My Vegetable Garden

Along with landscaping my front hill, I'm also planting a vegetable garden for the first time in my life.

I like experiments. I like the unconventional. I like doing things that are slightly out of the ordinary - especially if they work. So the best way for me to describe my vegetable garden: (1) using a plot of land that is filled with tree roots, which digging would only result in frustration, (2) using a rather shady spot on my property, where very few things other than hostas would probably grow - the grass that was in this area did not grow very well, (3) an attempt to solve the problems of very little space, but desiring to harvest a variety of vegetables.

Problem (1) is the ground is filled with tree roots - I got my workout last spring when I planted a number of perennials in a nearby area. My solution was to begin a compost pile last October as the leaves began to fall.
For those of you not educated in the art or science of composting, my understanding is to mix in equal portions brown material (eg. dried leaves, paper, hay) with green material (eg. grass cuttings, green leaves, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells). Keep the pile reasonably moist. Then let nature due its stuff. Having this was great for fall cleanup. I didn't have to fill 20 bags of leaves for garbage pickup. All the dying annual pots and rotting jack-o-lanterns were all thrown in. I went most over most of the leaves that fell with my lawnmower and threw them on the pile. Once the weather got too cold for my lawnmower to start, I just dumped the leaves as they were - chopped up leaves definitely composted better than the whole leaves.

In December, my pile was about 3 feet high. By the middle of March, after most of the snowfall had come, the pile shrunk down to about 2 feet high. Some of the leaves are still not fully composted. But much of the material in the center of the pile looked like good compost. So what was my solution to (1) not having good soil for planting? Don't use soil. Just use compost. Will it work? I don't know. It may work great. It may not. We'll just have to wait and see.

Problem (2) is about just having shade. I decided to grow mostly leafy vegetables. So I planted in March garlic, onions, Romaine lettuce, spinach, collard greens, and a salad mix.

Problem (3) is trying to overcome the small space. This area is enclosed by a chain link fence. It is 4 feet to the sidewalk and 14 feet wide to the tree. I will use the chain link fence for climbers - pole beans and cucumbers. Each bed is about 4 feet by 4 feet and 3-4 inches of mulch. At the bottom of the mulch, I planted garlic. On each 4 by4 bed, there are 6-8 inch wide rows of lettuce, spinach, collard greens, salad mix, and onions.

Mmmm... Can't wait for the salad.