Good Earth

Posted under Gardening

Let the planting begin. This weekend’s temperatures were in the 70’s for the first time since last October, so it was time to finish the fence and start planting. But all this was made possible by a lot of work accomplished in the past few months.For our vegetable garden, we chose a sunny spot in the side yard. While the soil at our home is enriched by ancient glaciers, it’s also full of nice round boulders from the runoff of those same glaciers. So using a tiller, or digging by hand, can be a mission impossible.

We decided to cheat, and build an elevated box garden. We first purchased some 8” by 2” boards and made a box that was 32 feet by 12 feet in size. Then, we had a local supplier dump several yards of screened healthy topsoil, and put our backs to work. It didn’t take long to fill the boxes with the dark dirt, and then we had a nice ready to plant miniature field.

However, we found that other creatures enjoyed this patch of ground as well. We noticed dawn raiders in the form of cute rabbits wandering about, and realized a garden full of fresh lettuce and carrots would be seen as their personal salad bar. And our own cats decided the ground made for a giant easy to use litter box.

So, once more to Home Depot, and I returned home with some “rabbit fence”. This is a wire type fence about 28” high. I attached some boards to the garden box, and stapled the fence to the boards. A couple of simple gates, made wheelbarrow wide, completed the mini farm.

So now our future salads are well protected from four legged interlopers. With marigolds at the corners to help keep the bugs at bay, the ground has it’s first splash of color and life.