New Garden Plot

I decided to put my garden in the well-house field. Why? It has the best sun coverage and is close to the house. Problem is that it is the well-house lot. Meaning, half of it is covered in large rocks layed for the drilling equipment and it also has water pipe underground to the house. Unfortunately, no one can find the location of the trenching. So, I will be needing to build raised beds and plan an intensive garden. No easy parallel tilling and planting. No problem, just a little more work involved.

I started by planning a bed off of the well-house since it was a constant variable in the plot and had a minimal amount of surface rocks.
I measured a 4' access path between the building and beds. Make a straight line off the face and back of the building to the wall and measured anther 4' access path from the edge of the rockwall bed. The beds measure 3' across for easy access with 2.5' walking paths between, with the exception of the end bed portion that measures 5'.

Phase 1 pump-house beds

I started by spraying the area with glyphosate (read the labels and follow directions!). I then lay out rocks on my measurements to see how it would look and feel. I then trenched the lines with a spade, built the edging from the rocks in the field, covered the beds with paper and 12" of cut hay from the field. Phase 1. This process took 5 days.

Phase 1

Phase 1

I then took some time to fix the rock wall rock bed to even it out and remove most of the plastic from under the rocks. Note - Putting plastic under the rocks does not prevent weeds, they just germinate on top of the plastic and grow through. It also makes a place for water to pool and create a STINKY, mosquito infested pool of stagnant grossness!

Phase 2 took a week to complete.

Phase 2

The north side beds consist of 2 separate 3X7ish beds and a U shaped bed on the end. The separate beds were scalped and filled with dirt and compost for immediate fall garden use. This decision was made because while trenching, I found the ground was wet in a section and suspected a water main leak :-(. I dug around and determined it was just from the protection from evaporation by that  huge pile of brush that was on top for months and the heavy clay consistency of the topsoil at that location.




Phase 3 will have to wait. I am tired of digging and stacking rocks. I think 1000 sq feet is enough for now. Now comes the expense of deer fence. That will be in the projects section.

I have planted seed of spinach and black seeded Simpson lettuce in bed 1 (since that is the only bed I have enough fence for right now).