I decided to expand my garden this year. Last year it was 10 x 20, and was somewhat crowed with what I planted. This year I'm going to till a 25 x 25 or 30 x 30 area and fence it in similar to the picture shown. We're putting up 250 feet of privacy fencing, so I thought I would fence the garden as well. This was suppose to be one of the projects last year; but there are several trees that need to be taken out so we postponed the job. I need to call in a tree company to remove them. Hopefully, the ground will be hard enough to bring in a bucket truck soon and we can start the project.
I still need to figure out how to keep the groundhogs out. You remember my battles with them last season. I'm thinking of building a trench around the wood fencing and burying chicken wire a foot into the ground and than bending it under the fence and stapling it to the wood.
I'm going to set traps again this year. I have a college student who is willing to set-up traps for me while he's home for summer break. I'm hoping this will help with the problem. I trapped 6 last year. You have to continuously set the traps during the growing season. They were a royal pain in my __________ last year. They spread the word about my buffett, and had a major feast with my pole beans. I replanted at least 4 times and couldn't up with enough beans for a meal, lol.
Last year I used the row method for my garden. I'm actually contemplating raised beds this year. I love this layout behind the wood fencing. (Thanks to waldeneffect.org for the photo and idea).
It has been suggested that I use cedar for the boxes, apparently cedar will last a life time. I have a few months to make a decision. My soil is great, I was able to produce a high yield of veggies last year with very little amendment to the soil, so I'm wondering if the raised boxes will really be worth it. Since I've never used a raised bed, I really have no Pros to weigh against the Cons. Do you have raised beds? I would love to hear what you think about one method over the other.
I will definitely incorporate the arbor, stepping stones and the marigolds around the border, but replace the raised bed in the middle with a bench. I want to be able to sit and admire the fruits of my labor, lol. What do you think about my garden layout plans?
