An exercise in planning
Let’s plan and project just for fun the life experiences of three garden beds from March through October and beyond. We shall envision visuals worthy of a postcard plus bountiful results. Labor will be required, but that’s okay.
The beds in question measure in feet 21/2 x 5; 21/2 x 8; and 3 x 9 which is where we shall begin. This 27 square foot bed is in the middle of the garden. It has a trellis down the middle on which snow peas will flourish. They can be planted in about a month, but before anything gets planted, the soil must be made strong with the Force because it must strengthen the vines enough to bear the sheer weight of so many snow peas.
Light cultivation of the bed reveals clumps of frozen February soil under purple dead nettles. Straw and leaves are pulled back for light cultivation and for addition of soil amendments. Next month, three two-foot sections of snow peas will be planted along the trellis with two gaps in between. The open spaces are for cucumbers to be planted in April when temperatures allow.
In front of the peas, there is room for small patches bush beans, then radishes, then a couple more bush beans and finally turnips. The uphill end of the bed will feature marigolds with basil clustered at the other end.
Peas will finish by early summer which is when the Suyo cucumbers will go nuts producing buckets and baskets of 16-inch tasty cukes. Leave a few pea vines in place for seeds but pull the rest. Radishes will be done is less than six weeks. Bush beans will also fade by early summer about the time the turnips will have matured. Everything in front of the trellis will be gone by early July, and the soil will need a booster for all its hard work.
There is also room behind the trellis for early lettuces and Asian greens before the award-winning pea vines get thick like a jungle. The greens will finish before summer heat, and that soil also will get a booster.
The cucumbers will need extra care during the hot spell we will get, but they will continue to produce for another month or so after that. In September, pickle recipes will be important. By the time the cukes wane, the refurbished soil can handle late season greens and lettuce. After that, the bed will rest for winter.
Right below that bed in perpendicular orientation is the 21/2 x 8-foot bed. Similar soil preparation is in order, but this bed will be for ten tomato plants that will be transplanted when the soil has warmed up a bit, probably mid- to late April. Along the sunny side of the bed, a couple marigolds and basils will sneak into spaces between tomatoes. This bed will not change much during the season except for the prodigious harvesting activity. Spy satellites will gather overhead marveling at the site and wondering if magic is afoot.
Unless some foul events intervene, these plants will last till a hard frost. There will be soil boosters in July and September because, besides being magic, tomatoes plants are hungry.
The third bed will be for leafy things and variety will be the theme. Besides a corner for colorful lettuces, there will be spots of chard, chicory, yod fah, komatsuna, arugula and probably something else if it’s exotic. That’s a challenge for 121/2 square feet, but it sounds like a fun challenge, and after eating that stuff my vitamin and mineral numbers will zoom off the top of the spreadsheet.
Most of these greens stay in the space two months or less, and that means April into June. After they are harvested and gone, the space will get a makeover and some rest until maybe a fall crop like winter radishes. That’s exciting– from yod fah to shawo!
Regardless of emboldened plans, somebody must make it happen. Planning is easy.