Making It Count

When you don't have a lot of soil - or a lot of room - you have to make every bit count.  Our vegetable garden is in the sunniest spot on our treed 2-acre lot.  That also happens to be at the top of a rocky plateau with nearby cedars.  This is why our garden is mostly composed of concrete raised beds.  The concrete beds have concrete bottoms and the drainage is above ground so the hungry cedar roots can't get in.  When you garden in raised beds, you are concentrating the nutrition you add to the garden and the soil is loose because you aren't walking on it.  Because your nutrition is concentrated, you can grow a lot more in a small space than if you were growing straight into the ground.

The original part of our vegetable garden was 2 wood-sided beds plus 2 pits that we grow asparagus in.  The wooden beds are starting to rot now and we will put concrete sides on them to create one large Three Sisters bed.  The wide side of the "vee" between the beds is walled with tires.  Unfortunately there is the top of a monster rock in the middle of the "vee" so there isn't a lot of soil depth.  It'll do, though, for the squash component of the bed.  I can grow zucchini in the tires.

The original wooden beds which become the Three Sisters bed

We have used tires elsewhere in the garden as well.  Stacked 2 high and filled with rich soil, they create a container that I will grow cherry tomatoes in.  There are also 2 half-barrels that will also be used for cherry tomatoes.

Make-do containers for cherry tomatoes

In addition to the raised beds, on the north side of the plateau lies what was supposed to be the rose bed.  It has now become the rhubarb bed!  The soil here needs lots of building for the 6 rhubarb clumps.  Each spring, I add compost to the plants and then heap on a thick layer of unshreaded maple leaves.  The maple leaves smother any weeds which have plans to take over and the leaves rot into the soil.  This will take time, but eventually the rhubarb will have the kind of soil it needs.

Almost the entire garden.

Of course flowers have a place in my garden - it's not all practical stuff!  The central bed in the garden contains perennials - peonies, delphiniums, day lilies, phlox, as well as spring bulbs - narcissi, tulips, hyacinths and self-seeded windflowers and grape hyacinths.  There was an arbutus tree in the middle, but this winter we removed it.  There will be a lot more sun for the beds to the north now.

We have also tried growing blueberries, black currants, tay berries and raspberries on the plateau but the lack of soil made it very unsuccessful.  They have now all been removed.  Off the back of the plateau we have 2 large hazelnut bushes which are producing nicely.  A couple of years ago, we added 2 more hazelnuts, the roots of which have been inoculated with Perigord truffle spores.  In a couple of years, we might be digging up truffles!

The point of all this is to demonstrate that you might not have a lot of room, but with raised beds and some creative thinking you'd be amazed at how much you can grow!