I've got an itch

The lack of typical winter weather this year has really got me anxious to get outside and play in the dirt. This time last year, there were still a few feet of snow on the ground, and I wasn't really in a rush to get going. That may have had something to do with why a lot of my timing was a little off with getting things started. We were also new to that plot of land last year.

This year, I've got PLENTY of plans for the big garden. One of the major plans has to do with putting up a few tunnels to get some stuff started outside in the sun, instead of under lights in my living room like we've been doing. It should also give some of the seedlings a leg-up in both being hardened off, and getting to a better size before getting chomped by a marauding woodchuck with a death wish. The only thing keeping me from putting up the tunnels now, is that I need to get all the materials. The ribcage-like hoops that will be the frame are coming from Naomi's sister, Jesse, who snagged them from a closing plant nursery or something like that. Then I need plastic. Probably for the first year, I'll use some cheap stuff, and see how I like using the tunnels before moving on to some greenhouse-grade stuff.

At the end of last summer, Naomi and I took a trip to Old Sturbridge Village (a living museum of 1830s colonial America) to take a look at their main garden behind the Freeman Farm house. We wanted to see what they had growing, and how they were doing it, and I really wanted to see the way they had their garden laid out. What I found was that they were using a wide-row planting layout, which I had tried to do myself last year, but with little actual planning or insight into how to do it. As you can see from the picture below, they have quite wide rows, with equally as wide paths between.

In addition, there was a border around the entire garden. The rows didn't go straight up to the fence. From the fence, there was about 8 feet of space before the rows began, but immediately abutted to the fence, were various herbs and things, which I imagine gave a protective barrier to the stuff in the middle of the garden from unwanted insects and small animals. I will try to do this myself this year, while also hoping to keep out the creeping mugwart that's always trying to make its way into my precious garden.

Our garden is approximately 4,923 square feet. Thanks to my brother Mike, we measured it this past weekend. (I told you I was anxious!) I've been trying to decide what would be the best row width, so that Naomi and I can reach into and over all of the row in order to save energy and our backs. Unfortunately, neither of us are very tall, nor do we have abnormally long arms, which means our rows might end up being rather narrow, at least when compared to the rows at Old Sturbridge Village. The other option is to make them twice as wide as we can reach, and we'd have to work the rows from both sides for weeding and such.

I've got loads more plans that I will divulge in the coming days and weeks in another post. Next time, I'll talk about some of the vegetables and varieties of things that I'd like to grow for the first time, and some past success stories that I'm excited to repeat.