Long Garden Bed

Last week I spent four hours cleaning out my vegetable boxes. This long garden bed took the most time. It has been in production mostly year round for the last 15 or more years, so I decided to let it rest for a little while. If I change my mind and want to plant it this summer, all I have to do is pull aside the straw and stick it in the soil. The straw keeps the weeds from sprouting, and the worms love it. The rest of my boxes have straw covering them, too. They are ready for when I want to plant.

Bryce's Garden, Then and Now!

This is a picture of my son, Bryce's, garden last November, in Bakersfield. That's him in the red shirt, and my grandkids Emily (standing), Christion (kneeling), and Sarah (in the hole!). Bryce has gardened organically in this spot for the last few years, getting better each year. He tried the lasagna method of improving his garden soil and found that it worked beautifully. He has tried self-watering grow-boxes (see in the bottom left of the picture) that he made, but the tomatoes sucked up water faster than he put it in the reservoir. He would love to have the whole back yard in vegetables, but the kids have to have someplace to play! This year he has made a box for his garden and has found great success, as you can see from the picture below (this was taken today).
This box garden is actually one box, although you can't tell because of all of the foliage. Bryce has added two pathways that go part way so he can reach all of the garden easily.

I also have found that garden boxes work well. You don't step on the planting soil and that helps the plants root systems to spread out and do their work of collecting water and nutrients. Your water and fertilizer goes just where the plants need it and not in the pathways. The soil stays nice, and the weeds stay out.

If you have a before and after picture of your garden and would like to have it on my blog, just email me with the pictures!