Garden from lawn - stripes?

[Cliff_Johns]

I'm thinking of putting in some garden area next year where lawn is now.

My thought is to till a 2 or 3 foot wide stripe about 50 feet long, then leave 4 feet of grass which I would mow, then another stripe of garden next to the first (parallel). This would allow me to get full access without spending too much time avoiding the wandering vines and garden plants and still give me the weeding access I need. Also, the tractor would straddle the cultivated area allowing me to water more easily from the tractor if needed.

I think it might look cool too.

Does this make any sense at all, or are there specific reasons that this would be a bad idea? I'm thinking 4 stripes right now.

We had gardens when I was a kid, but I have no experience with them myself.

Cliff

 

[DUMBDOG]

The first thing to do would be to kill the grass first, after it is dead till the area. The minimum width of your garden strips will depend upon the width of the tiller.

Your idea should work quite well to get access to the produce.

If your other post you mentioned squash and cucumbers, if you want to plant these, you will need wider strips as both of these plants like to vine out.

Planting your own garden is a rewarding experience and the end result is fresher and tastes a lot better than what you can find at the super market. You never know what was used as fertilizer to grow the product.

 

[HGM]

Sounds like it should work well.. As Dave mentioned you'll have to give some thought to how you plant.

In my experience, 4' widths would be ok for a single squash plant, of course you could add more down the line. Squash I have found it a very hardy plant. Depending on how much you eat it, my family can only keep up with one plant. After they start producing, its about a squash or two a day. If you neglect to pick them, the plant will die.

Cucumbers and watemellon will sprawl out all over the place unles you control them. I would recomend a trellace or fence of some type for the cucumbers to grow upward onto. This takes less space and makes them easier to pick.

Each year we plant tomatos,cuc's,squash,and corn... Sometimes we'll add something else but thats the standard.. Its fun, but requires more work than you may remember sometimes /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.. I would also recomend a soil sample, you may need to lime and fetilize prety heavily the first year....

BTW, I sprayed my grass the first year with a good weed killer with as good surfactant(sp?). I think thats right, it makes the stuff stick to your grass.. Then I burnt the grass before tilling it under. It might be best to till it a few times over a couple weeks to make sure the grass and weeds are dead..

Good luck, we've only been doing a garden for about 6yrs, since we moved to Ga. but really enjoy it for the most part. Plus the veggies taste so much better, it might have something to do with the self reliance /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif..

 

[EddieWalker]

It sounds like a great way to create a garden. You have good access on your lawn with everything in easy reach.

My first concern is maintaining the border from lawn to garden. It seems kind of labor intensive.

This made me think about the raised garden beds I've seen. There's probably a good reason to raise those beds for gardening and the plants. I just don't know why.

But is sure would be a good way to define the garden and seperate the two areas.

Eddie

 

[HGM]

I've been told that if you raise the garden bed, you can control the dirt better. Basicly containing the good soil specificly to your garden. This also will help with proper drainage and its easier on the back..

Now, if I could figure out how to get my tractor up on one and till it up nicely w/o falling off(I dont have ROPS) I may consider doing it..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Na, probably not......I'm a bit lazy and cheap to do that /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif..The theory I have heard sounds prety good though....

 

[Chuck52]

I put in a couple of 4x22' raised beds this year using concrete blocks as edging. The area I put them in gets pretty soggy during really wet spells, so raising them gives me some control over that. I also have very invasive fescue in that area and I first killed it with Roundup before tilling it under. I used some cheap city compost to build up the soil before making the raised beds, tilled that in good, and then raked the soil into the center of the area to be raised. After putting in the blocks, I just spread the dirt to fill. A raised bed gives you better control of weeds, too, since they can't spread into the bed as easily. I got the idea for the concrete blocks from a guy who does it in the Ozark area of Missouri where the soil can be pretty poor. You can easily use pieces of cattle panel and pvc pipe to make trellisses or covers or whatever, and use the holes in the blocks to hold those structures. If you get your soil right in the raised bed, you really shouldn't need to till it more than could be handled using one of the little EZ hoes or equivalent. One of my beds is dedicated to strawberries, and they really grew over the summer. This is the third time I've tried strawberries in that location, and the other two times the fescue invaded so badly I couldn't keep up with it. This time it was very easy to keep the weeds down. The other bed will probably be for salad greens and such, and already has garlic in one end. It was also easy to enclose the two beds in cattle panel fencing, to keep the @#$%^ deer out. I put some pieces of pvc pipe in the holes in the blocks just to discourage the deer from jumping into the 15x25' enclosure. Kept them out of the strawberries all summer.

Chuck

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Chuck,
Are your raised beds the height of a concrete block, or did you stack them higher?

Cliff

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My first concern is maintaining the border from lawn to garden. It seems kind of labor intensive.)</font>

I'd thought to just put a 2X4 in the ground on edge at the border. I figured if I tilled the ground, it should be easy to etch a little trench and drop in the 2X4.

What to use as a wabbit border to keep my garden from being the neighborhood smorgasboard may be a different problem.

Cliff

 

[Cliff_Johns]

So if I till my mostly clayish soil how much does it fluf? How much higher than the surrounding soil would it get?

I plan to add some sand and some organic enhancement, but I'm wondering how much the soil will fluff without that.

Or maybe it doesn't really fluff at all.

Cliff

 

[HGM]

Here in Georgia, we're known for clay soil... When I worked mine with the tiller it fluffed up nicely, though it didnt "raise" too much. More like it got really soft. When walking through afterwards, I sink to my ankles. I plan on adding sawdust and manure to it. I'm told the sawdust will keep the soil loose. After a couple of hard rains now, it goes back to being pretty well packed.