The Vegetable Garden, Part 6: Back to the Drawing Board

Stupid me -- I put the vegetable garden too close to the hedge. And I had all that space, and I could have put it anywhere I wanted. AAAARGH!!!

The garden runs roughly parallel to the hedge, ranging anywhere from 10 feet, to 18 feet distance from it, at opposite ends. I planned the garden in April, when the sun was directly overhead, and the hedge didn't cast a shadow. By October, when the sun had migrated south, I realized that the raised bed closest to the hedge wasn't getting direct sun until 9 in the morning. A major boo-boo.

But then I decided I could plant vegetables that needed less sun, such as lettuce, in this last bed. Problem solved. Recently, however, I've noticed that the onions in the bed closest to the hedge were kind of puny looking, when compared to the onions in the other beds. Probably lack of sun, I thought. But, could it be something in the soil? Yesterday afternoon I got some cow manure ready to put in as a side-dressing for the punier-looking onions. The first shovelful of soil showed me the sad truth -- the soil is chock full of roots from the hedge, depriving my onions of nutrition.

What to do? Plan A is to abandon the first raised bed and shift the garden away from the hedge. Plan B is to dig a trench on the hedge-side of the raised bed and bury some zinc sheeting, probably some three feet deep. My helper is here today and we began digging the trench. Voila, the hedge roots only go down two feet, so a three-foot, metal underground fence should do it. We're going with Plan B.

I ate a Dove chocolate today. The message on the inside of the wrapper said, "Keep moving ahead and don't look back." Sounds like good advice.

Cabbage

 SUCCESSES
There have been some positive things too. I've harvested some really big, juicy beets -- bigger and better than anything I ever grew in South Carolina. Also, the lettuce here, due to the cooler temperatures, doesn't tend to bolt, like it did back home. As reported in another blog entry, carrots do really well here too. And I have harvested some excellent heads of cabbage. Cabbage worms are a problem, but I plan to combat them with Bt the next time around. Also, after three attempts, we're finally getting some tomatoes. Not a bumper crop, mind you, but some pretty good ones. We hope to begin growing them in a greenhouse in the near future.

We've also begun to harvest some Costa Rican squash (ayote). The asparagus is getting stronger. Insects have chomped off a few of the sprouts, but the plants are thriving and replacing those missing sprouts.

And my helper is out there digging the trench as I type. Makes me feel good.

SET BACKS
I tried broccoli, but it produced only so-so plants and the heads bolted too soon. I'm going to give the next batch more manure. The jalapeño pepper plants have died, after giving us several peppers. Can't wait to get that greenhouse.

Happy gardening!