On a completely non-chicken note. I am trying to begin the planning process for our garden this year. We have a raised plot left from the previous owners that is around 20x30. There is some asparagus and rhubarb already there and a bazilion tomato cages ready for me to use. Anyway, my first moderately successful attempt at gardening was last year and a smaller scale. I was hoping you lovely mainers, with your recent garden talk, may have some good advice and suggestions for us. Ready? GO!
I'm not sure how much you already know about gardening....
We have our garden in quadrants and try to group like-minded plants together.
Group 1- peas and beans, and rows of stuff like lettuce, spinach.
2 - corn, melon, squash, and cucumber
3 - brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) and we squeeze our onions in this area, along with more rows of stuff (beets, carrots, basil, etc.)
4 - nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes) and I usually add sweet potato too.
Each year, we rotate these groups of crops clockwise. It helps keep down pests and maintain fertility. I always make a garden map.
It's good to add a lot of compost or aged manure each year.
If you want to start your own seedlings, you'll need to plan ahead. I start my onions and leeks in late February, and eggplant and peppers in late March. It's good to have some grow lights for cloudy days, or the plants will get leggy.
It's not a bad idea to get a good gardening book. I like The Garden Primer, by Barbara Damrosch. I love to try new things, like peanuts.
I'm not sure about your microclimate, but we are in a cold pocket, so we've always used black plastic under the eggplant and peppers, and put floating row covers over them. Now that we have the hoop houses, we don't need the row covers, although we still like black plastic to suppress the weeds. It is ugly, but it works.
Have fun with it!
