will want to place a fencepost every 8 feet around the perimeter of the garden.  The fencing I will recommend using comes in 16 foot lengths.  Regardless of whether you use what I will recommend or not you will reduce headaches if you make the outside dimensions of your garden in multiples of 8 feet — for example 16 feet by 8 foot, or 32 feet by 16 feet.
• Give the vegetables enough room to grow! In my opinion this is probably the hardest part of designing the garden.  You won’t really know how large a particular vegetable will be when it is mature until it actually grows!  The best thing you can do here is to estimate.  Many seed catalogs give plant spacing recommendations.  There is a decent chart here that details vegetable plant spacing. Personally I ignore the “Inches between rows” numbers in order to have a slightly denser planting — but I’m a daredevil that way!

That about wraps it up for this post.  If you take a little time to sit down and draw your garden plan out on paper you will reap the rewards come harvest time!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Designing Your Vegetable Garden

Meadowwood Garden

Part 3 in a series of posts about one method of easily building a vegetable garden.

Location, Location, Location

Now that you understand a little more about what it takes to build and tend to your vegetable garden you are probably chomping at the bit to get started.  The good news is that now is the time to make a very important decision — where will your vegetable garden be located?  A few things to keep in mind as you decide:

Bring on the Sun! Almost all vegetables love the sun.  You will want to locate your vegetable garden in a spot that receives at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day.  Six hours should be considered a minimum — if you can find a site that provides 8 or even 10 hours of direct Sun per day that is even better!  If you are lucky enough to have an area with a good southern exposure then you really hit the jackpot!  The more sunlight your garden receives the longer your growing season will be.

Quench your thirst. Vegetable gardens require a minimum of 1 inch of rainfall per week.  If it doesn’t rain it is up to you to keep your garden adequately watered.  Your garden should be somewhere that is accessible by a hose.

Keep your garden close. This is a little less set in stone than some of the others things you need to consider, but a good argument can be made for making sure your garden is as close to your house as possible.  The easier it is for you to get to your garden the more likely you will be to spend time there.  We humans like things to be convenient after all!  It is also nice when your bounty starts pouring in to not have a long distance to have to carry everything.  And if you are in a situation where large pests such as deer, groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits etc. the closer the garden is to your house the less likely they will be to bother it.

Seek the middle ground. Often yards have that ONE low spot that stays wet longer than the rest of the yard.  You know what I mean — that area that is always muddy and where nothing grows well because it is wet all the time.  Yes, THAT one!  If you have such an area it is probably not the best place to put a vegetable garden.

Watch the trees. Oak trees can leech tannins into the soil that stunt plant growth.  There is a small oak tree stand on my property and hardly anything grows beneath them — even the grass has a tough time.  In a similar vein, Evergreen trees tend to produce very acidic soil where their needles drop and accumulate.  Acid soil might be good for Blueberries, but it is bad news for your vegetable garden.  Usually this won’t be a problem since you want the garden to be as out in the open as possible to maximize the sunlight — but it bears mentioning nonetheless.

Go with the flow. The flow of the land, that is.  if your garden site is rolling or sloped it is perfectly OK.  In fact, a sloped site can be superior to a perfectly flat site because the sloped site promotes excellent drainage.  If you are going to build raised beds as I will recommend in a post or so then this issue isn’t as important as making sure you have full sun and nearby water.

That should just about do it.  Find a sunny spot within hose distance of the house and you are all set!  In fact, unless you live in the middle of a dense forest there should be several excellent sites for your vegetable garden.  So get outside and find your spot — because next you will be designing the garden that will go there!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Garden Site Selection

July in Meadowwood Garden

Part 2 in a series of posts about one method of easily building a vegetable garden.

Some Things to Take Into Consideration

So you are excited about the possibility of growing your own vegetables.  You are super-motivated and ready to run outside and get started.

Hold on a second!

OK, stop rolling your eyes!  Before you run out and get dirt under your fingernails there are a few things to think about.  Building a garden and growing vegetables is probably easier than many people think, but it DOES require some thought, time and effort on your part.  So, before you begin please think about the following things:

Do you have the time to devote to a garden? Like everything else in life, gardening takes time and effort.  Initially you will need a few hours to plan out your garden and gather the materials to build it.  Constructing the garden beds and fencing it will probably take the better part of a weekend depending on how much help you have.

On an ongoing basis you will need to check the garden daily.  Some chores like weeding, fertilizing, pest control and others can take up some time on a periodic basis.  When harvest time rolls around you will probably need to be in the garden at least once every 2 days to gather up your bounty!  Meadowwood Garden has required about 15-30 minutes/day on average so far this growing season for these tasks.

Do you have the resources (or resourcefulness) to build and maintain it? Good topsoil costs money believe it or not!  So do tools, fencing, seeds, fertilizer, etc…

The good news is that your initial costs for the soil, fencing and tools should only occur once at the beginning.  And since these things will all last for a period of many, many years it makes the initial lump sum a little easier to swallow (at least that is how I justified it to myself!).  Meadowwood Garden is approx. 1000 square feet and cost about $500 for the initial materials.  Don’t let that number scare you — it could have been done for a lot less if I was better at being resourceful.

Is it the right season to build a garden? If you are in New England and it is the middle of Winter than probably not!  There isn’t a best or worst time to build a garden necessarily.  But if you build it shortly before the growing season you will be able to plant right away and get a sense of accomplishment for your hard work, not to mention the dividends later in the year in the form of your harvest!  Late Fall is another good time to build a garden — that way it will be ready to plant cool-weather crops as soon as the ground warms up the next year.

Do you know your USDA Hardiness Zone? Say what?  Hardiness zone?  What is he talking about?  And anything involving the USDA can’t be good, can it?

Well, in this case yes, it is good.  Different vegetables do well in different climates.  Some like it cold, some like it hot.  So a system of climate zones was created to let you know what will grow well in your particular climate.  And better yet — most of the seed companies refer to these zones in their plant descriptions so you will be able to tell if you can grow a particular variety even before you purchase it.

How do you find out your USDA Hardiness Zone?  The easiest way is to click on the banner below, enter your zip code and you are good to go!  Meadowwood Garden is zone 5 if you want to compare your climate to ours.

Do you know your Frost Dates? There are 2 dates that all vegetable gardeners live by — the date of the last frost in Spring and the date of the first frost in Fall.  These are known as your frost dates.  So why are they important?

Most vegetables (except a few cold-loving varieties) will die in a frost.  So the frost dates literally define the length of your growing season.  It is especially important in the Spring as you are setting out your plants or sowing your seeds because if you start too early you could kill everything if a late-season frost occurs.

There are 2 ways to find out your frost dates.  You could consult the handy chart here that lists frost dates for each state.  Kudos to Victory Seeds for producing this resource!  If you want to double-check the frost dates with a more local source you can consult your local Cooperative Extension Office.  Most of the Extension Offices have a website that lists the frost dates — or you can call or e-mail them and ask!

Have you decided what you want to plant? Now this topic could take up pages and pages!  But to distill it down for sake of simplicity let’s just say that you need to have a general idea about what vegetable varieties you want to plant before the growing season begins.

Now, you could go through the various seed catalogs and research how large each vegetable gets and graph it out to make sure you have room for everything.  Or you could do what I did and construct as many beds as you could in the space you had and just fill them with vegetables.  The first approach is probably the most sensible…  (looks at the piles of Zucchini surrounding the computer)

Bean Trellis of Awesomeness v 2.0

Seriously, though, some varieties take up substantially more space than others.  Tomatoes, Eggplant, Summer Squash, Zucchini and Pepper Plants can all get pretty large!  And Cucumbers, Pole Beans, Gourds, Melons, Winter Squash and other vining varieties will grow best (and take up less space) if grown vertically on some sort of trellis.

For the first year just follow the spacing recommendations from the seed provider.  Experience will dictate how much and where you can plant things in future years.

Conclusion:

This list isn’t meant to scare you out of wanting to grow your own vegetables, and hopefully it won’t.  Rather, I’m hoping that if you go into your experience with a little realistic knowledge about what it is going to take on your part it will make your garden even more successful!  Researching seeds can be a lot of fun.  Eating something that you planted and cared for is an amazing feeling!  And best of all — the time you spend in your garden literally surrounded by the fruits of your efforts will probably be a well-deserved and cherished respite from the rest of your hectic schedule!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Before You Begin Your Vegetable Garden

Meadowwood Garden in June

This is the first part in a series of posts about one method of easily building a vegetable garden.

So you want to grow your own vegetables?  Maybe you are tired of ever-escalating grocery store produce prices?  Perhaps you are looking towards a more self-sustainable lifestyle for yourself and/or your family?  Or do you just want more control over what you eat?

Regardless of your reason, if you want to experience the satisfaction of growing your own food but aren’t sure exactly how to get started then this series was written for you!  Just 3 short months ago Meadowwood Garden was literally a patch of lawn and an idea about wanting to grow my own food.  Now it is producing quality vegetables in quantities I never dreamed was possible!  Over the next several weeks I will share the story of how Meadowwood Garden was transformed from an idea into a successful reality!

If you have always wanted to grow your own vegetables this series will give you all the information you need to get started.  Even if you currently have a vegetable garden you might get some ideas on how to easily add more growing space.  The focus of this series will be how to easily get started growing vegetables in a successful manner.  Yes, there will be work involved.  But by reading this series it should answer many questions you might already have, as well as give you some good information you didn’t even know you needed!

Although the actual process of planning and constructing the garden is probably easier than you think, this series of articles will probably be longer than you need!  I’m packing as much information as possible into each article to try to anticipate any questions that might be in your mind.  Your garden will last years and years, so having as much information as possible is a good thing!  I apologize if there is some overkill at times, but by the end of this series you will have the knowledge and information you need to get your garden built right the first time!

Please join me in the days and weeks ahead as we explore how one person went about constructing a vegetable garden that exceeded his expectations!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

How to Build a Vegetable Garden