The
garden is raised, surrounded with 6" x 6" lumber as shown. I
bought 5 cubic yards of soil to make the fill inside the wood frame. It is not
too large, just a one-man garden, around 12 by 16 ft. We have a lot of
white-tail deer around here, so the garden was their favorite grazing
area! One year they ate all my tomatoes, fruit, leaves, stem and
all. I was so disappointed I did not plant the garden for two seasons
(that was the time I designed and constructed the deck on the East end of our
house.) Finally, I decided to put an electric fence, it is
"hung" on the three yellow insulators seen on the corner and other
posts surrounding the garden. Below the electric fence there is a mesh which prevents rabbits and
other ground animals from coming inside. On this end of the garden, I can
open the section in the middle to enter and cultivate, plant, etc. The
orange electric
wire energizes the charger (inside the wood box) and the green hose is of course for
watering.
I
only plant four tomato plant, squash (one yellow and one green hill,) herbs,
cucumbers, and flowers for my sweetheart! The cherry tomatoes were so
prolific, after picking all we can eat and still have much left on the
plant. What you see in this picture is what is left on the plant
after taking a lot home. This is the cherry tomato plant. We ate from the garden all summer, and much of
the fruit was given to neighbors who enjoyed it as it is far superior to what we
can buy in the supermarket. I think it was my maternal grandmother who
instilled in me the love of gardening. My mother also had many flowering
plants around the house. Often I would take care of her plants when she
was too busy or away from home.
The garden is also dear to me for one other
reason. It was while gardening that a beautiful male Bluebird came and
perched on a tree nearby and persuaded me to build him several nestboxes.
You can read more about this in the Bluebirds section.
Here
are some pictures of my garden in 2003. Starting from the beginning on
6/11/03, and progressing in time. In the beginning the garden was plowed
and planted. On the left are three hills (zucchini, yellow squash and
cucumber,) then a row of Swiss chard, and on the right four tomato plants, each
having a post. Later a cage was attached around each post to contain the
tomato plants.
The
date of this picture is 6/25/03. The tomatoes have grown some. The
green at the far end of the garden is mint we use quite often in salads and
cooking. The squash plants are just coming out and are hardly
visible. We had much rain this summer, and the garden needed very little
watering.
On
7/26/03, this is the second harvest! Only cherry tomatoes are ripe at this
time. The other tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes which will
soon ripen in large quantities. It is amazing that this produce is ready
in only 45 days after planting.
On
7/28/03, all the plants are visible. The squash and cucumber hills are on
the left, the Swiss chard row in the center, and the four tomato plants on
stakes and caged, on the right. The cucumber on the left is climbing on a steel
cage similar to the ones used for the tomatoes.
