Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Don Bowen <don.bowen@earthlink.net>]

I will be putting in a new garden at a house we are moving to in the 
Ozarks.  Right now between packing and tossing I am planning my new garden.

I plan to do what I did in the last garden with some changes.  I made 
raised beds that were 4X16, aligned E-W, with 2' separation.  The size 
was fine, there was plenty of room in a bed and walking around was not 
too bad.  If I were to shrink the bed at all it would be by only a few feet.

The major problem was alignment, there was a N-E slope to the land, one 
bed was at grade while th opposite corner was 24" above grade.  If I 
were to do it again I think I would follow the contour of the land.  
Where I am thinking of a garden location the ground is mostly flat.

Next major problem was the 2' between beds.  That was not enough for 
some vine plants and working between beds.  I would dump shredded xmas 
trees on the paths to control weeds and that worked well.  I think the 
next garden will have 3' between beds and 4' between the ends.

I also ran water to one corner of each bed and will do the same next 
time around.  I bought a shop sink at a garage sale and installed that 
in one corner, very handy.  One thing I always wanted to do was to build 
a garden shed, a small space to store stuff with a small porch along the 
front to provide a nice place to stop and watch the rain.

I think the first step will be to till up a space for the bed.  I do not 
really know the soil there but I do know it has a lot of rocks.  Once it 
is tilled I would like to pay out the cardboard and build beds around 
that.  Put in some good soil, rotted sawdust, and manure to hold the 
cardboard in place then plant some sort of cover crop.  That would be a 
good time to build the first fence for the chicken moat and let the 
chickens have their way with the beds.

The garden shed will be a long term project.  I want to replace the well 
shed as an early project.  I have plans to make it a garden shed for 
mower storage and the like.  There will be an insulated box at one end 
for the pressure tank and well head.  I want to experiment with solar 
heating and rain catchment with this little shed.  In the box will be 
water storage for rain collection and the south end will have a 
collection box with one side Polycarbonite.  The idea is that the sun 
will heat air in the collection box which in turn will heat the rain 
water as heat storage.

--
Don Bowen           KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html