Planning a garden takes time and strategy. When the pandemic first hit in our area, I found myself working in my basement and coming up for air and sunshine on my breaks. The need to unplug and get some vitamin D and fresh air became essential. While I loved the commute to the yard from my basement at the end of the day, the urge to "do something with the yard" became greater and greater. I had some flower beds with mostly self-seeding annuals and perennials to encourage low maintenance but now I wanted, and truthfully for my sanity I needed, something more.
I currently live in my grandparents' old house. Growing up, as the only granddaughter, I would spend a week or two with my grandparents learning the Mennonite ways. (If you haven't eaten Mennonite food, you are missing something!) Our lot is actually a lot and a half. The side yard (the 1/2) was all garden growing up. My grandparents had amazing green thumbs and flowers, fruits and vegetables grew in plentiful supply, helped with the generous addition of chicken manure from my uncle's farm every year. Plants mass produced and produce was always canned and/or shared with family. My grandmother's pickles were epic!
These are my grandparents standing in front of their house. My grandmother always had an amazing array of flowers in the front and lots of vegetables in the side yard. When I came to visit, I played in the dirt and "helped" garden.
Fast forward thirty years, when my kids were small, we had a small garden behind our house. It did alright. I had started it to help teach my kids about nature, growing your own food, and wanted them to have fresh snacks from the garden. Produce rarely made it into the house as the kids and their friends often ate straight from the garden. It was not a rare site to see a child on the swingset eating broccoli because the other veggies had already been eaten. When the neighbour's maple tree grew bigger and our kids started in competitive sports, I abandoned the garden as it was too much to keep up.
Now, in the spring of 2020, with the weather so mild and beautiful, the need to plant a garden called to me. I searched Facebook marketplace and found someone selling raised beds, installed with garden soil, for a reasonable price. They were made out of yellow cedar (cypress) which is known for it's longevity. Boat docks are often made out of yellow cedar because they don't rot quickly and can withstand the elements. I purchased two and headed to the local garden nursery, Devan's Greenhouse, for starters. A garden was born.
All of my gardening knowledge went out the window. For some reason, it all seemed new. I felt like I had no idea how to even grow a vegetable and here I was with two raised beds. Thank goodness for the internet and sites like Pinterest! I needed to do some research on how to grow veggies in a raised bed. I bought plants that I figured would grow well and were easy to take care of. I didn't where things would go. I just made squares in the dirt and planted my plants. I like to think of this as the "plant and pray" method.
One thing I did learn quickly was that weather in British Clolumbia can be unpredictable. I didn't take into account that zone 9A doesn't actually legitimately warm up until mid-April and so my plants would need to be "greenhoused" or "cloched". We get lots of "false springs" here-warm to 15 degree celcius one day and freezing the next. Being a teacher, my spring break was mid-March, and not going anywhere because of COVID, meant I wanted to plant now. Patience has never been my strong suit. I needed to figure out how to keep those baby plants alive.
I learned about cloches but didn't have any clue how to actually create the mini-greenhouses that would protect my seedlings. Being a maker means you use what you have whenever you can. This was my first design. I bought medium-weight painters plastic (8x12) and staple-gunned it to the the wood. I used leftover railing inserts (they were 3 feet high and sturdy) for the supports. This design was a fail. I didn't account for the rain we get or how the rain water would pool on a flat surface. First rainfall lead to caving in the middle and tearing the plastic where the posts were. I also didn't plan for how I would open the cloches up to water. I was using a hose and watering can to water. Back to the drawing board. This design worked much better.
This design allowed the rain water to flow off of the structure. I attached the plastic at the ends to wood bars which weighed the plastic down but also allowed me to open up the cloche at each end so I could water. I also put electrical tape over the ends of the poles to dull the edges so that they didn't poke through the plastic. Using a heavier weight of plastic might have made this unnecessary. This set up was cost effective and worked well. If you go this route, you will need to re-buy the plastic each year. Tip: on sunny days, open the ends. I was surprised by how hot the temps could be and on a couple of occasions almost cooked my seedlings!
I also planted another section of the yard with raspberries, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini and spaghetti squash. It was the wrong location for the cucumbers (too shady) but everything else produced well. I built some trellises to support. I also learned that planting 4 spaghetti squash plants yields A LOT of spaghetti squash!
Meanwhile, I also started seeds indoors using these jiffy greenhouses. What I learned was that if you use these, be mindful to plant the seeds that have a similar germination time together. Once the seeds have sprouted, you need to lift the lids. If everything sprouts at different times, you end up with mold on some plants, some seeds not germinating and other seeds hitting the top of the greenhouse lid. I learned that radishes not only germinate quickly, they also mature quickly. I don't plant radishes indoors anymore because they mature before I can even get them out to the garden.
I would consider my first year of raised bed gardening a success. Things grew, some better than others, but we ate well. I learned about spacing and watering. Both of which I needed to get better doing as some parts of my bed were very crowded. Some things grew way bigger than I anticipated and other things needed more water than I gave it. I wand watered all season making for somewhat inconsistent watering.
Raspberries, spaghetti squash and pumpkins!
Lessons learned in my first year of gardening:
Cloching is important if you live in a place where your nights stay cold in spring and you get lots of rain.
Looking for a cheaper way to cloche your beds? Use pre-packaged painters plastic (light to medium weight, size 9'x12' for a 4'x8' raised bed). These are inexpensive and easy to find at your local hardware or dollar store or can be purchased on Amazon here.
Use what you have to support the plastic of your cloche. Old tent poles and stakes work great for this purpose.
Having your cloche open at the ends allows you to vent and water as needed.
If you plant seeds indoors, plant with the germination rates in mind.
Water your seed sparingly. I use a spray bottle such as this one to lightly mist the dirt. Once the plants are up and thriving, lightly pour water at dirt level to keep them moist.
Keep your seedlings warm when they are inside. I put my seeds on plastic storage shelving that had holes such as these ones. I placed the shelving beside our sliding glass door over a heat vent. The seedlings grew well there until it was time to plant them outside.
If you purchase seedlings from a nursery, save the pots! They are great for starting your seeds the next year. If you want to start using the square pots and wish to purchase some, these work great.
Don't have square pots like the nurseries do, use red Solo cups like these ones on Amazon.ca. Cut a few slits in the bottom to allow excess water to drain. Use a jiffy marker to write the seedling name on the sides. I reuse mine every year and they work great.
Planning and spacing are important. My 2021 garden was much better planned and the harvest was better (see my next blog post for how I planned using the square foot gardening method).
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