Farm Journal: The Garden Layout, and Update on Timing

Turning a hay field into a vegetable garden is hard work, you guys!!! And trying to get all 0.6 acres prepped for production in 2023, while dealing with our own and family members’ health issues, managing the household, and tackling other urgent projects around the property… oh boy, we’re realizing that it just ain’t gonna happen. Especially since the lower two of five blocks are still much too wet to work. And oh, yeah, the tractor has a flat tire.

But! We think we’ll be able to prep one full block this spring, and have one additional block ready to plant by August, when many of our fall/winter crops will go in. Those will be Block 1 and Block 2. Each block generally consists of eight beds, each 36 inches wide and 100 feet long. Block 1, which will be dedicated to more vertical-growing crops and hoop houses, will have eight 32-inch-wide beds. That means 100ft*2.67ft*8 + 100ft*3ft*8 = 4533 square feet of planting space for our winter crops. North is up in the below idealized schematic of the market garden:

Block P, on the west end, will contain just four beds. Right now, we’re focusing on cover crops and perennial weed elimination. Eventually we plan to plant perennial edibles like artichokes, asparagus, and perennial herbs there, but not until the field bindweed and crabgrass are under control. One of my goals this year is to figure out how to accomplish that “under control” bit. I have a few ideas, which I’ll address in a future blog post.

I’m planning a series of small hoophouses made primarily of EMT conduit in Block 1. Block 1 will also be outfitted with permanent trellises, on which we’ll grow tomatoes, beans, peas, squash, and any other crops that need support or can be trained vertically. So far, Blocks P, 1, and 2 are dry enough to work. We ran them over thoroughly with a Brinly-Hardy cultivator attachment for the garden tractor to break up the grass that was growing back after our friend Josh plowed last fall. I’m going to go over those areas again with the cultivator and see what I can accomplish with the lawn dethatcher attachment, which to me looks a heck of a lot like a tine harrow. After that, I’ll broadcast sow buckwheat and maybe a couple of other cover crops, which I hope will help crowd out the weeds as they try to recover from the disturbance. Later, when it’s drier, I’ll repeat the treatment in Blocks 3 and 4, and fit in a quick buckwheat cover crop if possible before sending them into winter with a good overwintering cover crop like peas and annual ryegrass.