grow, marvel, eat, laugh, persevere

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Planning the Kitchen Garden Expansion, Again

I spent several hours this morning doing this.

I'm not an organized planner by any means. In fact, I wish I could say that this one piece of paper contains all the grand plans for the new kitchen garden area, but alas there are 2 spreadsheets and several other pieces of grid paper that contain lists and prices and lots and lots of scribbling.

Anyway, this plan is pretty firm at this point. Since there's no way you can figure all this out from the picture, I'll tell you what I decided on.


  • All beds will be 8 inches high. I would really prefer 12 but it's just not in the budget.
  • There will be a compost area on the south-facing fence with a 2 x 8 bed on either side where I'll plant tomatoes so that I can use the fence to help support them.
  • There will be four 4 x 8 foot beds and a narrow 1 x 10 foot bed on either side of the garden that I'm planning to fill with strawberries.
I finally outlined the pie shaped area where the plants will be moved to make room for the new kitchen garden. I'm waiting for an estimate on how much it would cost to have the grass removed and the soil amended there but I think I've already changed my mind about paying somebody to do that. I'm a pro at grass removal!

So, in the next two weeks I need to dig a new flower bed, move a crap-load of plants and build 8 new raised beds. Otherwise, I'm liable to miss the entire planting season. I'm real real far behind on gardening activities this year and it's freaking me out.

5 comments:

  1. I'm wishing you lots of luck. You have a very ambitious and wonderful plan.

    I have 2 more beds to set into the ground and plant. I'm getting a little stressed about it, too. Especially since I'm not seeing any signs of life from my strawberry roots that I planted a couple weeks ago.

    I'll keep my fingers crossed that late plantings will work out for both of us.

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  2. I think it is a good plan for kitchen garden expansion.

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  3. You can add height to the beds later.

    Can't wait to see how your garden grows this summer.

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  4. You can grow a lot on 8 inches of soil. Some people even grow tomatoes in less than that but they have to be well supported. And I agree that you can always add another board later. I grow carrots in 6-7 inches of soil (short varieties of course).

    Good plan!

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