A Good Year Gone Very Bad
by Timothy Lawton on Aug.05, 2009, under Gardening
When this year’s gardening season started I had such high hopes. The preparations that I had made to deter weeds were the best I had ever laid out. All of my plantings were spaced well and the rain was plentiful. Oh how things have gone down hill from there. What started out so well has possibly become the worst year I have ever had.
First the ample rain turned into deluges that beat my plants into the ground. Then persistent cloudiness and low temperatures proceeded to retard the growth of my gardens. Then came the ravenous deer. It rained so often it was impossible to weed. In fact rather than weed by late June I took to cutting the weeds with scissors and shears because if I pulled them out the plants I wanted to keep were coming out along with them. Yet the greatest problem I have had to contend with has been the deer. They usually come and I lose a few plants here or there, but this season they have come almost every day. Sometimes even in broad daylight. I would not doubt if 75% of all my plants, that are not fenced in or inaccessible, have been eaten one or more times. Not one sunflower has made it to bloom yet in my largest garden. I have tried Irish Sring soap, pepper, Deer Scram, coyote urine, milorganite, and ultrasonic deterrents. NOTHING has worked!
Aside from these problems the coolness of the summer has delayed all the life cycles in the area. Cicadas didn’t make a sound in northern New Jersey until late July, three weeks later than normal. I have not had a single tomato ripen and my zuchinnis first batch rotted off the stalk. My broccoli and cauliflower are about a month behind in growth and generally nothing is doing well. What has been ok is now starting to succumb to disease. In short 2009’s growing season will be one for the record books. The bad records!! At this point I will salvage what I can and get ready for next year. Thank God I don’t depend on my gardens to sustain me, then this year would have been a tragedy instead of an annoyance.
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July 29th, 2014 on 10:21 pm
You’ll need to terrace a slope of 20-30 degeres. Paths should be flat or gently sloped, and smooth, no pits or mounds. Uneven footing wastes an enormous amount of energy in a garden or farm, and makes injuries more likely. When we put the beds in at the student garden at the Stanford Community Farm, we ran lines to mark the rows of beds and the paths in between (paths between beds should be 2 wide, larger access paths on the sides should be 3 wide to accommodate wheelbarrows). We made a wooden frame 15 x 3 1/2 out of 2 x 2 s, then used it as a template to frame the beds, cutting with a spading shovel along the edges. Beds of this size are about 50 square feet, which makes it easy to calculate organic soil amendments, whose application rates are usually stated as lbs/100 square feet.Start at the bottom, and cut into the slope to flatten it. Cut in the width of one bed, plus the width of the path on the other side of the bed, and pile the dirt from the path on the bed to make a mound. Beds should be no wider than 3 1/2 (30 ). Most people make beds 4 wide, and then have to strain their backs to reach weeds in the middle of the bed; only tall people can do this comfortably, so design the bed width for people of average height. Make sure you have a flat staging area near a road or driveway, to bring in and deposit bulk materials like manure or compost. Have easy access from this area to the rest of the garden. Also, if there’s any shade, it’s probably a good space for a communal area for grills or a wood-fired pizza oven. Have a space where people can gather and share what they’ve grown.Good luck, may your community garden prosper! Was this answer helpful?