Is your Garden Layout done yet?

I finally finished mine late last night. This will be my 4^th year raising my vegetables and from year to year success rate is quite different. Year 1…fantastic! Year 2…a little less fantastic (was I attentive enough?)…Year 3 was a disaster and her I am on Year 4.

Why was year 3 so bad? I was late getting my plants in and they were really overgrown for the pots and pretty beat up. Then I had an infestation of some kind of savage beetle. They looked like Lady Bugs only a little more yellow; there was nothing ladylike about them.

Every leaf in the garden looked like fine lace with yellow orange bug dots on them. Don’t know what they were but “Mamma no like!” This year I’m searching out something organic and lethal to these critters.

Weeds were another inherent problem that comes with living at the edge of a forest. I’d been using landscape fabric but this year I’m trying paper on half the garden and hay on the other. It’s a learning curve.

Another standard instruction to beginning gardeners is to give plants plenty of space. Recently I came upon a book that talked about creating a garden based on the ecostructure verses horticulture. The author says that vegetable plants need to be in close and create an ecosystem. Plant ground-covers of Swiss chard and lettuces in every empty space. They will drown out the weeds and are yummy too. So, here is my 10 foot square garden bed next to my 4×10 rectangular bed (charted for fruit but will share with butternut squash this year)

For my next trick…I’ll share my plan for pretty vegies that I can incorporate into my decorative garden beds. But that’s for another post.  –Gardening in the Suburbs, a life all its own.