Below is a drawing of the current full garden layout. You can click the link below it to enlarge. This can also be found under "garden layout" on the sidebar to the right.
After doing some research over April vacation and talking to a few gardeners and farmers, Katherine and I decided to make a raised bed system for the majority of our vegetables. Raised beds offer improved soil conditions and a more manageable workspace. We also decided to plant half of the 40 by 80 foot plot with Buckwheat, a simple soil enricher, to create prime growing conditions in that half of the garden for next year.
After manually moving the soil around for a while, we came up with 6 large raised beds for vegetables and two thinner raised beds for flowers, all in one corner of the plot. We also decided to plant potato rows in the adjacent corner. We physically crafted the beds and then put hay down in the new "isles" to suppress weeds and ensure ready access to the beds.
We planned each raised bed to include rows of 2 separate plants, utilizing companion planting to get the highest crop yeild. More information about companion planting can be found on the sidebar to the on the "Helpful Planting Information" page. Essentially, certain plants grow well together because the take up different nutrients from the soil and complement each other.
As of the week of May 24th, here's what's in the ground:
1. Romaine Lettuce seeds (two different types) in beds 1A and 2B
2. Carrot seeds (Danvers 126) in beds 2A and 3B
3. Spinach seeds in beds 4B and 5B
4. A white heirloom onion set (donated from Laura Bentz) in bed 5A
5. A red heirloom onion set (also from Laura) in bed 4A
6.Cherry Tomato seedlings (donated from Green River Farm) in bed 6A
7. Purple Majesty potatoes (also from Laura) in bed P1
8. Adirondack Red potatoes (also from Laura) in bed P2
9. Green Mountain potatoes (you guessed it, from Laura) in bed P3
10. Mixed Potatoes (from Laura) in bed P4
