Help with garden layout.

[Brian Miville]

Hello everyone,

Ok, so we are getting ready to start getting the garden ready for the first time. We laid out cardboard last year before the snow fell to kill the grass where we are going to put the garden (though now we decided to do raised beds, but that was after the fact). We just laid out for maximum space without any regard for size, so that is why the measurements come out a bit odd. Anyways, I drew this diagram:

[img]https://img849.imageshack.us/img849/5720/gardenplan.jpg[/img]

Ok, the red arrow is direction of the sun from sunrise (bottom left) to sunset (upper right). I was thinking of using 2x8's that locally we can get in 14' lengths though the 17 1/2' and 21' lengths of the bed do make for some interesting limitations using 14' boards (maybe go for 2 different beds per row or something along those lines???). Basically I need some ideas of how best to lay out beds....sizes, orientation and such. Right now what we are looking to grow (pretty much in general proportion) are:

Tomato
Green Peppers
Peas and/or runner beans

and then a couple/few cucumber plants (mostly for pickling and the occasional salad)

We may expand to some more vegetables next year, but for now we are starting simple. So, anyone have suggestions on how best to orient and lay out the beds in the given space shown in the image above?

I appreciate the help!

Brian

[DoubleDogFarm]

Brian,

I'll start with questions.

Where is the kitchen door or entrance to the house?

Will this area be fenced? If Yes, where is the gate?

Orientation may not be as important as traffic flow.


Eric

[Brian Miville]

Hello DoubleDogFarm,

The front door is located 50 feet away on what would be the bottom part of the diagram above. We have no fenced yard (since we are fairly rural and our nearest neighbor is about 50-60 yards away) but we may fence the garden if we find we can't control larger pests like deer with other means. But other than that, if there is a spot in our yard where the least amount of foot traffic happens, this is it (for better or worse. )

Brian

[DoubleDogFarm]

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/gardenplan.jpg[/img]

Brian,

Just playing around with one idea. I find that 4ft wide beds are to wide. The out of scale drawing above has 3ft wide beds and 18" paths.

The new red line is Deer Fencing and gate. I would have the fence at least 2ft away from the boxes. Gates are stronger at corner post.

I like this orientation. All paths head at the house.

Eric

[Brian Miville]

There as about equal shading on both sides across the length of the day. We pretty much centered the plot right in the middle of the yard so it will get the most sunlight as opposed to more shade at the beggining or end of the day (if that makes sense. )

That looks like a good idea for the layout! with 3' widths I think I should be able to easily get two staggered rows in each bed for all the vegtables we are looking to plant. This should maximize what we can get in (and thus out) the garden.

Brian

[DoubleDogFarm]

Brian,

You could forgo the wood expense and apply the money to fencing. Raised rows require no box. Just rototill the paths and shovel on to the beds.
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Vegetable%20Garden%20plants/DSC03326.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Vegetable%20Garden%20plants/DSC03328.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Vegetable%20Garden%20plants/DSC03329.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Vegetable%20Garden%20plants/DSC02124.jpg[/img]

Eric

[Brian Miville]

The problem we have (and the reason we decided to do the raised beds in the end) is our yard is very stony and rough. Our house is actually built on ledge (YAY Granite State ) and because of it all we have a hard time getting even the grass to grow in a respectable way. And since we have to bring in soil one way or another we are going to go with the Vermiculite/Peat/Composte mix (I think they call it "Mel's mix"?) But I suppose that should matter little...we could just build the mounds out of the mix instead. But I wonder, because the mix is supposed to be more loose would we have a problem keeping the mounds from eroding as the season goes on?

Brian

[DoubleDogFarm]

What is the cost of this mix? Sounds expensive. I use perlite-peat or perlite-coir for seed starting. I couldn't afford to build my whole garden with it. A simple 75% topsoil and 25% compost would work just fine.


Eric

[Brian Miville]

I am not sure of the cost yet since we have not priced out the Vermiculite. We SHOULD have had the composte for free, but we procrastinated too long, so we will will have to wait until unext year to start using our own. Thankfully the vermiculite is supposed to be a one time purchase.

Brian

[quiltbea]

I like your new plan. Three ft wide beds are easier to work with, too.

I belong to the Square Foot Gardening Forum as well and they now advocate using Mel's Mix for their beds. I'm an old Mel fan from years ago before the Mix was ever concieved so I never tried it.

I started my raised beds 3 years ago with trucked-in garden loam, peat moss, and composted manure with some amendments like greensand, limstone, bloodmeal, etc. Beds are mostly 4 x 4 and 12" deep.

If you can afford the Mels' Mix, of course they swear by it on the forum but I love having 'dirt' in my garden and my crops do great each year. To each his own. I understand the vermiculite required is very costly and sometimes hard to find as well as FIVE different types of composts.

Back to your plan.......Don't forget that in planting your vining crops, like tomatoes, peas, cucumbers and the like, you want them on the north side of the bed as much as possible so they don't shade out any crops growing on the south side.

Great idea on the deer fencing. We have them here, too, and they nearly devastated my newly planted dwarf fruit trees 2 years ago. Luckily hanging anti-perspirant soaps in net bags around them saved them from further damage and they are making a comeback this year. So I agree with the deer fencing.

I hope to see pictures of your garden once it gets going.
Good luck.