I have a little trouble finding old posts on this forum. Probably its just me and my unfamiliarity with this sort of thing. But, I wanted to return to this subject because it interests me and maybe some of the newbies to Easy Garden, as well.
First off, I get LOTS of help in the garden from my dear wife. I used to say that the big gardens were MY gardens but mobility problems and her own "sneakiness" has changed all that. I'm important out there but much of my importance and pleasure exists in my mind. (Gotta tell that to my back when I'm runnin' the darn tiller or schlepping around harvest buckets and workin' from Can't See until Can't See
Anyway, on the subject of "secret gardens" I'd like to comment on how easy this is given the right
odd circumstances. Here's the idea - got an oddly-shaped area of the yard or an oddly-shaped corner of the garden? Make that your Secret Garden.
Here's what I did: My old large garden was on a bench above a river. It couldn't have been in a much more idyllic setting in that regard. I used to say that I could cast a fishing rod from my garden and catch trout! The difficulty was that I could only do that during Spring run-off but, always, that river was just a short walk down the hill.
The ground was almost perfectly level and this was a fairly large area - about one-quarter acre. The odd thing about the gardensite was that it was in the shape of a triangle! Yep, it was almost an equilateral triangle with a fence along one side, a gully filled with small trees on another, and the river on the third.
Now, I'm a believer in gardening with permanent paths and using nice, deep beds of soil if I can get the job done. Over some of these beds, I set up trellises of various kinds. In the veggie garden, there are tepees for the pole beans and A-frames for the peas. So for the most part, I want my garden in rectangular beds!! Well, that wasn't goin' to work in a triangle, or was it??
I went down to the office supply store and bought a pad of graph paper. I've said that everything in my gardens is measured out "by the foot" - - MY foot! Of course, it helps that with my garden shoes on; my big old foot is exactly 12 inches long! Oh, yeah
Anyway, after pacing off the area and drawing my lines on the map - it was easy to fit rectangular beds throughout probably 80% of the space. Out I went with a collection of stakes and a hammer and marked things off 3 large rectangles with beds but that left 4 little triangles along one side. What to do with the remaining ground?
Well, I turned those triangles into odd-shaped beds with the permanent paths extended into them. For 7 years, I grew things like sunflowers, pumpkins & squash, and all sorts of flowers in those triangles. Even tho' the rest of the garden was lined up like soldiers on parade, these odd-shapes and including a tiny area of lawn with a bench behind one apple tree and under another became my secret garden. The neighbor across the fence would sometimes drive by on her lawn tractor but my comfortable bench in the shade was behind her plum tree also. During the early Spring when we'd both first show up out there, we could just barely see each other thru the flowering fruit trees. Me under my apple blossoms, she buzzing by on her tractor - I'd just smile and wave
Garden planning's important - that's why God made January.
Steve
that it goes well and that they stay interested. LOL
