Garlic Planting 2015

I started this blog in September 2012 with planting garlic.  The purpose of the blog was to provide myself with a diary of work in my garden.  I had tried many methods of keeping track and all had failed.  This was my last resort to log garden activities - successes and failures - and I started with garlic.  Three years and one month later, I'm planting garlic again.  I'll save the retrospective for another post and just get on with the garlic!

This year, the garlic is being planted in the bed that previously was home to onions - NOT an ideal decision on my part, but this bed was good and rich.  The onion crop was outstanding.  This bed is the only one that is totally free of planting and was going to be topped with good old SeaSoil, so we'll just see how we get along!

First the bed was turned over and raked.  I got the bulbs ready having saved the best bulbs from this year's harvest.

I set the bulbs beside where their rows would be.  This year I planned to have double rows of each variety and since I don't think I really grew enough last year, I have 8 bulbs to plant.  Hopefully that will be enough. In the picture above, from the top are Leningrad, Czech, Spanish Roja, Porcelain and an unknown variety I've been growing for years.

I carefully peeled back the papers and gently pried out the cloves, setting them in place and then pushing them into the ground just up to the top of the clove.

Finally, a wheelbarrow load of SeaSoil was raked over the top and the whole planting left to soak up the winter rain.  Garlic doesn't like competition from weeds so it's important to give it a good mulch.  This year's planting takes up just over half of one concrete raised bed.  In a few weeks I may find the first brave green spikes thrusting up through the mulch.

A few cloves were determinedly stuck together and these were brought into the house for consumption.  In spite of the poor garlic year in which many people bemoaned the poor garlic harvest, Leningrad and Porcelain have produced magnificent cloves.

Garlic taken care of, a quick look around the garden showed that the Brussels Sprouts are finally starting to form.  Whether or not they'll be ready in time for Christmas - who knows!

Bright Lights Swiss Chard is delighted that the cooler weather is here and looks just as beautiful as it tastes.

The heritage Italian beans had been harvested and brought into the potting shed to start drying.  Today I brought them into the house to finish.  It won't take long to complete the dehydration and then I'll shell them and store them away for planting next year.

Tomatoes, Peppers, Celery and Mulch

After several cloudy but warm days, the sun has come out and we have a hot dry spell ahead of us.  It's time to give the tomatoes some TLC.

The tomato bed was prepared a couple of months ago.  Several wheelbarrow loads of SeaSoil were added and turned in.  The poles for the framework were put in place and holes dug by each pole - 10 in all.  Each hole was given a cup of homemade fertilizer which was watered in.  The bed sat like this and waited for the nighttime temperatures to be reliably 10C and a couple of weeks ago, that criteria was reached.  The tomatoes were planted in deeply and a week later were tied to the poles.

Today I trimmed off the lowest sets of leaves.  This is a prevention measure for when water splashes on the soil, carrying disease to the plant.  There won't be a lot of soil splashing on my tomatoes because they are mulched.

Every fall, we rake up the maple leaves below our house.  They sit in a pile getting good and wet all winter.  When spring comes, my husband puts them through our shredder and the resulting fluffy goodness is applied to plants that could use a mulch.  It's been very dry around here lately, but when I dug into the pile, the chopped leaves were nice and damp.

After trimming the tomatoes, I applied a good 3" of leaf mulch.  When the plants get bigger, I will probably trim off more bottom leaves.  The mulch keeps the ground nice and moist, which is an important thing for tomatoes.  They need a constant supply of moisture.  They don't want to be waterlogged, but they do need the soil to be consistently moist.

All of the tomatoes are forming flowers now.  My daughter, who is relatively new to vegetable gardening, asked if she should remove the flowers from her plants.  She was concerned that the plants weren't big enough to support tomatoes.  Leave them.  As the tomatoes form, the plant also grows.  If it has proper support, it will easily bear the weight of the fruit.  Since all the plants in this bed are determinate, I won't be pinching off side shoots either.  Gold Nugget (above) is always the earliest to flower in my garden and we love the little sweet yellow morsels.

I mulched 2 beds today.  The second bed to be treated was the one containing peppers, lettuce, celery and garlic.  The garlic has been mulched all winter, so this portion was fine.  As this particular bed was the last long one we built, it is also the one containing the least organic matter.  I've been finding that the top dries out quickly and water just runs off it.  Mulch will take care of this.  After weeding and watering, 3" of mulch was tucked in around the plants.

Mulching is an excellent way to treat celery, which wants lots of water.  I carefully tucked handfuls of mulch around each plant, burying them up to their leaves.

Commercial growers blanch their celery, and while I'm not planning on going to extremes to get pale celery, the mulch will do some of this naturally and keep the plants moist at the same time.

Working in this bed gave me a good look at the garlic, which is now producing scapes - yum!

And that brings me to another question my daughter had for me.  She was concerned about the uneven growth in her garlic.  I reminded her that she'd planted several different varieties - as have I.  Some of her plants are really tall and others relatively short.  She was concerned that perhaps some of her soil wasn't as fertile as other patches.  Not the case at all!  In the picture above I have 5 different varieties growing and it's easy to see that there are different growth patterns.  I have to stress that there are NO DUMB QUESTIONS in gardening.  We are all - even master gardeners, of which I am definitely not one - learning all the time.

Hectic Spring

This time of year is always a flurry of activity.  Each week something needs to be seeded, moved to the potting shed because it has sprouted or transplanted into the garden.  There's also the beds to be readied.  There's a big pile of SeaSoil sitting on and under tarps and as the driver wasn't able to back up to where we wanted it dumped, it will have to be moved.  The maple leaves that were gathered last fall now need to be shredded.

Asparagus roots to be discarded with the finished bed in the background

First on the agenda was removing one bed of asparagus.  These particular plants are quite old - at least 15 years old - and needed to be replaced.  It was a lot of hard work for my husband, digging out the bed and depositing the root-filled soil on a tarp.  Then he sifted out the roots and dumped the dirt back in the pit.  In between layers of sifted soil, we added a good thick layer of SeaSoil.  The bed is filled now to overflowing but rain will tamp it down and we're expecting some this next week.  I'll buy a package of asparagus roots and plant them next week.

I'm growing celery for the first time.  A friend that I give tomato seedlings to has grown it for years and says it's pretty easy.  She freezes chopped celery to add to soups and stews during the winter.  I bought seeds of a variety called Victoria which is apparently quite popular in Britain.  The tiny seeds took a couple of weeks to germinate.  Today I transplanted a dozen tiny seedlings to 6-pack planters and they're sitting under plastic in the potting shed.  Any seedlings that fail to take will be replaced with a good supply of what remains in the spouting pot.

Seedlings!  Seedlings!

I also seeded the tomatoes today.  Because I now grow lots of tomatoes for friends, there's quite an array of pots.  I'm not sure where I'm going to put them all because they need heat for germination and there's only so much room under the grow light in the living room.  Perhaps it's time to get a bigger one!  For now I'll probably put them in plastic bags and sit them on the living room window still until the peppers finally sprout and I can move them to the potting shed.

About half of the raised beds are prepared.  Each one had a good amount of SeaSoil added, then a good dusting of my fertilizer.  At this time of the year, I wonder how I can possibly fill them.  By the end of April I'll be wishing I had more room!

The Winter Bed

This has been an awkward year for the garden.  Just when it was starting to kick into high gear, life got in the way.  What with one thing or another, there just hasn't been the time to devote to the garden.  And this year, the name Messy Gardener really applies!  The vegetable beds have not been weeded properly and I haven't been able to take full advantage of the produce.

Today, however, it was time to start thinking ahead.  Time to get the winter garden in gear!  The bed that had the onions has been designated as the winter bed.  After the onions were harvested, I turned over the bed - and discovered that the cedar trees around my garden have managed not only to find a way in, but have widened those cracks and taken full advantage of the lovely soil in the bed!  It took a lot of hard work to cut the roots away and pull them from the soil, but it was finally done.  The combination of a very dry summer and cedar roots had left the soil very dry, so I've been watering this bed to prepare it for the plants to I'd planned to install in it.  A lazy woman's purchase 6 Red Russian Kale and 6 Red Sails Lettuce were bedded in as well as multiplier onions from this year's crop.

Kale and lettuce plants for winter use

This bed was also designated for garlic.  I went in with my daughter to buy fresh garlic bulbs to augment three of the best bulbs from this year's harvest.  First the soil was prepared - a good litre of my homemade fertilizer was worked into the soil.  Then the cloves were planted with the new varieties - Spanish Roja, Leningrad and Czech - being labeled for future reference.  There are now 52 potential garlic bulbs nestled down in the soil.  Then the whole bed was mulched with what is left of the SeaSoil and watered well.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

In spite of my neglect, a number of things are doing well.  This has been a good year for the Swiss Chard.  From only about a dozen Bright Lights and Silverado, we've had lots of meals and it should do well through the winter as well.

Cantaloupe

There's one enormous cantaloupe and a number of smaller ones.  I won't be growing them again, but we'll enjoy what we have for this year.  I'm not sure what I'll grow in the compost bin next year - perhaps squash.  The Waltham Butternut has been excellent this year and if it gets the benefit of a compost bin next year, it should be even better.

Liberty Apple

Now that we're in September, the apples are coming ripe.  Our favourite has always been the little Liberty tree.  Beautiful crisp, tart little apples with brilliant red skins.  This tree was originally nearer the house.  Overshadowed by big trees and well nibbled by deer, when my husband suggested moving it, I didn't give it much hope.  It's thrived, however, and every year is so loaded with apples that the branches touch the ground, even after rigorous thinning in the spring.

And finally, on the flower side, the autumn crocuses are in full bloom.  They are always such a surprise!

I'm hoping that next year's garden with be able to benefit from more care than this year's garden got.  And with gardening it's always, "Next year, I plan to......"  With a garden, there's alway hope.

Time to Harvest the Garlic

Recent family events have put the garden on hold and there has only been time to water and grab a few items for dinner.  The garlic has been waiting patiently for its turn to be harvested and today I finally had the time.

I've been allowing the ground to dry up which will help the garlic bulbs in their curing process.  The dry ground made it easy to pull up the bulbs which I stacked in 2 piles to keep the varieties separate.  They mostly look a good size - not like last year's production which was a bit on the small size as that bed hadn't received the SeaSoil that this bed did.

Once the garlic had been all pulled up, I separated them into 4 sections and tied them with twine with a loop at the top.  This year I've hung the bundles on the end of the woodshed to dry in the shade.  They'll be out of the sun, but get lots of drying breezes.  It's important not to leave the bulbs drying in the sun, but to get them into shade as soon as possible.  This is the opposite of onions, which you cure in the sun first, then once they have nice papery outer skins, bring them inside to finish curing.  And for both garlic and onions, never wash the dirt off.  Allow it to dry completely for a few weeks and then you can trim off the roots and tops, and then brush away any remaining dirt.

The Three Sisters Garden is growing apace!  Four butternut squash seeds are certainly taking up a lot of room and are even starting to scramble down the bank towards the pond.  I see lots of little squashes forming on the vines.  The corn is tasseling out nicely and flowers are forming on the beans.  The two old wooden beds will definitely have to be replaced this year as the wood is rotting out.  A good project for winter.

Getting Ready for Tomatoes (and other stuff!)

It's almost time to plant out the tomatoes.  Our nights are almost consistently above 7 degrees C and warm days are coming - after a couple of cool rainy ones, of course!  The bed for the tomatoes has already been prepared with a couple of wheelbarrow loads of SeaSoil.  I've decided to plant fewer tomatoes in the bed and only the ones which I'll use for dehydrating and sauces/salsa.  I already have a couple of cherry tomatoes in large pots on the deck and a half barrel in the garden will be home to a Sweet Millions tomato.  So that makes 10 tomatoes going into a raised bed - 4 Health Kick, 2 Classica and 4 Principe Borghese.

Tomato bed ready for plants

I dug the holes for the plants and placed 6' stakes beside each hole.  I'll add a cup of homemade fertilizer to each hole and work it into the soil before planting.  The stakes will be the foundation for a framework of bamboo poles lashed to the stakes.  It makes a surprisingly sturdy support for the tomatoes.  Initially I'll put hot hats on the newly transplanted tomatoes until the days and nights are consistently warm enough and then water lines and tomato cages will be set in place.  Then it's just waiting for the crop!

After reading about all the food shortages which will be coming our way, we decided to be pro-active.  We will already be growing beans in the Three Sisters Garden and I'm going to put up the framework my husband made for me to grow my Italian heritage beans on.  This year I'll plant Fortex beans in with the corn.  The vines aren't as heavy and vigorous as the Italian heritage beans and perhaps I won't have broken corn stalks this year!

A bean barrel experiment

I'm setting up for a third bean garden and this one will be in a half barrel.  I set in a tripod of 6' stakes and joined them to a nearby fencepost with a long, thin piece of wood. I've planted 6 of the Italian heritage beans here and will grow these ones for dried beans.  These dried beans will be the seeds for next year as well as a store of dried beans for using during the winter.  Cheap protein!

The pond from the back looking to the house

I also did a little work around the pond.  The steam leading to the pond had to be relieved of its pebble bottom as it was causing the water to spill over the sides of the stream.  I'd just left it beside the stream and of course, it's created a huge mess as the grass has grown up around it which I've made a start at repairing.  The pond is starting to come into its own with 3 Japanese maples around it. I'm particularly pleased with a self-seeded bullrush which appeared 3 years ago.  I recently saw hummingbirds taking fluff from an exploded seed head for nesting material.  Now if only the redwing blackbirds would come, the pond would be complete!

Planting Garlic - Full Circle

It's hard to believe that a year has come and gone.  I started this blog last year on September 12th with the planting of garlic and today, almost exactly a year later, I'm planting garlic again!

Russian, Porcelain (I think!) and my own bulbs.

I had saved two bulbs of my own growing but wanted to get some new ones as well.  Long Lake Nursery in Nanaimo had garlic for sale grown on Gabriola Island - Porcelain and Russian.  Unfortunately they were all in one basket and not easy to identify!  I know that Russian has some red to  the skin of the clove and Porcelain doesn't, so I tried to get 2 bulbs showing red and 2 not.  When the wrapper came off, however, 3 of them look like Russian and the other looks like Porcelain.

Half planted

The bed was prepared several weeks ago by adding a couple of wheelbarrow loads of SeaSoil.  It had previously grown snow peas and they would likely have put some nitrogen back into the soil.  Today I marked out my rows with a good trowel full of homemade fertilizer.  I allowed a row for each bulb and placed the rows of what I hoped were the same variety together.  At least if each bulb has its own row I might have a better idea of which variety that bulb is.  But then, maybe not!  Each row has 6 or 7 cloves in it, gently pushed into the soil root end first.

Garlic all planted and waiting for the soil to settle.

Once the soil has settled with the coming of the fall rains, I'll add a mulch of chopped leaves on the top.  Garlic doesn't like competition and chopped leaves are very good at keeping weeds at bay.

Oregon Sugar Pod II

The snow and snap peas are planted in the bed beside this one and are doing very well.  I'm hopeful that this year I got them into the ground with plenty of time for some production.

Sugar Lace II

I planted 2 varieties, Oregon Sugar Pod II - which I had grown in the spring - and Sugar Lace II which is actually a snap pea.  Now that they are growing, it's very easy to tell which is which.  Sugar Lace has an abundance of very curly tendrils and apparently doesn't even need a fence to grow on.  I'm thinking they won't be as tall as the Oregon Sugar Pod.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard volunteers

And in between the zags of peas are the volunteer Bright Lights Chard, looking extremely happy and healthy.

Onions and Garlic - Chores for a Grey Day

Today our weather is cool and cloudy.  There are possible showers on the horizon which will be very welcome on our dry little island.  The onions aren't as dry as I'd like them, but I want to keep them that way, so it was time to complete the harvest.

I'll have to use these onions first.

I started cutting the tops from them and putting them in a plant tray.  The cut tops, however, still looked quite juicy and it occurred to me that the onions might lose more moisture through the cut tops than was good for them.  I'd attempted braiding onions before - quite unsuccessfully, I might add - but perhaps it was time to give it another try.  This time the work went much better.  I'd hate for a true efficient to view my amateurish efforts, but it does the job.  I discovered that if I place the onion being added to the braid at the side that's being brought to the centre, the whole process is a lot smoother.  I tied the tops with twine, made a loop and hung them from nails in the potting shed.  They can complete their curing there and then eventually be brought indoors for storage.

Amateurish onion braiding!

Then it was time to turn my attention to the garlic.  As I said in an earlier post, this year's crop is a bit disappointing.  Next year's garlic, which will be planted in a few weeks, will get the benefit of lots of SeaSoil.  Today, I trimmed the tops and roots, dusted the worst of the dirt off and put the garlic in open brown paper bags.  They'll be stored in a cupboard that has an outside wall.  Of course, I kept the best 2 bulbs from each variety for planting next month.

Two varieties of garlic - plainly distinguishable.

I plan on ordering some new garlic from Salt Spring Seeds as soon as their 2013 catalogue is available. There's nothing like fresh garlic!  It's crisp, juicy and so fragrant.  It's such an easy crop, anyone can grow it.  I've even given starter bulbs to people who can only grow in containers!

Winter Gardening

The garden in winter - from West Coast Seeds Fall/Winter Catalogue

I know it's only July, but it's time to start planning for the winter garden.  This isn't something I've consciously done in the past.  It's been more by accident that I've had carrots, lettuce, kale, etc. through the winter.  This year I plan on doing it "proper"!

West Coast Seeds has an excellent winter planting guide in their Fall/Winter Catalogue.  I think this catalogue is a first for them since it seems interest in providing food for ourselves through the winter months is a recent thing in modern times.  Along with listing plants that are winter hardy in the Pacific Northwest, there are clear instructions on when and how to plant them.  As a long time fan of West Coast Seeds, I can heartily recommend this free online resource.

Another source of winter plants is Saltspring Seeds.  I bought my garlic bulbs from them and from time to time, buy new bulbs to try out.  I've had particularly good results with Northern Quebec, Mountain, Susan Delafield and Porcelain.  When the fall catalogue comes out, I'll probably order something new to try out.

So what am I doing to prepare for the winter garden?

I've ordered more SeaSoil with a friend.  This will be added to the bed where the garlic will be planted in September.  It will also go generously into the new 4x4 beds, one of which will become a little winter garden.

This afternoon I seeded Siberian Kale, Super Gourmet Blend Lettuce, Mescalun Mix, Little Fingers and Bolero Carrots.  As soon as the SeaSoil arrives, I'll be planting a fall crop of Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Peas.  In these days of skyrocketing prices for fresh produce, it's to our benefit to grow as much as we can.  I started my new adventure in winter gardening today.

Harvesting Garlic

Last September when I started this blog, I began with planting garlic.  If I could only grow one crop, it would be this one.  It's planted at a time when the garden is winding down.  It develops roots while the rest of the world is going dormant and springs to life when rain is abundant.  In my garden, garlic needs a bit of water as I am essentially gardening in very big containers, but really, not much water is required even in my garden.  Nevertheless, garlic has to be the easiest crop to grow and probably gives you the biggest bang for your buck.  Once you've purchased your first bulbs, you never have to buy again unless you want to try new varieties.

Now that we are in the latter part of July, the leaves are sere and brown and it's time for harvest.  We have grown 2 varieties, the names of which I have long since forgotten, but they produce lovely big bulbs which last us well into spring.

First, I pull up all the plants, keeping the varieties separate which is easy because one kind was considerably taller than the other.  I only briefly lay them on the ground and separate them into bundles  tied with twine which is looped at the top for hanging.  Garlic should be dried in the shade and not left to bake on the ground in the sun.

The bundles are suspended from nails and will hang under the bench in my potting shed.  When completely dry, I'll cut the bulbs from the stems and the roots from the bulbs, gently brushing off loose soil.  We store the garlic in open paper bags in a cool dark area - in our house that's in a cupboard on an outside wall.  We've tried many other ways of storing garlic and this has proven to be the best.

Fresh garlic is amazing!  The cloves are crisp and juicy, and we'll use a lot while it's at its peak of perfection.  I will, of course, save the biggest bulbs for next fall's planting.

I'm actually a little disappointed with this year's crop.  The garlic didn't get the benefit of the SeaSoil that the rest of the garden received and the bulbs are a little smaller than we usually get.  Next year's cloves will be planted where the snow peas grew, which would have put an extra jolt of nitrogen into the soil.  I'll have to buy a couple of bags of SeaSoil to add to the soil and homemade fertilizer will be scratched in just before the cloves go into the ground.  And so the cycle begins again.

Three Sisters - Beginning of July

Already it's the beginning of July and the Three Sisters Garden is waaaay ahead of schedule!  The corn is well over my head - and I'm 5/8"!

Three Sisters Garden fronted by 3 zucchini plants

The tassels are fully extended now and cobs are starting to peep out of the stalks.

It won't belong before we start boiling the water!

The beans are running riot through the cornstalks and busily fixing nitrogen into the soil.  There are no flowers yet, but I'm sure they'll be present in the next few days.

Beans and corn well joined

Squash vines are escaping the beds.  All of the vines have little squashes forming.  I can see I'll have to find a lot of friends to gift with presents of butternut, delicata, pattypan and spaghetti - as well as zucchini!  We'll never be able to deal with all this produce - especially since my husband is a confirmed squash-hater with the exception of butternut squash pie - recipe coming later.  I'm searching out zucchini recipes and will post the ones which are successful.

Butternut squash escaping its bed

I put a lot of the credit for this amazing growth to a couple of factors:  SeaSoil generously added to the beds and the Remay cloth which protected them at the beginning of the season when the weather was cool.  The little corn plant which was excluded from this protection is considerably behind it's brethren.

The excluded corn plant is drooping to the far left.

 So far, this experiment seems to be an outstanding success.  I'm not sure how it will play out next year since the bed will have to be dismantled this fall - the wood is rotting through as you can see from the picture with the squash vine.  At this point I'm thinking of using all three 4x4 concrete beds to house the Three Sisters Garden for next year.  There's lots of room for squash to roam in back there.  We'll replace the wooden beds with one long concrete bed over the winter.

Mid-June Update

I'm delighted with how well everything is growing.  Even the weeds are flourishing - which tells me that the SeaSoil we added has made a big difference.

The beans are over the tops of the poles!

The Three Sisters Garden is charging ahead.  The beans grew so quickly that I had to put in bamboo poles to support them for now.  They've gone over the tops of the poles.  Click on the picture above to get a better look.  The two beans which were planted directly into the ground inside protective collars are the correct height.  From this I've learned that next year I seed the corn in the potting shed, but plant the beans when the corn is 6" high.  The literature I found on Three Sisters Gardening told me this.  Why didn't I believe it?

Abraham Darby - my favorite rose

In February we transplanted a much-loved rose, Abraham Darby.  This is a David Austin rose and as well as being vigorous and beautiful, it's highly scented.  I'm so happy that it's transplanted well and is now coming into flower.

Bonica coming into bloom

Many years ago when my daughter moved back east, she gave me her little Bonica rose.  It's been transplanted at least 3 times and surges back each time.  Its current spot is now permanent and it is also coming into bloom.  A very pretty rose, the literature tells you it's scented, but we haven't noticed much scent.  However, it's very pretty so it stays.

Aphid infestation before and after spraying with water.

A few weeks ago I noticed aphids on one bud.  Aphids multiply rapidly by asexual reproduction and you need to take care of them pronto before they become a real problem. The easiest way to get rid of aphids is to hit them with water spray.  It knocks the aphids off and they can't get back on.  I checked out this bud today and there are still no aphids to be seen.

Snow peas over the top of their fence

We've already had a couple of meals of the snow peas and they are gearing up into high production and will need picking every day.  They are over the top of their zig zag fence, but they can sprawl over the top so I'm not worried.

Little Beth - bottom right - is even flowering

The tomatoes are also doing extremely well.  All are in flower and all the cherry variety have little tomatoes in evidence.  It won't be long!

Cherry Tomatoes - Gold Nugget, Honey Bee and Sweet Baby Girl

The cherry tomatoes in the tires and half barrel are just as advanced as those in the main bed.  The black of the tires absorbs heat.  The tomato between the tires is one given me by a friend.  Unfortunately this pot was all I had available at the time, so I'm not expecting huge production from Honey Bee until I can find something bigger.

And finally, today we poured another 4x4 bed.  This will be the last for this area as there's no more room.  One bed is totally finished, another bed had its floor poured today while we poured the wall of the third.  Each time we pour a new bed we find ways to improve.  This time we added cross bracing so the walls don't bulge in even a little bit.  Makes removing the forms so much easier!  Now we just need soil.  I've noticed that the wood on the Three Sisters Garden is finally giving up.  It has to be over 15 years old now and has certainly served its purpose.  We're thinking we'll make three more 4x4's in place of what is there now.  Each bed will be a little Three Sisters Garden and the squash can meander at will.

I really do prefer to garden in a raised bed.  A little bit of height makes gardening so much easier.  The soil is untouched by human feet and so I can do all the soil turning myself.  Perhaps now that I have so many raised beds I'll be satisfied!  Perhaps.