Vegetable Garden

Its almost that time of year. Certainly early enough for me to start seeds and get the planning moving forward. I am all about growing our own vegetables. 

The best meals come from your the soil that you til and tend. If we could have chickens and goats I would in a heart beat. Fresh eggs and goat cheese...being self sustaining appeals to me. But, like so much of modern America, we are hampered in our desires by our reality. I desire a large, beautiful, and bountiful garden.

I firmly believe any size garden can be beautiful, nit just functional. I think this space illustrates that well. For us space and short growing season are our biggest obstacles. This year I want what space we do have to work better for us. A little planning and a whole lot of labor are going to be in order as we head deeper into spring. Better use of our space isn't gonna matter one little bit if I can't get anything in the ground until the middle of June! So, part of the planning process (and sooner rather than later the building process as well) is to enlist the help of green house type spaces. 

We already have two raised beds like this built into the sunny side yard. Mr Shawn is going to be building me an arched system similar to the one above that will serve a number of purposes... First, it will create a greenhouse type environment. That means I can get my plants in the ground sooner without the worry of frost damage. on the same front, it will keep those pesky late season snow storms off of my precious garden. Under the plastic will be light weight netting to keep another pesky little problem we have here at Sagebrush Ridge at bay. Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, every where. No matter how many my cat, Captain Jack, brings to me on a silver platter, I cannot keep them from destroying our vegetable garden. And flowers, and grass, and...well, never mind, different issue. Hopefully well secured netting will help.

Raised beds are the only way to go. From start to finish they are easier to prep, plant, water, tend and harvest. I'll take easy where ever I can.

The idea of a vertical garden is intriguing. Its in a raised bed, so soil temps are going to be warmer, that's good. I wonder if growing up would be enough to keep the rabbits out of the god stuff. Share what is growing at the bottom?

Speaking of vertical?! How fun would this be for herbs? I usually tuck my herbs in among my other plants, vegetables, flowers, ornamental shrubs, wherever...

Others are definitely being far more creative than myself.