So it’s the last day of June 2014 today and my vegetable garden is looking pretty sad. We’ve had so much rain that it’s been under water or so muddy I couldn’t work in it at all.
We had a few days of dry weather and sun so I did get the first 8 feet of the north end tilled and then I added the first 4 x 8 foot raised bed and got two rows of tomatoes planted.
No soon had I planted the last tomato plant the skies opened up and flooded the rest of the garden but my new raised bed and the tomatoes looked just fine. That was the first week of June so things are really late. Hope we have a warm Autumn so we get to enjoy what I have just planted.
I added a pretty thick layer of mulch around the new raised bed so we could walk on the dark mulch instead of sinking in the mud. Worked great but I will need to add more mulch once I have what it there tramped down. Was great walking around the raised bed once that mulch was there.
A Week Later
It was an entire week before I was able to start working the second 8 foot section of the garden so I could build and place the second raised bed. I had to work in the rain to get it completed but I did. For this section I used plywood under my feet to keep from sinking in the muddy soil.
I got it done and added green peppers and yellow pear tomatoes before I was forced out of the yard by the pouring rain. I didn’t even get the chance to surround it with mulch like the first one. I’ll get to that once I can get back in the garden.
Planting Flowers In The Veggie Garden
I’m a bit sad that we are so late getting things going this year but I will get it finished before next spring and that makes me happy because we should not need to worry about flooding any longer.
The fact that we have raised beds now means we can cover the top of the beds with plastic in the early spring and heat the soil so we can plant earlier than we ever had. We can even turn the beds into little green houses in case we encounter frost. Getting exciting already.
Each spring I dig up our vegetable garden using a round mouth shovel garden fork. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to get it ready… if I don’t have to deal with flooding.
A couple of years ago a friend of Jenny’s came over husband and tiller in tow to till our garden. They tilled the garden in less than an hour so each year since I have thought about buying a little tiller and this year we did.
Just about a week ago Jenny and I went to Canadian Tire and bought a little Troy Built Tiller.
Troy Built Garden Tiller
I used the tiller to loosen the soil at the north end of the garden where it’s the lowest and then dug it out down to about 18 inches then filled the hole with broken twigs and yard debris to help build it up for less flooding as well as better drainage.
Next I built a 4×8 raised using 2×10 lumber I found being thrown away by some people moving out of an apartment building.
Once I dragged it into place I put three or four wheelbarrow loads of organic compost in the bottom and a couple of loads of top soil which I mixed together and then continued filling with top soil until close to the top.
Should not flood anymore and I can sit on the edge of the raised bed instead of kneeling next to it.
I also added a thick layer of dark mulch around the bed so we have an area we can walk on without turning things into mud.
I was almost done this part of the project when the rains started and they came down hard but the garden didn’t flood which makes me so happy. The plan is to make a second raised bed which will reach to about the middle of the garden. The rest will just be tilled as it’s already high enough it doesn’t flood.