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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Grow Your Own

I’m slowly making it possible to grow some of the more spendy herbs and veggies I use in my cooking. In this rock strewn property we own, any sort of digging takes a mattock and a wrecking bar to get thru all the stones. Ugh!


Then you factor in the varmints (deer, possum, rabbits) I am going to have to fence out and you start to understand the “slowly” part.

This year I am getting most of my herbs in. I’m digging in the perennials and making some beds for the annuals to go in each year.


This fall I’ll starting prepping the area for my veggies. I’m going to do raised beds. Around here are a lot of saw mills and they sell the “slab” boards (the rounded pieces from turning a log into lumber) for practically nothing. A 31/2 foot high “bundle” of 8 foot long slabs costs about $15. Now I have to get these by August because they are snapped up by the tobacco farmers for use in “firing” the tobacco.

My beds are going to be 8’X4’X2’. That will make it easy to manage and to fence against the varmints. I’ll have a dump truck load of top soil brought in to fill them with. The first bed (maybe 2) will be asparagus! Mmmmmm…

Others will have English peas, salad greens, tomatoes, okra, maybe a few kinds of squash and I don’t know what else. Around here green beans, corn, egg plant, melons and such are plentiful and cheap. I pick those up at the Amish produce stands.

Might have one or two beds for trying out those fun, weird things you see in the Burpee catalog.

At some point I will add in berries and some fruit trees. This will take some major fencing… as the one apple tree I did plant was eaten up by deer! I have a feeling chicken wire is going to be my good friend.

Do you grow a garden? Is there anything thing you would like to try to grow?


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2 comments:

  1. Wow, that's gonna' be great! I am only trying some herbs, sadly, not doing too well. Be sure and post pictures!

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  2. Teri, Last year was my first ever veggie garden and I fell completely in love with it. It's just a tiny garden spot, but I feel a special connection to it that I did not know I was even missing before! I think it would be so much fun to be your neighbor, I just love all your interests! ~Lili

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