The sections of the veggie garden were originally about 4- 4 1/2' squares. After 15-20 years of struggling to reach the center of those to weed and plant, an opportunity presented itself to start ftom scratch. The old black raspberry patch had stopped producing, so in the fall of 2013 the area was tilled up and the garlic was planted there, leaving the entire veggie garden open to till up in the spring of 2014. First the majority of the weeds left from the rather hectic fall were removed and put in the compost pile. This step was not really needed, but wanted to reduce the chance of weeds the tiller might miss. Before tilling was also a good time to add composted material if available. (Till the soil down 10-12" if possible). Next came raking it out evenly, stringing line, setting boards in place, (boards 12" wide or more if possible), put down regular thin corrugated cardboard, (or 10 layers black and white newspaper) and cover with a 3-4" layer of grass clippings. If there aren't enough of those available, old straw stays in place fairly well too, or partially decomposed leaves from the previous fall as a last resort. (They tend to blow over seedlings trying to grow. Placing the leaves where the tomato plants will be is a good spot). The new sections are roughly 3 1/2' x 8', which has worked out very nicely. Even though the garden was not ready for planting until the very end if June, it still came along quite well!
Next time there will be photos showing the new tomato cages that are really working out well.
Have a joyous and blessed day!
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